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Still, despite the tension at places like Amici's, historians dismiss the idea that there is something unique about this year's voter angst. Alan Brinkley, a professor of history at Columbia University, says, "I don't think the level of vitriol is particularly high by the standards of recent elections." What is different, he says, is the length of the primary race, and the fact that it's "the role of gender and race," this time around, that have escalated the passions. Beverly Gage, a political historian at Yale University, says politics is no more nasty today than in the past. She points to 1920, when Warren Harding was running and opponents, hoping to tap into racist views of the time, circulated a rumor that he had "Negro blood." In other primaries, the fight between Democrats has been just as, if not more, bitter: 1948, 1968, 1980 and 1984. Charles Kaiser, author of "1968 in America," says the parallels to 1968 are remarkable, especially in the manner in which Gene McCarthy and Bobby Kennedy attacked each other. "The left is devoting all its energy to fighting itself rather than fighting the real enemy," says Kaiser.

But these fights took place decades ago; the battle between Clinton and Obama supporters is clearly the fiercest in a generation. Brazile says the problem is not the vitriol, but the fact that old demons—of "misogyny and slavery"—are being revived. "These are the wounds that don't heal so easily." And this, history tells us, will take more than three minutes on the Senate floor.

With Matthew Philips, Richard Wolffe and Martha Brant

© 2008

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Member Comments

  • Posted By: Army4RangeR @ 04/05/2008 1:16:16 AM

    Red???? Boy???The second sounds reasonable...It was to bring attention to the fact that
    God created creatures, people (even simplistics, like you) to recognize their own kind..
    As far as care...Animals make human being look pathetic by comparison, the parents
    mate for LIFE..wow, how bizzare...Mothers, would fight to the death to protect their
    babies..we don't see this trend in the black community..As far as dads, well, they are
    too busy out busting a cap on some poor hard working individual who is trying to raise
    a family and pay a mortgage..So, Redboy....you keep you head in the sand, and you'll
    be okay..hopefully....What a dumb question...surgery??? GOD BLESS THE UNITED
    STATES OF AMERICA

  • Posted By: Redboy @ 04/02/2008 4:41:06 AM

    Amy4RangeR,

    Did you ever sit in a classroom? I mean for the purpose of obtaining an education?

    You use the words, animals and humans and you basically state that humans should live their life the way animals do. Did no one every tell you that humans, at the very least, have a more developed brain? Have you every seen an animal perform an emergency operation on one of its own?

    By your shallow thoughts and statements, you present as one of those humans whose animal counterpart (your choice of wording), is smarter than you are.

  • Posted By: Army4RangeR @ 03/31/2008 4:32:00 PM

    WHITE AMERICANS VOTING FOR OBAMA-----IS THE EQUAVELENT OF JEWS VOTING
    FOR HITLER, EXTERMINATION, AND THE HOLOCAUST...IT IS NOT SHAMEFUL TO BE
    WHITE...WE'VE BE COMPLACENT TOO LONG, ALLOWED TOO MANY MARCHES, WHER
    THE NATION OF ISLAM WAS ALLOWED TO WALK THROUGH AMERICAN STREETS
    BRANDISHING AUTOMATIC WEAPONS...LET THE WHITE GUYS TRY THAT AND THEY
    WOULD ALL BE LOCKED UP...THIS IS A NATION DEVIDED, WHETHER WE LIFE IT OR
    NOT..GOD DID NOT CREATE US ALL IDENTICAL..HE HAD A PURPOSE, AND HIS
    WILL BE DONE..TELLING KIDS WHEN THEY ARE YOUNG AND IMPRESSIONABLE THAT
    GOD CREATED ALL ANIMALS, BIRDS, AND EVERY LIVING CREATURE TO RECOGNIZE
    THEIR KIND...YOU EVER SEE AN RACOON MATING WITH A WOLF???? A HAWK WITH
    A SPARROW, I AM SORRY TO SAY THAT ANIMALS IN OUR WORLD ARE, AT TIMES,
    SMARTER THAN THEIR HUMAN COUNTERPART.
    GOD BLESS THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

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