“Constitution Is Gone….A Dictator Is The Supreme Law”
A senator warns the ‘”despotic” president is launching experiments, calling them ”fearful and appalling.” Unless the president is stopped “a complete change in our government” will take place. If this is allowed to happen the Constitution will not survive.
Another Senator in the chamber called the president a “tyrant”.
One newspaper proclaims the “Constitution is gone….a dictator is the supreme law.”
One might think the above is aimed at President Obama. Such is the rhetoric these days from the Republicans and their creation, the Tea Party, that the words above seem like they could have been pulled from recent news accounts.
While the actions of those opposed to President Obama is often beyond the pale, history shows that this type of bloviating has been going on a very long time in our country. We have always had a very frothy form of political dialogue.
As I read last evening about the controversy over the Second Bank of the United States, and President Jackson’s energized actions to destroy it, I had to stop and smile. The words from the book could have been ripped from the page, placed in the mouths of modern-day Republicans, and it would be seamless with what we hear today.
The words of Senators Webster and Clay, and the story from a pro-Clay newspaper all seem truly historic when read in books today. After all the nation survived, the Constitution still lives (in spite those who think it not a living and adaptable document) and all the players from that era are now the subject of many books and countless college lectures.
For all the bile that was created over President Jackson’s veto the nation never buckled. The Executive Branch was made stronger as a result of the veto, and the nation started to better understand how a president could use public psychology for the benefit of the White House.
When people lament the mean-spirited nature of politics, or the mud-slinging of a presidential campaign, I often remind them that history can produce an even more dreadful example. The election of 1800 comes to mind at once.
While I am no fan of the dirty side of politics that we witness today, it is important to know that it was also wretched in the past. That is not to condone anything that happens today, or stop urging it to end. But it is important to know our past and allow it to add perspective to the mix. After all, we come from a long history of rough and tumble partisanship.
