This is an I-Heart podcast.

Guaranteed Human.

And we return to our American stories.

Up next, another installment of our series about us,

The Story of America's series,

with Hillsdale College Professor and author of the terrific book, Land of Hope, Professor

Bill McLeigh. In 1828, a political revolution took place. Andrew Jackson, a political outsider

from the frontier, had beaten the son of a president, no, the son of a founder, John Quincy Adams, in a hot and often vile election.

Their second showdown.

Let's get into the story.

Here's Bill McLeigh.

Music Here's Bill McLeigh. He taught the country a lesson.

He taught Adams a lesson, the hard way,

that to be high-minded and snobbish was not going to work

with this growing, expanding, and diverse electorate,

often highly imperfectly educated electorate in America.

That was the reality of the thing.

It's a reality that's still with us.

Mass democracy requires a discourse, a language, a mode of expression that can reach people where they are.

Instead of telling them, well, if you want to know what's going on, you've got to raise yourself to my level.

You've got to go to college. You've got to get a degree. You've got to learn how to talk like I do.

No, you've got to learn how to talk like I do. No, you've got to learn how to talk like they do.

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