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 ...
Rebels are often a bit profane. It goes with the territory.
Weren’t some of those guys banging their slave women?
Puhleaze.
That is TOTALLY TRUE. Just look at the political cartoons from back then - they were ABSOLUTELY VICIOUS.
Today people that complain about ‘the tone’ of a campaign are simply trying to SILENCE PEOPLE, and it usually works...except for Trump!
Whigs senselessly call 1848 presidential hopeful Lewis Cass a pot-bellied, mutton-headed cucumber in response to Democrats accusations that opposing candidate Zachary Taylor is, among other things, a crappy dresser.
1844, Democrats backing James K. Polk claim that Henry Clay had sex with whores and, furthermore, broke all 10 of the commandments; in lieu of evidence, they declare simply that the details are too disgusting to appear in public print.
1828, Jackson supporters accuse Adams of having premarital sex with his wife and being a pimp, claiming he arranged an American hooker for Czar Alexander I.
1800 Federalists claim Republican candidate Thomas Jefferson is dead.
Karl Rove-engineered robo-calls help Bush win the 2000 Republican nomination by asking primary voters if they would be more likely or less likely to vote for John McCain if you knew that he fathered an illegitimate black child? McCain speculates that there is a special place in hell for people like those. You know what happened after that.
The 1828 race, Adams supporters attack Jacksons family, calling his dead mother a common prostitute.
Men have been Pussified, all this Crap of Anger is unseemly, is just a way of shutting people up.
I also think Trump is bringing back pointing and not that flaccid closed knuckle thing.
So apparently you have a back channel to the Secret Service and can assure us no credible threats have been made against Trump. It's good to know that, because Trump would appear to be making some pretty powerful enemies, both domestically and internationally. Furthermore, should Trump be sworn in as POTUS all of his fortune would be put in a blind trust to be managed independently by a third party. Would you be willing to do the same?
-- He's already done just that. He has everything to lose and nothing to gain for himself by running for president and becoming a target from all sides. What have the other candidates risked? They have everything to gain and nothing to lose.
I was just about to make the very same point, gg. But you did it for both of us.
“do not think Trump would pledge his life, sacred honor, and property to anyone or anything.”
He gave up a two-hundred million dollar show, what have they others sacrificed?
Can we say Alinsky boys and girls
Speaking of flaccid, Trump has the biggest dick in the field. He slapped it on the podium the other night.
Now Washington was a different story. He permitted NO foul or ungentlemanly language in the ranks.
I do not think Trump would pledge his life, sacred honor, and property to anyone or anything.
And yet you, here, behind your self-righteous keyboard are fit to pass judgment?
Hahahaha
I am sure no one cussed when the Red Coats were taking potshots at them.
H.L. Mencken on George Washington:
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/18948/18948-h/18948-h.htm
If George Washington were alive today, what a shining mark he would be for the whole camorra of uplifters, forward-lookers and professional patriots! He was the Rockefeller of his time, the richest man in the United States, a promoter of stock companies, a land-grabber, an exploiter of mines and timber. He was a bitter opponent of foreign alliances, and denounced their evils in harsh, specific terms. He had a liking for all forthright and pugnacious men, and a contempt for lawyers, schoolmasters and all other such obscurantists. He was not pious. He drank whisky whenever he felt chilly, and kept a jug of it handy. He knew far more profanity than Scripture, and used and enjoyed it more. He had no belief in the infallible wisdom of the common people, but regarded them as inflammatory dolts, and tried to save the republic from them. He advocated no sure cure for all the sorrows of the world, and doubted that such a panacea existed. He took no interest in the private morals of his neighbors.
Inhabiting These States today, George would be ineligible for any office of honor or profit. The Senate would never dare confirm him; the President would not think of nominating him. He would be on trial in all the yellow journals for belonging to the Invisible Government, the Hell Hounds of Plutocracy, the Money Power, the Interests...
Since Jefferson?
“I do not find in Christianity one redeeming feature.”
“We discover in the gospels a groundwork of vulgar ignorance, of things impossible, of superstition, fanaticism and fabrication .”
“This would be the best of all possible worlds, if there were no religion in it.”
*Thomas Jefferson*
(_There are many, many more anti-Christian statements by Jefferson that can be viewed by anyone, in books or online._)
Crude? Like when Aaron Burr killed Alexander Hamilton in a duel?
Hey! I resemble that remark.
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