Jacksonian America

In America durning the Jacksonian era, and egalitarian, democratic culture emerged. Male suffrage was extended to include ever larger portions of the public. The lines between Elites and the commoners began to disappear. A higher percentege of the eligiable voters voted than ever before, and they increasingly voted for men they perceived as their equals. Expanding across the Appalachian mountians, the nation bagan to change in profound ways. The young states of Kuntucky, and Tennasee, had for example instituted universal manhood suffrage. In all of these new western states men found themselves on roughly the same footing. In these new settlements, no one had yet gotten much wealthier than any one else. Also as by definition these new settlers all owned land, they all felt they had a say in their government.. These men however had nobody to elect but their neighbors and local community leaders. They wanted to elect people who new what their lifes were about. So they elected people they thought were their equals. Thus beginning the trend that has lasted to this day, whereby someone like "W" Bush tries to pretend