Conservative columnists and pundits are continually wringing their hands (okay — their words) about the incessant criticism and hatred directed at President Trump. It is unprecedented, they say. But is this so? Does that stand the test of historical accuracy? Perhaps, and we will address this later, that may be so in one aspect. But what has been said about our 45th President is par for the course from a look at the American political system, from the very beginning of the Republic.
George Washington was above the fray, given his reputation in leading he colonial armies to victory in our Revolution. But not long after the Republic began, factions appeared in the body politic. These coalesced around Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton, the Republicans and Federalists. In 1796, John Adams won the presidency over Jefferson, and the “fun” began. Criticism of Adams was such that the Alien and Seditions Acts were passed in the late 1790s, as Adams the Anglophile conducted an “undeclared” naval war against France, angering the Francophile Jefferson.
The two-faced off in the 1800 election, and the invective flowed liberally. Each was seen as the one who would bring ruin the new Republic. Jefferson won the election but the Federalists weren’t done. Jefferson (a deist) was reviled for his disbelief in Jesus as the Son of God and rumors were soon swirling about the President’s relationship with one of his slaves, “Dusky Sally”, Sally Hemings.
James Madison, the next Chief Executive, would receive his share of opposition. Drawn into a war against Great Britain, partly by the War Hawks in Congress, the War of 1812 quickly became known as “Mr. Madison’s War”.
We were just getting started on the path of vicious rhetoric between political factions. After a short period of relative electoral peace (The Era of Good Feelings), it all began again during and after the disputed 1824 election. In that contest, John Quincy Adams, though coming in second in the Electoral College, was elected over the leader, Andrew Jackson. Since Jackson did not have a majority, Adams was the beneficiary of the votes of the fourth place finisher. During this campaign, Jackson’s actions while leading militia against Indian raiders in the south was dredged up. Invading Spanish Florida, he arrested two British subjects he claimed were inciting the Indians to raid and kill, and had them executed. Between the 1824 and 1828 elections, charges were hurled back and forth between candidates, as Adams and Jackson would face off again. Jackson’s supporters charged Adams with various infractions as President, including the placement of a pool table in the White House basement. More virulent was the charge that Jackson’s wife, his beloved Rachel, was a bigamist when she married Old Hickory.
Jackson vowed revenge on his political enemies, for he blamed them for Rachel’s death before he could be inaugurated in 1829.
More mud would be slung in the early 1840s. Wanting to deliver the nation from Jacksonian Democrats, the rival Whigs nominated the old war hero. William Henry Harrison, as their standard-bearer. In order to lure dissatisfied Democrats, the Whigs placed John Tyler, a renegade Democrat on the ticket with Old Rough and Ready. Harrison promptly died after one month in office, making Tyler President. His enemies continually harped on his ascension, labeling him the “accidental President”. On one day in his tenure, after infighting with the Whigs, all but one of the President’s cabinet resigned. Neither Whigs nor Democrats would nominate Tyler in 1844.
His successor, a Jacksonian Democrat, James Knox Polk, managed to get his share of vocal opposition. Mexico, still smarting from the Texas War for Independence, which they lost, were incensed when the United States annexed Texas into the Union. With tensions high, Polk ordered troops into an area claimed by both nations. Naturally, with soldiers from the two countries in close proximity, a clash occurred. Polk then got Congress to declare war on Mexico, by claiming that “American blood was shed on American soil” by the foreign power. That claim would have earned him four Pinocchios.
in today’s political arena, and did get him endless criticism from the Whigs, in Congress and out.
Space does not allow me to go through all the many times we have bitter recriminations between parties and individuals in government. Grant has his scandals. Washington, D. C., saw barricades and barbed wire and soldiers in the streets over the controversial 1876 election. In 1884, Republicans chanted “Ma, Ma, where’s my Pa?” at Grover Cleveland rallies, referencing his fathering of an illegitimate child in his younger days, while his partisans, recalling rumors of scandal in business dealings with his opponents would holler, “Blaine, Blaine, James G. Blaine, the continental liar from the state of Maine!”
That is just the first hundred or so years of our nation. The 20th and 21st centuries have had their share of vicious partisan rhetoric, charges and countercharges, scandals and missteps by our Presidents.
If it seems that Trump is getting more constant hatred and opposition than his predecessors, that can be laid partly at the doorstep of our increasingly ubiquitous social media. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, the 24 hour cable news networks — all these need constant feeding, and when real news is in scant supply, fake news, rumors, and anonymous sources take over to fill the airwaves.
What we all need to do is to realize that, for good or ill, Donald Trump will be the President until at least 2021. His misdeeds, distortions, and ill-conceived policies are going to be sorted out, as well as the times he succeeds in his endeavors, and the electorate will judge him, as will history. Perhaps what we all need to do is to ignore the incessant chatter, shut off our access to the world for a while and realize that the Republic will survive, as it has in the past. After all, this stuff has been going on for over 200 years.