{"id":2392,"date":"2010-11-07T17:17:49","date_gmt":"2010-11-07T17:17:49","guid":{"rendered":"0"},"modified":"2010-11-07T17:17:49","modified_gmt":"2010-11-07T17:17:49","slug":"feeling_anxious","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/?p=2392","title":{"rendered":"Feeling Anxious About The State of America?"},"content":{"rendered":"

I am, and lots of people I talk to are. Some predict – as Jon Stewart accurately said – “end times” for the nation.<\/p>\n

And to be sure, lots of what I see could easily move me to agree with them. Partisan rancor instead of careful administration. A deep political divide over the boundaries and role of government. International conflicts that skirt the edge of war. <\/p>\n

Like Stewart, I see “hard times” not end times. Part of the reason is history; I read tons of it, and I keep getting reminded that what we’re going through is nothing special. Kind of like the parent of a teenager, it’s comforting to know that what you’re going through is typical.<\/p>\n

Last week, my airplane book was A Magnificent Catastrophe: The Tumultuous Election of 1800, America’s First Presidential Campaign<\/a>\"\" – one that brought this point home to me so clearly – it was a great book about the presidential election of 1800, which was the first truly partisan election. Thomas Jefferson represented the Republicans, who believed in liberty and in diminishing the control of the central government. John Adams represented the Federalists, who believed that only though the leadership of the ‘betters’ could the nation be maintained – much less led to greatness.<\/p>\n

The French and English both were capturing or sinking our ships, impressing our sailors, and looting our international trade. The French Revolution made mob rule a real – not theoretical – risk, and an abortive slave uprising in the South challenged the Republican dominance there.<\/p>\n

Machine politics in New York City, and Hamilton and Burr, as awful characters as the worst of our own scheming politicians.<\/p>\n

They had problems too, back then, and solved them and moved forward. Events tempered ideology – as they always do – and Jefferson presided over the greatest expansion of federal power to date, as he taxed to build a navy and defend our trade.<\/p>\n

Go read this terrific book, go to bed, and wake up to feel better about things.
\n–<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Go read about the election of 1800 and understand that what we’re going through is pretty typical.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2392"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2392"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2392\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2392"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2392"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/marcdanziger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2392"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}