I remember wanting to smash the TV the night Reagan won. At the time, I didn't realize the deeper significance of his rise to power. You've laid it out clearly, and I learned additional background to where we are now. It's not a pretty picture, and unless the DNC "gets with the program", I fear that there will continue to be more of the same.
Thanks from Denver for the painful but critical history lesson, Dr. DeGroot. I'd gleaned snippets of this through the years but never seen it outlined so clearly.
In a long list of wonderful posts this is, at the tops of my list. Many interesting popped into my head as I read this; oddly enough, when you brought up William F Buckley I thought of two things - his feud with Gore Vidal and Ernestine, the operator lady (Lilly Tomlin on Laugh in ) calling him Mr Fa-Buckley. Very interesting about the student groups poll; it didn’t help Humphrey that the left portrayed him as just like Nixon. While there were women in the photo, they weren’t in the leadership of radical student organizations. I was a student programming president during the 70s. That period (in many states) was anti Greek )fraternity and sorority on my campus. Very small percentage of students pledged; it’s
relevant that it was a state university with many commuter students and a working/middle class population.Thanks for a great read!
Carter got caught up with the Iran fiasco (created by previous administrations) with the fall of the a shah propped up by the West. Trump has failed to deal with Iran diplomatically and the situation with oil is way worse now than back then.
The US was also caught up in a war in Vietnam that was bleeding it dry. A nation smaller and less developed than Iran.
The US - after WW2 failed to reduce it military as it always had before and it expenditures gradually made it less able to meet social needs - Reagan ramped that up with his Star Wars fantasy. While the US military is massive, its production infrastructure has also been allowed to degrade and its expenses bloated. China can build military hardware 3 to 1 against the US.
Trump had blown so much inventory in Iran, that the military can’t catch up for years in some items and its production capacity has degraded.
Allies are looking elsewhere for both hardware and stable agreements.
Conservatism would have put the military back to a civilian prewar footing - it didn’t (President Eisenhower warned of this). Renaming your Defence Department back to War certainly won’t help.
Jerry, you’ve clearly connected the dots with how we got from Point A to Point B. As I was reading, it was easy to recall the backdrop of this in black and white on the TV that I was aware of, but mostly ignoring while happily playing as a child does.
I try to “leave” the chaos and sorrow of this world a little bit each day with my gardening. And of course, my dear dogs and cat bring a lot of joy. My now-version of happily playing.
Thanks Valerie. I'd forgotten about that feud with Lily Tomlin. How pathetic. Yes, you're right about women in the movement. On eager female activist told a story about picking Tom Hayden up at an airport and the first thing he did was hand her his laundry. I'll write about that someday.
I remember wanting to smash the TV the night Reagan won. At the time, I didn't realize the deeper significance of his rise to power. You've laid it out clearly, and I learned additional background to where we are now. It's not a pretty picture, and unless the DNC "gets with the program", I fear that there will continue to be more of the same.
‘They don’t stop thinking about tomorrow, even if tomorrow is butt ugly.’
😆👏
Thanks. Glad to be of service.
Wow. This packs a punch. The line about students and word limits also made me laugh out loud. Please keep on fighting the good fight
Thanks Stuart.
This is a really interesting article. With every piece from you I learn new things which I did not know beforehand.
Btw - that 'Morning in America' ad made me think of this one ...https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H4PxuFQCDis
Ah, yes, a classic. (And thanks for the kind words.)
Thanks from Denver for the painful but critical history lesson, Dr. DeGroot. I'd gleaned snippets of this through the years but never seen it outlined so clearly.
Aw, thanks.
In a long list of wonderful posts this is, at the tops of my list. Many interesting popped into my head as I read this; oddly enough, when you brought up William F Buckley I thought of two things - his feud with Gore Vidal and Ernestine, the operator lady (Lilly Tomlin on Laugh in ) calling him Mr Fa-Buckley. Very interesting about the student groups poll; it didn’t help Humphrey that the left portrayed him as just like Nixon. While there were women in the photo, they weren’t in the leadership of radical student organizations. I was a student programming president during the 70s. That period (in many states) was anti Greek )fraternity and sorority on my campus. Very small percentage of students pledged; it’s
relevant that it was a state university with many commuter students and a working/middle class population.Thanks for a great read!
Carter got caught up with the Iran fiasco (created by previous administrations) with the fall of the a shah propped up by the West. Trump has failed to deal with Iran diplomatically and the situation with oil is way worse now than back then.
The US was also caught up in a war in Vietnam that was bleeding it dry. A nation smaller and less developed than Iran.
The US - after WW2 failed to reduce it military as it always had before and it expenditures gradually made it less able to meet social needs - Reagan ramped that up with his Star Wars fantasy. While the US military is massive, its production infrastructure has also been allowed to degrade and its expenses bloated. China can build military hardware 3 to 1 against the US.
Trump had blown so much inventory in Iran, that the military can’t catch up for years in some items and its production capacity has degraded.
Allies are looking elsewhere for both hardware and stable agreements.
Conservatism would have put the military back to a civilian prewar footing - it didn’t (President Eisenhower warned of this). Renaming your Defence Department back to War certainly won’t help.
Jerry, you’ve clearly connected the dots with how we got from Point A to Point B. As I was reading, it was easy to recall the backdrop of this in black and white on the TV that I was aware of, but mostly ignoring while happily playing as a child does.
Thanks Emily. Yes, I miss those times happily playing, oblivious to the world.
I try to “leave” the chaos and sorrow of this world a little bit each day with my gardening. And of course, my dear dogs and cat bring a lot of joy. My now-version of happily playing.
Same here. Though the gardens are now a little too extensive for my energy level. Plus I tend to overdo it with the window boxes and pots.
Thanks Valerie. I'd forgotten about that feud with Lily Tomlin. How pathetic. Yes, you're right about women in the movement. On eager female activist told a story about picking Tom Hayden up at an airport and the first thing he did was hand her his laundry. I'll write about that someday.
Apologize for the errors- I’m aggravated with my autocorrect.