“...It’s going to get really ugly. How ugly? Think of the election cycle from 1796-1804...”
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I can’t remember quite that far back.
It goes back further than that; it sounds a lot like King George III’s designs on colonial America. Coercion by patronage; that’s why a poor John Adams refusing to be silenced by being appointed to the Admiralty court was a true profile in courage. Bob Dole, on the other hand, had a ringing line in his acceptance speech at the Republican Convention in 1996 about the negative influence of teachrs’ unions on childrens’ education. The next day he got a $400k donation from NEA; he never mentioned the theme again. ( If someone has facts to the contrary, fine, that’s just how I remember it)