Posted on 03/05/2016 8:18:40 AM PST by RoosterRedux
You could say politics has reached a new low with the small hands remarks from the Republican debate.
But the exchange over the size of Donald Trumps, um, hands is merely the most recent vulgarity in American politics. The history of crude remarks goes back to the Founding Fathers.
In the 18th century, John Adams called Alexander Hamilton a bastard brat and wrote that Hamilton had a superabundance of secretions which he could not find whores enough to draw off, according to historian Ron Chernow.
One difference between then and now: These were words written or spoken in private, not in public, said Chernow, whose Pulitzer Prize-winning biography of Alexander Hamilton helped inspire the hit Broadway musical Hamilton. (Chernow says the comments were quoted in letters that survived the centuries.)
In the 1880s, rumors of Grover Clevelands out-of-wedlock child led to a song from his Republican opponents: Ma, ma, wheres my pa? When Cleveland won the presidency, the response came: Gone to the White House, ha ha ha!
Old-fashioned American politics was full of those kinds of vile comments, said Arnold Shober, who teaches government at Lawrence University in Appleton, Wisconsin. Weve kind of lost that over the last 70 years, and I think its just coming back.
Not that 20th century politicians shied away from vulgarities. Heres President Bill Clinton describing his 1970s El Camino pickup truck: I had Astroturf in the back. You dont want to know why, but I did.
(Excerpt) Read more at boston.com ...
Ping
“One difference between then and now: These were words written or spoken in private, not in public,”
So that makes it right or ok? I also think one needs to be careful comparing Trump to the founding fathers. I do not think Trump would pledge his life, sacred honor, and property to anyone or anything.
no, that’s the BIGGEST insult thrown the founding fathers’ way since, well, I don’t know how long.
Politicians aren't supposed to be civil and get along.
They represent opposing interests, and to pretend that they don't is a lie.
Which begs the question, which candidate or politician on the current stage would do it?
None.
Funny, Rubio is the one who started down that road and Trump gets hammered for responding to it.
No, it was already right and OK.
You're confusing 'distasteful to me' with 'morally wrong'.
This is the fundamental narcissism of both the anti-trump-because-i'm-better-than-him crowd AND the capital C Conservatives.
You miss that it's YOU who are the lemmings, not the Trump candidacy supporters. You live in a collective hypnosis just like the democrats, it's just a slightly different hypnosis.
Wake up!!!! I'm not talking about 'wake up' to the political corruption or 'wake up' to the badness of the GOP. I'm not saying 'wake up' and love Trump.
I'm just saying 'wake up'. You are living in a hypnosis. I don't care what you do after you wake up. Just do it. Stop listening to the droning on of your mind as if it's an authority. I know you mean well, but you can't do well so long as you are following the echo chamber reverberations going on in your noggin.
I find Trump kind of refreshing. He’s certainly no worse then people I come across every day. And I know nobody on that stage is a saint...it’s just that pro politicians like Cruz and Rubio adopt a public persona. Trump is just Trump
LOL....he sure gets some panties in a twist around here!
America was “Christianized” but it wasn’t really “Christian” as this is a mission not defined in the bible for a country that isn’t literally Zion.
Therefore, unseemly stuff always did happen behind the scenes.
Thanks to the internet and camera phones, precious little is “private” any more.
It would take colossal nerve.
Not even Ronald Reagan did it.
Trump might be coming the closest in modern times just because he’s going to have to pass control of his empire out of his hands for the duration of any presidential term or terms he may serve. No other candidate has an empire like this to even temporarily relinquish.
If everything your opponent stands for can be smeared as “racist” or “homophobic” you can make him/her STFU instead of having to engage in “dialog,” as the Lefties like to call it.
Only one candidate has successfully defended the Constitution before the Supreme Court and that candidate is Ted Cruz. We know Trump by words and deeds that he will violate the Constitution whemever he sees fit.
He behaved worse than a Spoiled Pre-Schooler.
It wasn’t a question of which candidate would but a comparison of Trump to those who did. As far as comparing Trump to the other candidates, fine, they are all scummy. As far as comparing Trump to those who risked their lives to break with Britain; he falls far short.
Is this the latest strategy to defend Trump’s behavior, to trash all the great men from George Washington on down who sacrificed to establish this wonderful country?
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