Now that's interesting.

Nathan Newman makes the case that Ulysses S. Grant was a great liberal hero. I only remember that my arch-conservative high school history teacher kept harping on his corrupted administration. Something about contracts being given out to friends...well, it's good that we've certainly moved past that, right? Newman is right about one thing, the election of 1872 was certainly the first of any 'free' elections in the South, which is something that history has largely forgotten. And if not history, then certainly most people. I can't remember who, but I once read a quote to the effect that after the civil war, America tried democracy for 10 years. That person was referring to Reconstruction, which any student of history from the south will tell you has something to do with carpetbaggers. And corruption. Things that never existed before or after Reconstruction, you know.