Leopold II Quotes
… when the one side says black and the other white, when the opposite political characters are treated by their respective antagonists as rogues, fools, blockheads, wretches, and all the other names in which the English political dictionary is so very rich, one stands like the ass, between two bundles of hay, considerably embarrassed which ought to be chosen....
His description of the extreme partisanship in England at the time could just as easily describe the American political polarization of 2012—85 years later.
Leopold II, 1835-1909, King of Belgium, Uncle & Long Term Advisor to Queen Victoria of England, Letter to Queen Victoria of England, April 7, 1837
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
Partisanship had reached a heated pitch like America at the beginning of the 21st century. Note that she used the term “violence” to describe verbal assaults. Joseph Hume was the leader of the Radical Party.
Gingrich, a hyper partisan politician who himself was a polarizing figure himself, considered any objective that might gain any partisan advantage at all. Once he actually shut down the government by not appropriating any money in the House to embarrass President Clinton, but this backfired and thereafter Gingrich was pushed out of Congress by his own party.
Despite his fears, that is exactly what happened. Ironically, he himself was the focus of much dissatisfaction with the administration, and the Federalists led by Adams and the Democratic Republicans led by Jefferson opposed each other, ousting Adams.
The British Conservative Party was attacking the Liberal government for not dealing with the threat of German air power in the form of Zeppelins flying to England. The Germans were outraged at such freedom of the press at their expense. See {609907}.
