In Which I Talk About Non-Fiction, and Get Slightly Political

Yes I am still reading Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. No, I haven't finished it yet.

But it occurred to me today that I have read two additional books that I haven't really talked about here. Those would be my non-fiction book on CD "readings" that take place in my car. First there was John Adams by David McCullough, which, at twenty four discs, took me FOREVER to finish. And right now there is American Lion by Jon Meacham, which is not taking nearly as long to finish.

What's interesting, and entirely accidental, about this whole thing is that Jackson comes to his Presidency only a few years after John Adams dies, and whereas the Adams biography covers the man's entire life from start to finish, American Lion picks up when Jackson defeats John Quincy Adams in the 1828 Presidential Election, covering only briefly his early life and rise to power. As a result, this experience has been rather like reading a continuous timeline of our country in its infancy.

Each of these books is well-written, though I will admit to a secret weakness for David McCollough and therefore a preference for his work in general.

Personally, I have been appalled by the political climate in our country. There is a lack of civility in the discourse which is at times inhumane- people (in general and politicians specifically) are not allowed to be human beings, but rather must be paragons of virtue who have made a sum total of zero mistakes in the course of their lives. And in the name of political progress, any and all mistakes made by any person at any point in their lives is available for use in character assassination by opponents.

One of the reasons I like Obama is that he, at least, believes in civility. When it came out that the pro-family, pro-life, pro-abstinence Sarah Palin's seventeen-year-old daughter was pregnant, the media jumped on it and asked Obama if he had anything to say. And he did. This is what he had to say: "I think people's families are off-limits, and people's children are especially off-limits."

He absolutely could have taken this opportunity to say that obviously teaching abstinence-only is ludicrous, and here is a grade-A example of why it doesn't work. But he didn't. And that's one of the main things I like about him.

Anyway, I have been appalled by the language, and, to quote a barfworthy Bush/Cheneyism, "the discourse." And whether or not this is hugely influenced by "the media" (just as a blanket term) is probably indisputable. However, I have spent a long time thinking that with each year that passes, the situation is getting worse. And worse. And worse.

So I don't know whether or not to be relieved or horrified to learn that the situation has actually not changed very much in the 240+ years since the formation of our lovely government. John Adams passed the Alien and Sedition Acts to lock up newspaper editors who wrote libel or false stories about the leaders of this country. Freedom of Speech and Freedom of the Press aside, it's fascinating to read that in the last years of the eighteenth century he was dealing with such vicious attacks on his presidency and character that he felt he had to take measures to protect himself and the office. To say nothing of the fact that Thomas Jefferson, his opponent, was behind a great number of these attacks.

As for Andrew Jackson, there's really no dispute that he married his wife Rachel under... dodgy circumstances. Whether she was still married to her first husband when they wed, or whether they lived together (in sin!! WOOT!) before marriage, there was plenty of fuel for opponents to use in the anti-Jackson fire. In fact, there are some who would argue that the attacks made on Rachel to derail her husband's presidential bid hastened her death, which occurred right before he took office. As for dealing with a politically overheated country, the Southern states first started talking of secession so that they did not have to live under what they thought of as despotic Jacksonian rule.

Awesome Friday rant, right?

Apologies for over-politicalness, or whatever. It's just been startling to be to read about these two very different men who ran our country, who were running things under relatively similar conditions to those of today. It really does seem as though things have not gotten worse... we just hear about it faster, what with the internets and the television. So... yeah. Have a good weekend.