Every four years we and our countrymen elect government officials to lead our nation, state, and local municipalities for the next 2-4 years (depending on the office). If I had to guess, I would suspect that most of you reading this are probably disappointed in the nature of our national campaigns and the mudslinging and personal attacks that characterize politics today. But in actuality, it is nothing new.
History tells us that our nation once elected a man who garnered 39% of the popular vote – the smallest percentage ever for a winning candidate. And if that wasn’t enough, when the same man ran for re-election four years later, he stuffed the ballot box in a critical swing state by exhorting his military leaders to give soldiers leave from their stations on election day. The result was that thousands of soldiers from various states all descended on the state of Indiana and voted – quite illegally – to re-elect the president, sweeping him to an electoral victory with this critical state.