The other day throbbin and I were discussing the ongoing and continuing national stupidity we in Canada call Question Period, the political attack ad’s of our last national election, and the vicious crap that is going on in the United States, with the question being, “how long has this been going on” - the answer is, apparently quite some time.

Thomas Jefferson seldom wrote articles or essays for the press, but he did urge his supporters such as James Madison, James Monroe (1758-1831), John Beckley (1757-1807), and David Rittenhouse (1732-1796) to publicly counter the Federalists. In this July 7, 1793, letter, Jefferson urges Madison to attack the ideas of Alexander Hamilton: “for god’s sake, my dear Sir, take up your pen, select the most striking heresies, and cut him to peices [sic] in the face of the public.” Both Republicans and Federalists engaged in critical attacks on their opponents.

(emphasis mine)

The attack ads of the day were pretty tame by today’s standards given that it all happened in print, but Ezra Klein over at The American Prospect found a video taking the (supposed) words of the day and showing us what it might have been like if the technology was available.

Hyping the fear seems to be the American way, Lyndon Johnson carried on the tradition with the “Daisy” ad in the election of 1964.

… and the last US presidential election didn’t disappoint

The Liberal Party of Canada tried going down the “be afraid, be very [very] afraid” road in the 2006 election

Fortunately Canadians wouldn’t stand for that sort of stupidity here, and the ads were discontinued.

The “good stuff” from the 2008 US presidential election awaits us, as does a potential Canadian election in a couple of months, and the people of our two countries will once again decide how far their respective political parties are allowed to go in their quest for power - and that, in turn, will tell us a lot about the people who support those parties.