Colin McEnroe Show: Political Sparring And Actual Swordfights

Jeff Russell is running for the US Senate. Lately, he has been doing that with a phone or a laptop. His plan for getting to WNPR today was to take the bus, although I'm told he also has a van that runs on mixed vegetable oil and petroleum diesel. In other words, he's running with no money, and a lot of ideals. 

I'm not sure how far back you'd have to go in American history to find a time when that was feasible. Certainly by the late 19th century, not only had money entered politics, but the role of banks and corporations in funding campaigns had become the subject of charges and counter-charges in American politics. By the early 20th century, we saw attempts to regulate or even ban large influx of private money into public politics.

That seems very different from, say, 1858, when Abraham Lincoln decided he could catch up to Stephen Douglas mainly by debating him.

Later in the show, Michael Wilson, artistic director for the Hartford Stage weighs in on a recent sword fighting accident during an impromptu rehearsal for Antony & Cleopatra.