Well said again Kaos and I'm an old-fart enough to remember those bad times and how the Gipper turned it around. We'll never see another Reagan again I'm afraid which means right-thinking folk like us have to stay engaged in government.
Yeah, I'm guessing people just don't remember that time. How could they and have any faith in Dumboma?
We didn't even know what we had in Reagan when he was elected. I helped with Carter's campaign in 1976. I wanted to be governor of Alabama (like George Wallace) when I was a little kid. That was my ultimate goal. So I was barely old enough to walk and I'm passing out Carter flyers and buttons. Helped any way I could. Worked on Wallace's 1982 campaign, too. But I digress.
I believed in Carter's hope, change and peanuts in 1976. But I saw quickly that he was completely inept. Even as a kid I knew. And when 1980 came along I hesitantly and grudgingly turned to Reagan. I believed some of Carter's rhetoric. I believed Reagan was too out of touch, that he didn't have enough political background, that he was a left coast liberal masquerading as a populist, that he pandered to the rich, etc.
Most people don't remember this, but Carter was absolutely waxing Reagan's ass up until about a month before the election. Almost a double digit lead if memory serves. But Reagan obliterated Carter in the last debate and people finally saw the reality.
Carter went from being ahead to the point that people were calling the election to racking up all but six states.
It was amazing. And the last time I've seen the American public come through. We didn't know what we had and came very close to not electing one of the greatest presidents in our history.