My View from 1958

I do not intend to get into political opinions on any topic. I do want to relate some past relevant events to the election this year. I believe Hillary Clinton coined the word for the supporters of Trump as “deplorables”. That was introduced when she ran against trump in 2016, but was dredged up again at this recent election. Then of course, Biden implied Trump supports are “garbage”.  Both phrases were somewhat detrimental to the Democrats during this election. This type of name calling is not new in politics and even goes as far back as our founding fathers.

I am currently reading the book, “Battle Cry of Freedom”, by James McPherson. Reference pages 197 – 198 which I lifted some text for the following paragraphs.

At the run up to the presidential election, tensions were at their highest between North and South. Kansas was bleeding, the anti-slavery movement was picking up steam and a guy by the name of John Brown threw gas on the fire at a place called Harpers Ferry. It was all coming to a head.

A southern newspaper wrote in 1860, “The prevailing call one meets with in the North is that of mechanics struggling to be genteel, and farmers who do their own drudgery and yet are hardly fit for association with southern gentleman’s body servant.”  A direct slam to the northern working class and of course any anti-slavery initiative.

Northern newspapers picked up and reprinted such articles. Yankees did not seem to appreciate southern sociology. The response was sometimes good-humored like a banner at one of the Lincoln-Douglas debates, “SMALL-FISTED FARMERS, MUD SILLS OF SOCIETY, GREASY MECHANICS FOR LINCOLN”. Other reactions were angrier and sometimes unprintable. No doubt some of the soldiers who marched through Georgia and Soth Carolina with Sherman a few years later had read these descriptions of themselves as greasy mechanics and servile farmers.

In this election year Trump took full advantage of the “garbage” phase and, much like the sign at the debate noted above, used those same words against the opposing candidate.

My point is this….this name calling, efforts by the press on both sides to distort truth, has occurred throughout history and seems to always come back and bite somebody. Karma I think it is called.