Have politics always been this bad?

I'm twenty three and I was wondering if some older members could shed some light on this. The political landscape seems so ugly now, and kind of packed with hate. I don't think I know anyone who respects politicians and watching a debate is like going to the zoo. Was it always like this? If not, what was different back then?

It's been like this for over 232 years.

It's amazing how most peoples view of history is limited by personnal experience.

Today is nothing compared to the past. Look at this fatal duel between politicians from 1804.

en.wikipedia.org...

The Burr-Hamilton duel was a duel between two prominent American politicians, the former Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton and sitting Vice President Aaron Burr, on July 11, 1804.[1] Burr shot and mortally wounded Hamilton. Hamilton was carried to the home of William Bayard who lived on the Manhattan shore. Alexander Hamilton died there at 2:00 PM the following day, 12 July 1804.

Today..packed with hate? Hardly!

This election was particularily ugly because instead of several white men duking it out we had our first truly electable (and elected!) African American candidate and several women thrown in the mix.

I've seen ugly campaigns before but nothing that affected so many people on so many different levels as this one. It has been brutal to me and as a result I will no longer follow politics nor will I ever vote again.

The bottom line to me is although this election healed race relations somewhat it set women back 25 years or more. I do not expect to see a woman president in my lifetime and that makes me sad.

Yes, politics has always been this bad.

It's even more rotten that the average person realizes.

My dad and his dad were in the political arena. I was always on the inside looking out and unfortunately saw the bad along with the good.

Politics is nasty, brutal, unforgiving, deadly and most unpleasant.

I love it.

From what I've read of history, things have always been this bad, they just seem worse now because it's the present day and not out of some history book. Also, newspapers and the internet and TV and such have brought information to the general population, whereas before the average person did not have access to the same wealth of information that we do now.

Heck I don't know if it's always been THIS bad, as in death threats and all. But it has always been slanderous, one of the founding fathers who had a newspaper would write knowingly false things. Or you could just look at how the "great' Abaraham Lincoln ran his campaigns.

reply to post by Seeker Mom


I think we may have a woman president in my lifetime. I sure never expected Obama to win. I think anything is possible now.

One more question, if anyone is reading. My Grandmother told me that back in the day people respected the presidents office much more, and that after the election there were not so much sour grapes. Thoughts on that?