re: I am amazed that people actually think our discourse was respectful before trump arrived

quote:

---

It is willful ignorance to think people treated the other side respectfully in previous years and political cycles

---

It's been going on since 1780. Look at some of the history of the old presidential elections. Even George Washington had a lot of detractors. Back then people would write editorials under pseudonyms so they could freely excoriate opponents. And we all know the story of Andrew Jackson in 1828:

quote:

---

This diffuse coalition included both friends and foes of the American System. To break it, Adams men tried to smoke out Jackson's position. Jackson refused to be pinned down, while his followers fended off questions about his qualifications and experience by touting his battlefield exploits, indomitable patriotism, and opposition to aristocracy and corruption. A good deal of mud was slung on both sides, much of it aimed at Jackson's marriage, his violent escapades, and the incidents of ferocious discipline and of disrespect for civilian authority that dotted his military career. Adams men painted him as a grasping and bloodthirsty character, a budding tyrant in the model of Caesar or Napoleon, whose election would spell the death of the republic.

---

Literally Caesar.

Only difference is back then they didn't have CNN or Twitter.