🚀 go-pugleaf

On 9/22/2011 8:59 AM, Adam H. Kerman wrote:

> You're lying that you were thinking of a time before Andrew Jackson's
> campaigning created the first popular elections for president.

Seriously, I'm gonna knock you outta your shitty, threadbare coat at the 
next gather. Where the fuck do you get off claiming to know this and 
accuse me of lying, you ginormous asshole?

> You
> failed to make your point that incumbents didn't campaign in any era
> for reasons of dignity. You made an absurd comment several articles
> back and you've gone to absurd lengths to defend it, except that you
> never even bothered to tell us what dignified incumbent re-election
> you were even thinking of. But lame insults fly out of your mouth
> fast and thick, about all you're good for.

Here, you fucking cunt:

"It's hard to imagine nowadays, but there was a time when it was 
considered poor form for a candidate to campaign openly for the 
presidency. They did not even attend their own nominating conventions. 
Historian Alan Brinkley explains how, in the nineteenth century, "The 
public aloofness of most presidential candidates gave an aura of 
nonpartisan dignity to the election process and kept alive the vision of 
the nation's founders of a political world free of parties and 
factions." Indeed,

As late as 1900, when William McKinley ran for reelection as president, 
it was possible for a candidate to remain almost entirely out of view 
during the national campaign and allow other party leaders to do 
virtually all the work of mobilizing voters. Successful presidential 
candidates in the nineteenth century accepted election almost as if it 
were a gift of the people -- a gift that they pretended never to have 
sought and that they had made no active efforts to accept (although of 
course they had almost always worked incessantly if quietly to obtain 
it).[1]

The custom was so powerful that an orator the caliber of Abraham Lincoln 
adhered to it -- even in 1864, when the nation was at war, and even 
though the president was driven to serve a second term. As David Herbert 
Donald explains,

There was little that Lincoln could do openly to promote his 
renomination and reelection. Custom prohibited him from soliciting 
support, making public statements, or appearing to campaign for office. 
But as the nominating season approached, he made a point of hosting 
numerous social activities at the White House ... which could only boost 
the president's hopes for a second term.[2]

This custom of imposed restraint affected much American political life. 
Indeed, one pretext for drawing up articles of impeachment against 
Andrew Johnson was that he "disgraced" Congress by openly, unabashedly 
campaigning; not for himself, mind you, which was considered beyond the 
pale even for him -- but for his supporters. After Congress slapped 
Johnson down, presidential aspirants dared not openly campaign for 
another three decades."

NOW EAT EIGHT DICKS AND FUCK RIGHT OFF.

-- 
smr