Great Night of Discussion

We had regulars there and even added a new member, welcome Carol. We went over parallels and differences in the campaign of 1828 and campaigns now. We talked about bias and the book along with bias in the media and peoples perception in general and decided that it is almost impossible to relay information while being devoid of bias. We noted that while there was only one party for the 1828 election the mud slinging was still robust. We noticed that neither were willing to change the constitution but accused the other of desiring too. Federalism was shown to be to powerful to go away even though the party disappeared shortly before this election and that even Jackson who stuck by State's Rights expanded both the reach of government with projects and the role of the president. We talked about the precursors seen in the campaign and election to the civil war and even discussed what might have been different if Adams had won instead. I really enjoyed the discussions on the qualities of the men involved and how their strongly held opinions during the campaign may not be feasible in practice and may even be counter actual beliefs. There were many issues that we see now, like electoral vs. popular vote to determine the president. We spoke about why it was designed the way it was, why it won't likely change for representation purposes and how some states are looking to force their electoral votes to match the overall popular vote rather than sticking with the actual states result. There was much more than that though. If you have any thoughts about the discussion I missed feel free to comment, or even if you couldn't make it tonight please feel free to include your take on the book. The next book will be: Little Bee by Chris Cleave We will meet next November 19 at 7PM. God Bless You and Thanks again for letting me do this with you.