For those of you who anticipate with dread that this is going to be one of the ugliest election campaigns in recent history, (and I count myself as one of these people – I feel sick at the thought of how far away November is and I am considering moving to Monaco or Ibitha or something where I never have to hear about any of this nonsense again – actually, to be totally safe, I should move to somewhere like Myanmar, or Chad) – go and read some tales about Thomas Jefferson’s election campaign. The bloodless “Jeffersonian revolution”.
I read it last night, as I sat in a stalled train outside New Haven, an electrical wire thrashing up the tracks towards me, and thought: Woah. Woah. This is as ugly as it gets.
Our recent politicians did not invent vitriol and nasty tactics. We have not invented dirty pool. We don’t play any dirtier than they played back then.
THAT election campaign was nasty.
However, it’s only March. And things are already pretty nasty.
God, I cannot bear the thought of having to go through this campaign. It’s insufferable.
It could be worse, Sheila. As an inveterate 24 hour news channel watcher, I’m going to subjected to so many election ads I may lose all interest in voting.
There’s nothing that mentioning Chad can’t make funnier, is there?
Dave J-
You got it! Now if only I could have worked in the words “underpants”, it would have been comedic genius.
Oh, and Ibiza is spelled with a “z,” which Castillians only pronounce as “th.” And which Brits inexplicably call “zed.”
:-P
I took one semester of Spanish in college from a Castillian. I’m not sure why I didn’t continue on with my French – but for whatever reason – I took one semester, and I still remember the way he pronounced IbiZa, with pride.
My only time in Spain was in Barcelona, where they deliberately pronounce “z” the right way even when speaking Spanish rather than Catalan. They do this in part because they know it annoys “lothhh Cathhhtillianothhh.” But the old Kingdom of Castile was a fairly big place (almost half of modern Spain), so I’m sure some Castillians don’t speak with the lithhhhp. Moreover, Spain has more and more cultural influences coming from across the Atlantic in Latin America, so this may be becoming a generational thing as well.
“Ibitha” ha ha ha red…
I totally agree though. I see an uglier campaign than usual. There are a lot of leftover animosities from the 2000 election that are going to come out this year, and the rough numbers indicate that Ralph Nader will again give victory to the Republicans, which is going to drive the Democrats nuts because they see it coming.
I plan to aggressively avoid any contact with politics until the election. Uh, belay that. I plan to aggressively avoid politics for the rest of eternity.
CW –
you and me both.
I don’t see any way possible to cut myself off from the election coverage, I’m just addicted to the news. I need to know what’s going on. I’m just hoping I’ll be able to keep my temper and avoid heartburn.
That’s the problem with reading about the Founding Fathers morning noon and night. I am completely disenchanted with the bozos in Washington. They all seem uneducated, petty, and very SMALL. Little mini-mini-men.
Oompa Loompas on the Beltway.
John Rhys-Davies said that three or four members of the Bush administration could stand toe to toe with the Founding Fathers.
I’d like to know which ones he’s thinking of, because outside of Rumsfeld, I don’t see anyone shining like a brilliant light (that’s not to say I see Rumsfeld up there with the Founders, but he ranks very high in my book).
I’d put Ted Olson up there, Bill, but I’m not sure whether the Solicitor General counts as part of “the administration” according to JRD.
No way. Rhys-Davies is wrong.
Those Founding Father guys were geniuses, lawyers, farmers, thinkers, philosophers.
Philosopheers??
See? I’m tired, discombobbled.
Ibitha.
Sorry. Don’t mean to be peevish. But I mean what I say … I’m already tired of the election. Politicians exhaust me.
I will vote. Damn straight I will vote … but I hate the process. At least right now, I do.
Considering how many men of genius were in that one generation, I would expect to find at least one in every generation. Maybe they just don’t go into politics anymore.
Dave, not knowing too much about Olsen (besides his arguing for Bush during the election), I’ll have to defer judgement.
Regardless of political leanings, SG’s tend to be frighteningly intelligent. I mean, at least bordering on majorly scary smart. They’re sometimes called the “Tenth Justice,” but given most of the current denizens of the Court that may be an insufficient or even backhanded compliment.
I’m with Red…
Ted Olsen is smart, but he’s not in the same galaxy as a James Madison or Alexander Hamilton (and I don’t know whether that’s because of straight intelligence, the times, the context, or what.)
I do agree that there are some actual statesmen in the current administration, which is actually not all that common in recent history, but I wouldn’t put them in the same league as the founding fathers.
That’s something kind of interesting about history… As much as we study it, it’s hard to really understand someone from what they wrote or what others wrote about them.
It’s hard for me to compare the current guys to the founding fathers because I actually KNOW them, as opposed to the founding fathers about whom I can have no firsthand, or even secondhand, experience.
The world is so complex now that it’s hard for anyone to really stay on top of it all at the level of a cabinet secretary, but I just don’t see the level of engagement of anyone at that level today that you read in the letters of the founding fathers. Madison, Jefferson, Adams, etc. WERE the brains behind government in their day. None of their modern successors that I know about demonstrate anything like their level of brilliance. Now-a-days the principals take their advice from flunkies who don’t seem to know much about anything.
For example (then I’ll shut up): when I first went to Washington, legislative assistants on Capitol Hill were lawyers, because it was considered that you should be a lawyer in order to write laws. Today they aren’t – they’re just well-connected kids with no special skills willing to work for $30K a year on the hill. And the laws show it.