President Obama vs. Governor Jan Brewer

[Kevin]

The vitriol directed at the President really seems unprecedented. During the Bush years, we were all just content to call Bush a dumbass. Now, it's in style to be seen being physically aggressive towards a sitting POTUS?

[knight_shadow]

Originally Posted by Kevin

The vitriol directed at the President really seems unprecedented. During the Bush years, we were all just content to call Bush a dumbass. Now, it's in style to be seen being physically aggressive towards a sitting POTUS?

Forgive my (youthful) ignorance, but how recent of a phenomenon is the political pundit? I'm sure they have existed in one form or another for many years, but it seems that they've come out in full force recently (both sides of the aisle). I think our dependence on the internet has helped them spread like wildfires and I don't like it.

Oh, and the race thing too.

[KSig RC]

Originally Posted by knight_shadow

Forgive my (youthful) ignorance, but how recent of a phenomenon is the political pundit? I'm sure they have existed in one form or another for many years, but it seems that they've come out in full force recently (both sides of the aisle). I think our dependence on the internet has helped them spread like wildfires and I don't like it.

Punditry has existed forever - I mean, depending on how you frame it, the Federalist Papers were pretty explicitly political commentary/punditry.

I think the difference is in the stances/angles/attitudes taken by those pundits. Compare somebody like old boy George Will with more current models ... and yes, I picked Will because he's boring as hell.

Oh, and the race thing too.

Yeah ... I mean, there's one obvious difference in this Presidency, and while discourse may have deteriorated over time (there's an element of "communication changing" that muddies the subjective elements), it kind of fails Occam's Razor to assume the largest changes were coincidental to inauguration, by chance.