I have a habit on these Sunday essays of writing about things that happened a hundred -- or a hundred million -- years ago. But this morning, I've skimmed a somewhat shorter block of history to bring you three quotes I think you'll find interesting.
A) This year will not be a year of politics as usual. It can be a year of inspiration and hope, and it will be a year of concern, of quiet and sober reassessment of our nation’s character and purpose. It has already been a year when voters have confounded the experts. And I guarantee you that it will be the year when we give the government of this country back to the people of this country. ... It is time for the people to run the government, and not the other way around.
Does this speech sound familiar? Quickly now, whose upstart campaign produced this message of overturning the status quo, of taking back our country, and of that thing called hope?
If that one's not obvious, try this.
B)There is a new mood in America. We have been shaken by a tragic war abroad and by scandals and broken promises at home. Our people are searching for new voices and new ideas and new leaders. Although government has its limits and cannot solve all our problems, we Americans reject the view that we must be reconciled to failures and mediocrity, or to an inferior quality of life. For I believe that we can come through this time of trouble stronger than ever. Like troops who have been in combat, we have been tempered in the fire; we have been disciplined, and we have been educated. ...
It is time for a nationwide comprehensive health program for all our people.
It is time for our government leaders to respect the law no less than the
humblest citizen, so that we can end once and for all a double standard of justice. I see no reason why big-shot crooks should go free and the poor ones go to jail.
A simple and a proper function of government is just to make it easy for us to do good and difficult for us to do wrong.
Who is that making a case for that government can be an agency of our best intentions, including universal health care and holding those who violate the public trust accountable? Does it sound like anyone you know?
Here's one more. It's a bit longer, but stick with it.
C)I believe that anyone who is able to work ought to work--and ought to have a chance to work. We will never have a balanced budget—which I am determined to see--as long as we have eight or nine million Americans out of work who cannot find a job. Any system of economics is bankrupt if it sees either value or virtue in unemployment.
The foremost responsibility of any President, above all else, is to guarantee the security of our nation—a guarantee of freedom from the threat of successful attack or blackmail, and the ability with our allies to maintain peace. But peace is not the mere absence of war. Peace is action to stamp out international terrorism.
We can have an America that provides excellence in education to my child and your child and every child.
We can have an America that encourages and takes pride in our ethnic diversity, our religious diversity, our cultural diversity—knowing that out of this pluralistic heritage has come the strength and the vitality and the creativity that has made us great and will keep us great.
We can have an American government
Ours is the party of the man who was nominated by those distant conventions and who inspired and restored this nation in its darkest hours— Franklin D. Roosevelt.
Ours is the party of a fighting Democrat who showed us that a common man could be an uncommon leader—Harry S. Truman.
Ours is the party of a brave young President who called the young at heart, regardless of age, to seek a “New Frontier” of national greatness—John F. Kennedy.
And ours is also the party of a great-hearted Texan who took office in a tragic hour and who went on to do more than any other President in this century to advance the cause of human rights—Lyndon Johnson.
Our Party was built out of the sweatshops of the old Lower East Side, the dark mills of New Hampshire, the blazing hearths of Illinois, the coal mines of Pennsylvania, the hard-scrabble farms of the southern coastal plains, and the unlimited frontiers of America.
Ours is the party that welcomed generations of immigrants—the Jews, the Irish, the Italians, the Poles, and all the others, enlisted them in its ranks and fought the political battles that helped bring them into the American mainstream. And they have shaped the character of our party.
That is our heritage.
As I’ve said many times before, we can have an American President who does not govern with negativism and fear of the future, but with vigor and vision and aggressive leadership—a President who’s not isolated from the people, but who feels your pain and shares your dreams and takes his strength and his wisdom and his courage from you.
Who is this candidate worrying about peace in a time of international terrorism? Who is this candidate facing both mounting national debts and high unemployment? Who is this proud Democrat who recalls the best traditions of party? Who is this person who "feels your pain"?
Okay, here are your answers A) Jimmy Carter. B)Jimmy Carter. C) Jimmy Carter. In fact, all of these are parts of Jimmy Carter's speech on the acceptance of the Democratic nomination in 1976. (I confess I edited them a good bit. If I'd left in the bicentennial references, there wouldn't have been much of a puzzle.)
Whenever President Carter's name appears in the paper lately it's treated as an insult. A shorthand for failure. The Republicans seem anxious to draw a relationship between President Obama and his predecessor from Georgia, as if there was some similarity between the two men and their situation. The thing is, on this one thing, the GOP is right.
The view we have of Carter today is often one made half from old jokes and half from Republican insults. The truth is that Jimmy Carter was -- still is -- a brilliant man. Far from being a bumbler whose only memorable line was "national malaise," he was an inspired and inspiring speaker who came into office primarily by capturing the votes of new voters. On that sunny day in January when Carter shocked the pundits by walking the length of the inaugural parade route, he entered the White House with the nation glad to finally put Watergate behind it, 61 Democrats in the Senate, and a 55% to 45% edge in the House. Even though his electoral victory was a narrow one, he entered office with a 66% approval rating in the Gallup poll.
Four years later, he left the White House with a 34% approval rating. In the race against Ronald Reagan, Carter captured only 10% of the electoral votes. In a flip of twelve seats, Republicans took control of the Senate and the edge in the House dropped by 35 seats.
A big part of that drop was brought on by the crisis in Iran. Opponents had the luxury of suggesting "bold" action, while Carter was more concerned with safe return of the hostages. Carter took the blame for the inflation and unemployment he had inherited, while Reagan promised "morning in America" if taxes were cut. The infamous "there you go again" line? That was Reagan's response to Carter's support for a bill to of fix problems in Medicare funding. In a interview after the event, Reagan told why he attacked Carter on this point.
Reagan: Some of the people who were proposing this, and I wasn't against the Medicare bill that finally came along, but some of the people that were proposing this, it was obvious that they, in reality, wanted socialized medicine. And I know a little bit about socialized medicine as it's practiced in a number of other countries...
Sound familiar? The bill didn't contain anything that Reagan was willing to discuss in detail, but he could tell that "some of the people" proposing the bill wanted to turn American's health care system into... well, insert your favorite demonized foreign health care system here. And that was enough to generate plenty of red-scare talk during the election season. Carter faced more charges of "socialism" over another issue -- bailing out the bankrupt Chrysler Corporation.
But beyond charges of socialized medicine, auto company bailouts, and attempts to balance an energy crisis against the environment, Carter faced another problem that's familiar -- an uncooperative congress. Senators had no inclination to help the outsider who had run against Washington. They didn't see Carter as a successful governor who had slashed through Georgia's patronage system and eliminated 270 state agencies while delivering more services. They saw him as the goofy outsider with the big teeth. He was a flash in the pan, their control of the Congress was eternal -- until it wasn't. The inability to pass a Democratic agenda even though Democrats held House, White House, and a filibuster-prof majority in the Senate cost not only Carter. The next time Democrats would see 60 seats in the Senate would be when Al Franken came to town.
Not only did Democrats lose control of Washington, they failed to solve the issues of health care and clean energy. And they handed the economy over to the "Reaganomics" that's left us not only the world's greatest debtor nation, but with a tax structure that promotes an unsustainable and growing gap between rich and poor. Much of Reagan's radical and fantasy-based theory of the economy has become so embedded that it seems far more immutable than the policies that keep America solvent for decades.
Despite the way conservatives and the Washington media treat President Carter's name, his reputation has grown considerably over the years. His efforts in the Middle East were critical in building a lasting peace, he's the only president to win the Nobel Peace Prize for his actions after leaving office, and his favorability rating with the public now rivals the numbers he enjoyed at the beginning of his presidency. Which is all great. I especially appreciate the way it drives people on the right crazy.
But I would just as soon this time around Democrats prove Will Rogers wrong for once, act like an organized party, and subjugate some big egos long enough to get some much needed laws passed. That's the best way to be sure that 2012 won't end up looking like 1980. I don't want to be sitting in my rocking chair circa 2040 hearing about how the public now believes Barack Obama was actually a pretty good president, and the guy they elected this time is finally going to do something about how no one can afford an asprin and the air's getting kind of crunchy. Frankly, we're still paying off Reagan, we barely survived Bush, the country won't survive another round of conservatism, and I'll never make it to 2040. So get it right this time, okay?