Cracks me up - people should familiarize with language commonly used in political discussion of days past before declaring that the present 'loss of civility' is a new trend.  Animals, animal traits, and animal and human body parts and waste products have often been fairly common in political debate, as have slurs referring to profession, economic class, ethnicity, etc - not just by supporters, but by office seekers as well.  Race [skin color] and religion were not often mentioned simply because non-christian, non-anglo individuals had 0 political influence and were inconceivable on any ballot, until comparatively recently.