Bulldozers and the electoral college

Thomas Nast cartoon from Harper’s Weekly, Dec. 30, 1876.

When bulldozers finish, the earth is scoured, scarred, and shaped to fit human purposes. The American Heritage Dictionary has an alternative definition of bulldozer: �an overbearing or bullying person.� Michael Quinion of World Wide Words says the original bulldozer was a chivalrous Southern Democrat (which is to say, a nightrider on horseback) with a bullwhip, bent on keeping African-Americans from voting Republican in the presidential election of 1876. That was Hayes-Tilden, a contest that makes Bush-Gore look mild. Florida was disputed then, too. In the end, Democrats cut a deal: Hayes wins but Federal troops are withdrawn from the South.

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