No quick ruling on claim about GOP watchers at Nevada polls

Ben Franklin's 1750 treatise on being politically unpleasant

BOSTON (AP) — Think back to America's founding fathers, and you'd be forgiven for imagining plenty of prudence and self-restraint. You'd be wrong. A lot of riotous rhetoric sprang from those stiff upper lips. Political bombast is nothing new — it's in our DNA. But an expert on the colonists and their initial incivility says all that eventually led to the modern concept of civil discourse. Steven Bullock is a professor of humanities at Worcester Polytechnic University. He's authored a new book, "Tea Sets and Tyranny: The Politics of Politeness in Early America." Bullock says Benjamin Franklin began as an "arrogant know-it-all" before concluding being nice was more productive. He says the turn of the 18th century was a little like 2016, with people accusing each other of disloyalty or even treason.

Q&A: Can America relearn civility from its founding fathers?