Yes, but let’s be honest… I’d take a LARGE number of people over either. Maybe some farm animals. A nice dog. A pet rock. I’d say a cat, but put a cat in the Oval Office and we’ll have WWIII right after it knocks everything on the floor.
This may all well be true. But even as a kid in the 70s, I remember. I remember the gas lines. The inflation. My parent’s worry and uncertainty. And of course, the Iran hostage crisis.
Conversely, the 80s were great. The Carter / Reagan combo made me a Republican until around 2008, when I started paying more attention and really looking into the party platforms.
I guarantee you there are millions of Republicans who were like me, created by Carter’s ineptitude, that haven’t bothered to really pay attention but keep pulling the R lever. Because of Carter.
Not much to be done about people who don’t pay attention. Glad you left that crowd :)
From the experience of my college friends, absolutely true and they even cited the same thing…the gas lines. I didn’t grow up in the States so I missed out, but something about queues must have been particularly traumatizing for five and six year olds in the days before Gameboys.
It might mean in 40 years time there will be folks doing the same on the D side. I’d be happy to worry about that in 40 years, if I’m alive and in decent condition at that age.
Fed Chair Paul Volcker raised interest rates and intentionally caused a recession in order to combat inflation. When it didn’t quite work to his liking he rose rates even higher in the early 80’s and unemployment hit almost 11% early in Reagan’s term. Once satisfied, the Fed dropped interest rates, housing starts soared and the unemployment rate dropped. Reagan took credit (look, tax cuts!) for “morning in America.” (There are those will try to argue that Reagan allowed Volcker and the Fed to remain independent despite pressure at the time to rein in the Fed, but that’s also a myth because it was Wall Street that wanted Volcker to remain.) Turns out, GDP and job growth were roughly equivalent under both Reagan and Carter, although Reagan did manage to explode the federal debt.
Just so I understand correctly, Jimmy Carter was responsible for the revolution in Iran which was the cause of the oil crisis in 1979 and the resulting gas lines?
Part of the reason for gas lines, was that Nixon instituted price caps on gasoline, and price caps always result in shortages.
Carter’s mistake was in not removing them.
To an eight-year-old, yes, Jimmy Carter was responsible for everything bad that happened.
#ThanksJimmy
?? Coulda sworn this was Nixon.
Nixon visited. Carter established official relations.
Learn something new every day. Thanks for that.
I turned 18 in August of 1988. I did not vote that year because I was a little busy moving off to college and doing 18-year-old stuff, but had I voted it would have been for Bush Sr. as in the 8 years prior (from 10-18) it seemed to young me that Reagan had done a pretty great job of making America great, and Bush promised more of the same.
It also would have been the only time for three decades that I would have voted Republican for President.
- In 1992 I voted for Ross Perot (along with nearly 20 million Americans) because I was 22, tired of the Bush fiasco, and really got excited thinking about an Independent candidate running the country. Plus, all those charts and graphs were just so damn sexy!
- In 1996 I voted Clinton, because by then he’d won me over.
- In 2000 I voted for Gore because the 90’s were so damn good to me and everything felt like it was going so great…why mess with a good thing?! I was PISSED when he lost by 5 lousy EC votes despite winning the general election.
- In 2004 I voted for John Kerry, not because I particularly liked him, but because Fuck Bush and Fuck Cheney and Fuck their war and WMDs and everything Republican.
- In 2008 I voted for Obama, because Change We Can Believe In. And I did believe in him, more than any candidate in my lifetime. Plus, the bonus of electing a black man President, making history and watching Republican heads explode was delicious.
- In 2012 I voted for Obama again, because I still believed in him (and still do). Plus, Sarah Palin, are you fucking serious?!
- In 2016 I voted for Clinton, mostly because DONALD TRUMP, ARE YOU FUCKING SERIOUS?!
In retrospect, I like to think I made the right choice every time out. Even the Perot pick could be argued to have helped Clinton get elected, and thereby be excused. The takeaway from my looking back over my voting history however is the clear sign that, from 1992 onward, I was not happy with the Republican party direction and as each election came and went I became more and more repulsed by the people the GOP chose to put on it’s biggest ticket. All throughout those 30 years I would still occasionally vote for a Republican Senator, House Rep and/or local office candidate whom I felt represented my interests and those of my state/county/city the best. Even as recently as 2014 I voted for John Kasich for a second term as Ohio’s governor. I still classified myself as Independent even through I never voted Republican in a Presidential election.
Now though…can I even really claim Independent status when, since 2016, the Republican Party has so clearly and warmly embraced complete and utter evil? There is no way I will vote Republican in any contest at this point…no way I would help this party to obtain power or stay in power in any capacity whatsoever, from Commander in Chief down to Dog Catcher. I feel like, thanks to the GOP, America is now firmly a two party system : Republicans…and everyone else.
Well except for the idiots voting for Green and what’s-his-name that probably gave the election to Trump.
I agree with all of your votes btw! Better than mine…when I was younger, I stayed completely out of politics or voted Republican. Growing up in Texas, surrounded by everyone saying how great Republicans are, will do that to you…
An interesting experiment, and I t hink I’ve mentioned this in the past, is to find someone too young to remember and give them the text of Carter’s ‘malaise’ speech and let them assume it’s something recent. Then after a brief discussion of its highly relevant content, let them know it’s from 1979.
You then have a discussion about how stupid f’n Americans didn’t want to hear about actual issues, preferring instead to be told by a corporate whoring mouthpiece of a former actor how it was all morning and shit.
Best description.
On the line of party identification, it looks like the GOP has lost a few % of the total population, and dems have held even at best. Many people have become “independent” (whatever that is.)
Once you take into account independents that lean in a particular direction, the affiliation picture becomes more interesting. I’d love a few more data points close to the current time, as there’s one poll dragging the republican line down and I’d like to know if that’s believable or not (but that’s just how fitting a spline works, and can be deceptive.)
This figure was taken from a medium post here, which was an interesting read…
