George Washington says farewell
Presidential campaigns were not always the expensive and brutal battles we recognize today.
Our first leaders did not even campaign at all. Why? It was considered vulgar and venal to promote one’s self. It suggested deceit and dishonor. Many founders used pen names when they published, to separate personalities from issues. Some of the great pseudonyms included “The Federal Farmer,” “The Centinel,” “Publius,” “Brutus” and “Cato.” The real men behind these names were greats like James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, George Clinton and James Corwin, who carefully reasoned big issues without resorting to personal attacks.
In the late 1700s, only white men of wealth could vote, so a mass campaign wasn’t needed to appeal to diverse voters. Public service was considered genteel, and actively running for office was a form of crass personal advancement.
It took several decades for that to change.
George Washington was elected in 1789. Only Washington could have been the first president. The states were essentially separate countries, so people didn’t know other state leaders. Washington was the only figure known over all the states, the only truly national figure, trusted by Americans everywhere.
The Constitution’s second article was even formed largely with Washington in mind. The 1787 constitutional convention foresaw that Washington would be the first to deploy executive powers, like forming a cabinet and appointing ambassadors and judges. Washington did not belong to a party and he did not campaign, but he was unique in our history.
A “hideous hermaphroditical character”
The second and third presidents, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, also disdained overt campaigning. But by 1800, political parties were on the scene, because of an on-going dispute over the size and reach of government.
Even the revered Jefferson and Adams, previously close friends, were not above hiring hatchet men to maul one another in the press. In other words, have others sling the mud for them. James Callender, secretly hired by Jefferson, wrote that Adams was “badly mentally deranged, planning to crown himself king, and grooming [his son] John Quincy as his heir to the throne….a hideous hermaphroditical character, which has neither the force of a man, nor the gentleness and sensibility of a woman.” Yikes. The first attack ads, in other words.
Callendar was later convicted under the Alien and Sedition Act for attacks on Hamilton. Sadly, the attacks left the two former friends, Jefferson and Adams, estranged for years. Party loyalty and power now trumped personal relationships.
A mob storms the White House
National trends like immigration and a high birth rate tripled the population to 17.1 million by 1840. Add to that the admission of new states, and the political center of gravity shifted from east to west. Additionally, state governments were dropping property requirements to vote, creating a huge mass of common citizens who now had to be persuaded.
Andrew Jackson became their symbol, the first candidate whose life story anyone could relate to. Born on a dirt floor, surviving on guile in the west where eye-gouging was a sport, he embodied the rise of the common man. Buckskin over silver buckles.
Jackson’s inauguration at the White House in 1829 witnessed a mob storming the dining room, smashing china and furniture, and devouring all the food and drink like wild animals. Could you imagine a bunch of mutton-chopped old geezers like John Quincy Adams doing that? Populism had arrived in its most feral form.
Popular campaigns were here. Needing mass appeal, General William Henry Harrison in 1840 devised the “Log Cabin” campaign, trying to convince average people that he was born in a log cabin with similarly humble roots. He was actually born to a prominent political family of distinguished British subjects in Virginia, but he proceeded to usurp the populist message of the Jacksonian Martin Van Buren.
Campaigning had figured out that messaging could steal someone else’s thunder.
Politics was now about packaging a candidate’s image. Harrison was rolled out as a rough and tumble man of the west who could consume as much hard cider as the next man. Machismo sells. Elections became a mass competition for votes. Songs, beer and rum-fueled torch rallies at night and campaign buttons for the lapel were now standard fare.
Marketing had entered politics and politics would never be the same.
Trick or tweet
Today, campaigning is about seizing new media. Richard Nixon’s sweaty brow, 5 o’clock shadow and rumpled suit did him no good in the new medium of television in 1960. Show business and politics have married.
There can be no disputing the relevance of Donald Trump’s tweets in this election. What Trump thumb-stabs at 2 am in his pjs from the Trump Tower dominates the daily new cycle. It is astonishing that it was the 70-year-old candidate who seized this medium and rode its tsunami.
People gripe about the lack of substance in today’s political campaigning and the focus on just the “horse race.” The reality is, you need politics to set policy. If you can’t sell your policy to constituents, it collapses.
The recent Clinton and Trump debate was billed as “the fight of the century.” But I believe that America doesn’t need the fight of the century; it needs a reasoned and informed debate that illuminates the issues, giving the people the chance to weigh policy options in pursuit of “a more perfect union.”
People love drama and theater, and these are the currency of political campaigns. Until humans evolve yet again, we will love a good story and yawn at the details of policy. The challenge is to have both.
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