Politics of Scandal: Nothing New

Reader comment on: David Brooks on Trump-Russia

Submitted by Robert Miranda (United States), Jun 20, 2017 17:28

If David Brooks were to reach back to Colonial times and review the long standing feud between Jefferson and Hamilton, he would have to conclude that the Politics of Scandal is nothing new. Jefferson's minions attempted in the partisan press to discredit Hamilton's politics by attacking his character (illegimate birth; non-Caucasianfather). For his part, Hamilton attacked Jefferson as a bon-vivant, Francophile, not to be taken seriously. And so he went down through our history (Jackson, the unrefined, backwoodsman; Lincoln, the uneducated, country bumpkin; Grant, the alcoholic; Al Smith, the Pope's beachhead to take over America; etc.. The duty of the American voter is to discount these character assassinations and focus on how a candidate has conducted him or herself in public life and the issues they stand for.

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