Presidential Campaigning

Permanent Change In Campaigning: The End Of The William Jennings Bryan Personal Campaigning Mode, 1896-2020

Presidential campaigning in the 19th century was based on newspaper reporting of the various candidates speaking up on public issues, and speaking to small local crowds in the area nearby the candidate’s home.

The “Front Porch” campaign was common, as best exemplified by William McKinley in 1896.

But the same year, his opponent, young and vigorous 36 year old William Jennings Bryan, traveled by train across much of the nation, an estimated 30,000 miles to meet voters at train stations.

That was a revolutionary change in Presidential campaigning, and ever since, Presidential contenders and candidates, and even incumbent Presidents, have gone to the people to promote their cause and inspire voting.

But now, 124 years since William Jennings Bryan, and in the age of the internet and the CoronaVirus Pandemic, a new way of campaigning has developed.

Regular, every day internet events by Democratic Presidential nominee Joe Biden are becoming common, and President Donald Trump, of course, gets regular cable coverage, as well as on the internet.

This is a turning point, and is likely to prevail from now on, and the one advantage that stands out is the saving of energy and lowering of the exhaustion level of all candidates, by avoiding constant travel and 18 hour days of campaigning.

It is often said that campaigning for President is more arduous than being President, and it rings true, so we may have seen the last hurrah of regular, sustained, in person campaigning.

It does not mean that the President or Presidential candidates will not appear in person, but likely much less often, and this will also help to protect the President and Presidential candidates from the danger of violence and potential assassination threats.

Hardball, Knuckleball Political Campaigning: Part Of The American Tradition!

Right or wrong, hardball and knuckleball political campaigning is part of the American tradition, and is nothing new in 2012.

We can go back to the origins of political parties in the 1790s, with the Federalists and Democratic Republicans at each other’s throats, beginning with John Adams and Thomas Jefferson nasty toward each other in 1796 and 1800.

Andrew Jackson and John Quincy Adams, and Jackson against Henry Clay, is another example widely reminiscent of hardball, knuckleball campaigning.

Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas went at each other, and after the Civil War, the Republicans looked at the Democrats as “traitors”!

When the progressives became prominent, conservatives went on the counterattack and have not stopped, under Woodrow Wilson, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry Truman, John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, and now Barack Obama.

The no holds barred attack by the right wing, including McCarthyism in the 1950s and again now with Michele Bachmann and others, is finally getting a full measure of counterattack by the Democrats and liberals and progressives, as they have come to realize that being a civil campaigner does not work, and only emboldens the opposition.

Sadly, many people are turned off to this attack and counterattack, but it is not going to go away, and for anyone to decide not to vote because of this is the height of irresponsibility, as even with disgust with both sides and their tactics, it still does matter who wins and who controls power!

To sit on the sidelines is a horrible mistake at at time when the future is so uncertain, and requires all citizens to participate!