Adlai Stevenson I Quotes

35 years earlier Vice President Hubert Humphrey used the same phrase to describe Republican attacks.

35 years later Richard Gephardt used the same phrase to describe Republican tactics.

The George W. Bush re-election campaign tactics were so polarizing that the two parties would not work together thereafter and little was accomplished at a time when the Bush administration had led the country into terrible problems. Ironically, what seemed like a brilliant re-election for a Republican Administration in retrospect caused an atmosphere where the voters ousted the Republican control margin in 2006, and by the election of 2008, Bush had the lowest approval rating of any President in history, and many historians felt he had become the worst President in American History.

He was the only candidate who was not visciously attacked and slandered by the others, and he did no attacking himself. However, he simply did not attract the voters as did the other candidates who were so negative about their opponents. The Republican party primary voters were so insistent on political party purity that most of the candidates were reduced to the lowest forms of debate and standards of veracity. All the candidates were weakened and diminished by that form of negative primary process. Mitt Romney finally won the nomination but had been bruised badly by the Republican primary election. He last the general election badly.

Accusing her of being a fellow traveler with Communist sympathies, Nixon called her "the Pink Lady" and said she was "pink right down to her underwear." See {627826} and {619498}. Douglas and her campaign thought the accusations were so absurd that at first they did not even bother to respond. Nixon repeated the them and stayed “on message” and by the time that Douglas, who had opposed communism all her life, was believed to be one or at least a “fellow traveler” by most Californians—and finally she responded with statements like this, but it was way too late to turn public perception around. She awarded Nixon the derogatory nickname “Tricky Dick” which the majority of the public used for him throughout his career--{600036}.

This is an interesting historical quotation in that the same political environment existed in the first two decades of the 21st century. She was in particular referring to the slander that was commonly used by her fellow Republican, Senator Joseph P. McCarthy in his demagoguery. She was the first member of the Senate to Condemn McCarthy for his abuse and lies. Led by her example, the other senators got over their fear of McCarthy attacking them and the Senate Censured the Demagogue.

At the time political parties and some candidates had their own newspapers and attacked their opponents through those rather than directly themselves which would have been seen as gross and undignified, Slander and attacks have been a part of American politics since its inception. The degree and extent reached its pinnacle in the early 21st century.

In this dirty technique some people who knew the candidate at one point in his/her life “organize” and “independent” organization with funding from a partisan individual or organization. They then create attack TV and web ads against the candidate that include serious untruths as well as misleading accuracies. When the candidate is asked about the lies and exaggerations, he/she refuses to comment and only says that he/she cannot be held responsible for anything that anyone says against his/her opponent or anyone else. The candidate adopts a policy of not commenting on any political ads other than the ones he/she is responsible. This produces viscious false attacks on an opponent with the candidate completely shielded from responsibility.

There is a great irony to this quotation. Here we have a communist propaganda agent using the extreme excesses of an American Anti-Communist fanatic to the Communist advantage by associating them with McCarthyism. It supports the view of many political scientists and historians that McCarthyism was in the long run more beneficial to the Communists than not.