Analyzing mud-slinging
Greg Yeager
Issue date: 10/16/08 Section: News
"What do men gain by elective governments, if fools and knaves have the same chance to obtain the highest office, as honest men?"
Noah Webster posed this question to Thomas Jefferson in 1801, challenging the very nature of our new democracy.
On Sept. 29, in Bayley Auditorium, political analyst and best-selling author Joseph Cummins revealed just how far people will go to paint their opponent as one of those fools. His presentation, "Anything for a Vote," focused on the history and implications of political smear.
"I was sitting in the waiting room of the doctor's office with my daughter when I overheard a woman saying 'Don't worry, even if Barack is elected, he can't be sworn in because he's a Muslim and the constitution says you have to use a bible," said Cummins in his opening.
"This is just one example of a smear that people believe," he said. "And there is a reason for them. They work, regardless of whether they're true."
For the record, Barack Obama is not a Muslim, but even if he were, there is not a constitutional provision that would prevent him from being sworn in on the Koran.
Cummins emphasized, however, that smear campaigns are not limited to a certain party.
"One of the most popular current smears is that John McCain fathered a black child out of wedlock," he said. This charge was actually leveled at McCain during the 2004 primary when he was seen campaigning with his daughter-whom the McCain's adopted from Bangladesh-but it has begun to spread again.
Cummins also explained that political smears have been around since the birth of our country. In fact, political smears in our day and age-a politically correct era in which information can traverse the globe in seconds- have waned in both severity and occurrence.
"In 1928, democratic candidate Al Smith was the first catholic running for president," Cummins said. "During the campaign, his opponents distributed literature claiming that the Holland Tunnel, constructed while Smith was Governor of New York, ran not through New York but actually 3,500 miles under the Atlantic Ocean to the Vatican, where Smith could discuss America's direction with the Pope."
A story like this may seem absurd by modern standards, but at the time of its circulation, most people had not been to New York, and many actually believed it. Al Smith lost the election.
According to Cummins, the only clean election in American history occurred in 1789 (our first election), when George Washington ran unopposed. Political parties were then formed in the mid 1790's, and with them began a legacy of smear that has continued until today.
"Every dirty election in current times can easily be matched by one further back in history," Cummins said. "It started with the parties, and it's not going to end anytime soon. We're Americans, after all. A nice, dirty election runs in our blood."
Noah Webster posed this question to Thomas Jefferson in 1801, challenging the very nature of our new democracy.
On Sept. 29, in Bayley Auditorium, political analyst and best-selling author Joseph Cummins revealed just how far people will go to paint their opponent as one of those fools. His presentation, "Anything for a Vote," focused on the history and implications of political smear.
"I was sitting in the waiting room of the doctor's office with my daughter when I overheard a woman saying 'Don't worry, even if Barack is elected, he can't be sworn in because he's a Muslim and the constitution says you have to use a bible," said Cummins in his opening.
"This is just one example of a smear that people believe," he said. "And there is a reason for them. They work, regardless of whether they're true."
For the record, Barack Obama is not a Muslim, but even if he were, there is not a constitutional provision that would prevent him from being sworn in on the Koran.
Cummins emphasized, however, that smear campaigns are not limited to a certain party.
"One of the most popular current smears is that John McCain fathered a black child out of wedlock," he said. This charge was actually leveled at McCain during the 2004 primary when he was seen campaigning with his daughter-whom the McCain's adopted from Bangladesh-but it has begun to spread again.
Cummins also explained that political smears have been around since the birth of our country. In fact, political smears in our day and age-a politically correct era in which information can traverse the globe in seconds- have waned in both severity and occurrence.
"In 1928, democratic candidate Al Smith was the first catholic running for president," Cummins said. "During the campaign, his opponents distributed literature claiming that the Holland Tunnel, constructed while Smith was Governor of New York, ran not through New York but actually 3,500 miles under the Atlantic Ocean to the Vatican, where Smith could discuss America's direction with the Pope."
A story like this may seem absurd by modern standards, but at the time of its circulation, most people had not been to New York, and many actually believed it. Al Smith lost the election.
According to Cummins, the only clean election in American history occurred in 1789 (our first election), when George Washington ran unopposed. Political parties were then formed in the mid 1790's, and with them began a legacy of smear that has continued until today.
"Every dirty election in current times can easily be matched by one further back in history," Cummins said. "It started with the parties, and it's not going to end anytime soon. We're Americans, after all. A nice, dirty election runs in our blood."
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