Your humble Battle ‘10 Nevada correspondent this week wondered if 2010 voter anger and campaign vitriol is really at an all-time high, as some predicted it would be and some are now saying is so, especially in key face-offs like the Nevada senate race.
Yesterday, answering a Politico Arena question, conservative commentator and President of Less Government Seton Motley said, no, not so much:
There are myriad historic examples of anger and vitriol far beyond today’s standards – and they were far more creatively and eloquently expressed.
To give but one example, Noah Webster – as editor of a New York City Federalist newspaper in the 1790s – was eviscerated by Jeffersonian Republicans as “a pusillanimous, half-begotten, self-dubbed patriot,” “an incurable lunatic,” and “a deceitful newsmonger … Pedagogue and Quack.” Fellow Federalist Cobbett labeled him “a traitor to the cause of Federalism,” calling him “a toad in the service of sans-cullottism,” “a prostitute wretch,” “a great fool, and a barefaced liar,” “a spiteful viper,” and “a maniacal pedant.”
Sharron Angle has been called everything from “pathological” to “crazy” to “dangerous” to “frightening” to “extreme” by either the Reid campaign or their surrogates, and this week Joy Behar added both “bitch” and a “moron” to the list.
Seems fairly nasty from this bird’s view. Perhaps just not as literate as yesteryear.
Update (kudos to ReasonTV for this completely hilarious video):