Was this the Most Divisive US Election Ever?
The Inquiry
BBC
4.6 • 1.7K Ratings
🗓️ 8 November 2016
⏱️ 23 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The Clinton–Trump race has been extraordinary. Two of the most unpopular presidential candidates ever have slugged it out through a bitter campaign. They are both – for different reasons – deeply polarising figures. Hillary Clinton is viewed with suspicion by Americans who have turned against what they regard as “the elite”. Donald Trump has exploited crudely divisive, sexist, even racist, rhetoric. The tone of the contest has been ugly. But there is historical precedent for much of this – divisive policy positions on slavery or the famous attack ads of the 1960s. How should we view this campaign compared to the candidates, rhetoric, policies and media climate of past elections?
(Photo: Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump listens behind Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton as she answers a question i their presidential town hall debate at Washington University in St Louis, Missouri. Credit: Rick Wilking)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | On a sunny North Carolina afternoon, less than a week before election day, |
| 0:08.8 | President Obama rolled up his shirt sleeves and smiling ruefully reminded voters of their grave |
| 0:14.5 | responsibility. I hate to put a little pressure on you but the fate of the |
| 0:20.1 | Republic rests on your shoulders. The fate of the world is teetering and you |
| 0:27.6 | North Carolina are going to have to make sure that we push it in the right direction. |
| 0:36.2 | You can hear the crowd laughing nervously or gratefully or perhaps in disbelief. |
| 0:42.0 | How could the American polity have reached a point where such |
| 0:44.6 | apocalyptic rhetoric could seem entirely justified. |
| 0:48.6 | This American election campaign has been the angriest and most disturbing in living memory. |
| 0:54.0 | We've had the lurid revelations of Donald Trump's predatory sexual behavior, |
| 0:59.0 | allegations that Hillary Clinton abused her office as Secretary of State, last-minute interventions from the FBI. |
| 1:06.0 | Democrats and many Republicans are horrified by Trump's violent rhetoric, his racist and misogynist remarks, his calls on his supporters to exercise their right |
| 1:15.2 | to bear arms should Clinton win. |
| 1:18.2 | Trump supporters are convinced that Clinton is a crook and that the process itself is rigged. Is this unprecedented or has |
| 1:27.5 | America been here or somewhere like it before? I'm Maria Margaronis and in this week's inquiry I'm asking was this the most divisive |
| 1:36.1 | US election ever? |
| 1:40.3 | Part 1, the historian David Greenberg. His interest in President's personalities began with a political scandal that convulsed America when he was very young. |
| 2:07.0 | There was a sense I think that a lot of Americans had after Watergate and Nixon in particular that it was important to give a close look to the people at the top. |
| 2:18.0 | In 1972, President Richard Nixon's re-election campaign bugged the offices of the opposition Democratic Party, |
| 2:25.0 | and Nixon himself was caught trying to cover up the crime. |
| 2:29.0 | Americans realized... |
| 2:31.0 | That putting the wrong person in the White House could have drastic consequences. |
... |
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