11 July 2016

“Whoever controls the media, controls the mind.”     Jim Morrison

It is great to live in present times in the United States. It seems that the news media and social media are filled with complaints about the United States politics as they are today. These complaints are there despite the United States being in one of the least conflicted and most peaceful times in our history.

Politically it is easy to forget the previous history of our country and think politics are more confrontational now than in the past. We forget that the “founding fathers” of our country had many conflicts. Two of the signatories to the United States Constitution died in duels fought over political disagreements (Alexander Hamilton and Richard Spaight). Thomas Jefferson, who did not take part in the Constitutional Convention or sign the Constitution, called the Constitutional Convention “an assembly of Demigods.” Patrick Henry did not attend the Constitutional Convention because he “smelt a rat in Philadelphia.”

There have been similar disagreements periodically in the History of the United States. The greatest disagreement in our history was the Civil War between the states, where over 750,000 Americans died over an attempt to divide our country. Political disagreements that turned into fist fights in the United States Congress were common in the 1800’s and happened as recently as 1902. It has been common throughout the history of the United States for political opponents to spread rumors about their opponents and to try to stop policy efforts of those they disagree with. Such conflicts are inherent in democracy and may be an indicator of a healthy democracy.

It is apparent that the amount of violence in American Politics has decreased since the days of duels and of a Civil War. Politicians are more civil today than they were throughout most of the history of the United States. While there may be negative rhetoric between political foes, and there may be a lack of compromise between political foes, that rhetoric and lack of compromise is less likely to lead to violence than it has in the past. Americans are living in a time more politically peaceful than history shows we have had in the past.

Many of us buy into what the media says about present day politics without thinking for ourselves. If a person stops to think about what has gone on in the past it is obvious that there have been a number of times in the past where politics was more conflictual than it is today.