Think attack ads today are nasty?

Let's look at the 1830's.

The Whigs portrayed the Democrats in very similar terms. . . .

Wherever you find a bitter, blasphemous Atheist and an Enemy of Marriage, Morality, and Social Order, there you may be certain of one vote for the Jacksonians [Democrats] . . . . Jackson's successor as President, Martin Van Buren, a widower, came in for special abuse as a man of dubious morals, including fantastic Whig charges that he held secret orgies in the White House. [. . . . ]

That attack reinforces the fundamental ideas of the "opportunity society": personal failure stems not from economic and social inequalities but from the moral failings of thriftless, heedless, lawless, libertine and lazy individuals -- precisely the sort of people (conservatives charge) liberals want to coddle with needless, destructive social spending.

Reference: New York Times Magazine, Oct. 16, 2005, page 20.

They must have been channelling-into the future--perhaps a Jack Kennedy or a Bill Clinton. Is there any applicability to Canada? . . . Don't go there? Ah, go ahead; go there.

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