MEDIA MONDAY / HAVE USA NATIONAL ELECTIONS ALWAYS BEEN SO DIRTY?

CAPTION: POLITICAL PUGILISTS SINCE DAY 1 IN AMERICA.--This cartoon portrays a fight on the floor of Congress between Vermont Representative Matthew Lyon and Roger Griswold of Connecticut. With tensions already high due to the controversy over the 1798 Alien and Sedition Acts, the fight was ignited by an insult from Griswold to Lyon. Griswold, armed with a cane, kicks Lyon, who grasps the former’s arm and raises a pair of fireplace tongs to strike him. Artist unknown, 1798, Philadelphia, PA. 

Yes, political contention has been part of U.S. elections since the earliest days of the republic! From the outset, rivalries and personal attacks have punctuated campaigns. 

The 1800 presidential race between Thomas Jefferson and John Adams, for example, was notoriously ugly, with both sides accusing the other of undermining American values. The press and pamphleteers used slander and rumors, much like social media does today. 

In the 1828 election, Andrew Jackson's opponents targeted his wife in deeply personal attacks, leading to her death shortly after the election, which Jackson partly blamed on the stress caused by these accusations. Throughout history, campaigns have employed aggressive rhetoric, personal attacks, and even outright lies, especially when the stakes were high. 

Despite this, the rise of mass media, followed by television and social media, has amplified these conflicts, making election-season tension feel even more pervasive. 

So while the tools and scale have evolved, "dirty" tactics are far from new in U.S. politics! –Via ChatGPT.

WHEN DID IT ALL GO WRONG?

Negative campaigning in the United States can be traced back to John Adams and Thomas Jefferson. Back in 1776, the dynamic duo combined powers to help claim America's independence, and they had nothing but love and respect for one another. 

But by 1800, party politics had so distanced the pair that, for the first and last time in U.S. history, a president found himself running against his VP. 

 Things got ugly fast. Jefferson's camp accused President Adams of having a "hideous hermaphroditical character, which has neither the force and firmness of a man, nor the gentleness and sensibility of a woman." 

In return, Adams' men called Vice President Jefferson "a mean-spirited, low-lived fellow, the son of a half-breed Indian squaw, sired by a Virginia mulatto father." 

As the slurs piled on, Adams was labeled a fool, a hypocrite, a criminal, and a tyrant, while Jefferson was branded a weakling, an atheist, a libertine, and a coward. 

Even first, first lady Martha Washington succumbed to the propaganda, telling a clergyman that Jefferson was "one of the most detestable of mankind." --Via Mental Floss.