I love history and looking back at this country’s politics. It’s my attempt to learn how the system could have deteriorated to where it is today. It doesn’t take a genius to watch and listen to today’s representatives and senators to identify the issues that are driving us crazy. Bad habits are usually a learned response and our current gang of politicians have learned their lessons well.  Many of these bad habits have been passed down over the years from one group of politicians to another and been finely tuned.

It seems obvious to me that there are three main priorities; money, re-election, and power.  They raise huge amounts of money to accomplish priority number one which in  turn helps them to  accomplish priority number two.  Once re-elected they can pursue their third priority, power, which they all seem to crave.  The fact that most of the money spent for reelections eventually works it’s way back into the hands of corporate America must must be a fortunate happenstance.  Yeah right!

One of my major criticisms is that they all seem to be concerned only with getting on TV first with a cutesy “sound bite” before their competitors. It doesn’t seem to faze them that they never have anything of consequence to say just ten second quips for those ever-present media cameras.

Since I agree whole-heartedly with this criticism I decided to determine exactly when and where it all started.  The use of campaign slogans began well before the current Media became so powerful and demanding.  Back in the day they reported what was occurring in the country in an unbiased fashion.  They weren’t involved in creating the news as they are today. The “straw that broke the camels back” for me was when big corporate American began buying up the most influential media organizations. The unbiased history of the Media was for the most part a thing of the past.  As I searched around I found the following campaign slogans in use going all the way back to 1840.  They started out cutesy and entertaining but slowly became hurtful and nasty at times.  This is just a small sampling of old and new irritating slogans that may have helped kick started the “sound bite” revolution.

Tippecanoe and Tyler, Too – 1840

Fifty-Four Forty or Fight – 1844

Equal Rights to All; Special Privileges to None – 1900

Stand Pat with McKinley – 1900

He Kept Us Out of War – 1916

Back to Normalcy – 1920

Keep  Cool With Coolidge – 1924

A Chicken in Every Pot; A Car in Every Garage – 1928

In Hoover We Trusted and Now We Are Busted – 1948

One Good Term Deserves Another – 1934

I’m Just Wild About Harry – 1948

To Err is Truman – 1948

Phooey on Dewey – 1948

I  Like Ike – 1952

I Still Like Ike – 1956

In Your Guts You Know He’s Nuts – 1964

Never Been Indicted – 1980

It’s the Economy, Stupid – 1992

Hope and Change – 2008

Apparently we citizens always were always suckers for “sound bites” even when they were just called “campaign slogans”.  Maybe it’s time we the voters change how we approach politics.  Maybe I’m an idiot if I really believe that’s even possible.  I’ve lost most of my faith in the American voter which requires me to remain even more skeptical and critical of anything remotely related to politics.