Is Dirty Politics Un-American?

Following the sexual harassment allegations pertaining to Herman Cain, it really got me thinking about dirty politics and its history in America. I know that it's common for people to pretend that everything was so much more civil only a century or two ago, but thorough research indicates otherwise, at least on this matter. Truth be told, politics has been this way for at least two hundred years, most likely stemming from way back.

A particularly interesting example are the presidential elections of 1828, when John Quincy Adams and Andrew Jackson were running for the presidency. Some general information on the topic can be found here.

In short, the entire presidential election was shadowed by one allegation after another. Jackson was accused of adultery. Adams was accused of being a "pimp". Jackson was accused of unjustly ordering the execution of six men during his time as general in the army. Adams was accused of buying a billiard table with taxpayer money. And there was more. But for the sake of this blog post, let's stop there. What does this say about the way we view the past over our perspective on the present?


In my opinion, we like to paint a picture in our heads where everything was fine back then and only now things have gotten so uncivil. But this couldn't be further from the truth. I'd say most elections in history have had at least some accusations between the opponents, and these allegations surfacing about Herman Cain should really come as no surprise. Campaigns are always an opportunity for certain people to get power over others, and the temptation of power brings out the worst in people. But we have to understand that although people have a bias of the past, human nature has stayed practically the same. No matter how different the situation may have been in the past, humans have always had certain temptations that have remained constant since the very beginning.

What do you think? Does human nature change?