Word: publicizer
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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Americans once demanded a lot less of their national public figures than they do now. In the frontier days, a politician often proved himself by demonstrating his capacity for drink, women and duels. Alexander Hamilton was able to continue his career in politics even after publicly acknowledging that he had paid blackmail to a woman. The fact that Andrew Jackson killed a man in a duel, defending the honor of his wife, probably helped him get elected President. During his four years in the White House, Franklin Pierce often drank himself into a stupor, but, says Historian John Roche...
...Tell the truth," he doughtily replied. The truth scarcely satisfied Republicans, who improvised several more scandals about Cleveland and made the most of a campaign ditty: "Ma, ma, where's our pa? Gone to the White House. Ha! Ha! Ha!" Cleveland narrowly won because of his public probity and also because women did not have the vote...
...growth of national politics with a universal franchise and universal publicity has made it much harder for a public figure to hide his indiscretions. Only politicians with safe constituencies can carry on the way they used to. By pacifying their constituents with assorted favors, Congressmen as diverse as South Carolina's hard-drinking Mendel Rivers and Harlem's high-living Adam Clayton Powell are still able to ride out allegations of impropriety. Where money is concerned the public is more exacting. As a Senator from Massachusetts, Daniel Webster maintained a private fund that had been collected from wealthy...
While the U.S. has become more permissive about such matters as divorce and sex outside marriage, the public is demanding more of politicians these days-possibly because they are demanding more of themselves. Since the new politician relies more on his "image" and personality, he must answer for their defects as well. And these are scrutinized more closely than ever by an omnivorous press. His flaws are almost always excruciatingly on display...
...hard to object to this rise in political standards; yet perfection has its limits. The man entrusted with high public office today operates under unprecedented strain: he may well feel personally responsible for the survival of much of the human race in the nuclear age. More than ever, he needs the kind of private release that the open frontier once provided. A successful politician often possesses immense energy that needs to be released. The obscure private citizen can lose control of himself in public. Nobody but his friends will care. The man in public life must exercise iron control...