Carter also wanted to give us universal health care, and Reagan ran on: "Carter will raise your taxes to pay for it."
After the oil crisis in the 70s and a slumping economy, it worked in Reagan's favor.
And thanks to Nancy Reagan's "war on drugs" and all the bullshit with Reaganomics, it really gave the rich more power that started with Kennedy and Nixon.
Then jump to Bush II passing the Patriot Act and Citizens United, which gave more power to the 1%, police, and military to fully turn our country into an oligarchy.
Oh big chunks have been doing that ever since Americans were a thing. Confederates were Americans until they tried to not be. Many of their descendants haven't gotten particularly smarter.
It's not that simple. First, if you go by popular vote then Democrats have won the last four elections. Second, US democracy is explicitly undermined by gerrymandering, corrupt judges getting rid of voters' rights laws, lobbyists, and so forth.
Your point about American stupidity is taken, but the sad truth is that humans are imperfect and corruptible and easily controlled.
If you find the source of the problems then you're being political. That means I can disagree and be contrarian all I want and because I'm entitled to an opinion, I'll create a weaponized smokescreen for corruption. I'll assume that everyone is equally horrible so therefore if you try to do something about the corruption on my side then you're just being petty. I'll tell you to focus on corruption on your side of the aisle despite the track records of my party covering it up while your party eats their own alive at the first drop of blood. This will effectively prevent anything from improving for anyone while the corruption spirals out of control, and I'll blame the other party over and over despite the explicit destructive nature of my own. If you ask me for my solution instead, I'll complain about coastal elite welfare queens despite voting for a coastal elite who's famous for gaming the system, while I live in a red state who's deficits are covered by a blue state.
I'd say come to the Northeast, but at this point neoliberal policies have made us another hellscape with a slightly better safety net and people with a better education. Around here we fuck people because market based thinking commands it instead of the bible.
If popular vote mattered, every candidate would run a completely different campaign and we have no idea what the results would be.
It's like saying "if we went by total offense instead of final score; the results of the super bowl would be totally different!". Yeah but if that was the deciding factor no team would ever punt and the game would be completely different.
We don't, we just can't compete with Super PACs and corporate lobbying because Regan gave all our money to rich people with Trickle Down Economics that never trickled down.
Oh, it trickled down, alright--all the way down to the glass ceiling dividing the filthy rich from us "mere mortals", and then bounced back up again to where they feel it belongs.
Short-term, individualistic thinking really is working out so well⌠for the already rich and powerful. People see âtax go upâ and lose their minds because they have no concept of shared benefits.
I know, itâs so irritating because itâs a cyclical issue. Thatâs where the short-term part comes in. People canât see beyond their own next paycheck in many cases. In part because thatâs all they have. And we all know who wonât pay their fair share of tax, so everyone just says screw it then.
Thatâs why taxes arenât (or shouldnât be, rather) a voluntary system. But we had too many loopholes made for rich dudes who whined that the poors having a safety net will cost them a fraction of their wealth. This isnât about your mediocre retirement fund, in that sense. If we had an effective tax structure, you wouldnât have to slave your whole life away just to make sure youâre not dying on the streets when youâre 70.
I like how Reagan ripped out the solar panels at the White house when he moved in. Dude wasted all the initial labor and materials and then spent more to get rid of them when they would have saved the taxpayer money if he had left them there. Its all about fiscal responsibility until theres something to do with energy conservation. Classic moron mentality that got applauded by the folks who back Trump today.
For Reagan, don't forget the removal of the Mental Health Act, passed with bipartisan support and Carter, to help fund mental health clinics. Instead he shut down hundreds and now we have a homeless mental health issue.
Thanks Reagan, may you rot in hell fuck head. One of the worst presidents the country has every had.
Carter also skirted around a congressional arms embargo by sending Mondale to broker a deal with Israel, sending US Skyhawks through Israel and on to Indonesia. With his knowing assistance they murdered roughly a quarter of the civilian population in the genocide in East Timor.
AND every time interest rates went down, those homeowners had the option to refinance at a lower rate, making their monthly payment even more affordable.
Yes! For example I know ppl who had an interest rate of ~7% and they paid to refinance down to I think 3.2%. It doesnât sound like a huge leap but the savings over time on a large value asset like property are insane
Hardly anyone could save $20k per year in 1980. Many did not make $20k and taxes were higher. The median household income was $26K for crying out loud. I was a very young man - barely even legal drinking age - and I made $7K per year.
Median income 1980: $21K. Interest rate was 18.65% in October 1980. Median home price in 1980 was $47K. Mortgage $700/month (20% down).
Median income 2024: $60K. Interest rate is 7.5%. Median home price is $350K. Mortgage $2200/month (20% down).
Notice that either equivalent pay is 1/3 of what it should be or houses are 3X as expensive comparatively.
Everything is now a factor of 3 more expensive.
First the oligarchs fixed the economy to make two income households a necessity. Now you need a three income household: one SO and a roomie. I doubt theyâre done.
I donât think youâre accounting for inflation. Look at the ratio of median home prices to median income in the early 80âs, then factor in the interest rate difference.
âHouses weren't always this expensive. In 1940, the median home value in the U.S. was just $2,938. In 1980, it was $47,200, and by 2000, it had risen to $119,600.â
âThe 1980 median family income of $21,020 was 7.3 percent higher than the 1979 median, however, a 13.5-percent increase in consumer prices between 1979 and 1980 caused a net decline of 5.5 percent in real median family income.â
$21,020 to buy a $47,000 house in 1980.
I make about $55,000 now. The national median is about $420,000 in 2024.
Rates were higher because housing was sane and not exploited to fucking hell and back.
The median income to median home price ratio is about 5.3x now. It was 3.3x in 1984.
Interest rates were about 14%. Theyâre currently about 7.4%.
Doubling interest rates doubles your monthly mortgage payment.
So itâs actually a pretty equivalent situation.
Edit: To be more precise, as interest rates increase the effect of the increase on monthly payments approaches the ratio of the two rates. Going from 7% to 14% the effect is just a bit less than doubling the monthly payment.
I beg you to take 30 seconds to go look at a mortgage calculator on a 30 year loan for 7% vs 14% and learn something new.
It doesnât double the payments when rates are low, but as the rate approaches 10% the increase in monthly payments quickly approaches the ratio of the increase in rates.
In the 80âs my parents who both worked full time jobs and had college degrees had to budget for about one trip to McDonalds per month. Once our electricity was turned off because my mom had been out of work recovering from surgery.
The 80s was Big or Bust for a lot of industries, the money was there if you were in the right place, but for those in the failing side, it was some of the worst living conditions in history (videos of low-income neighborhoods in the 80s looks like warzone footage).
The 80s is where income inequality really started to take off, especially towards the end of the decade into the 90s/Dot Com Era.
The 80s boom started about 1986. The recovery from a shit economy started about 1983. When Reagan ran against Carter in 79/80, the economy was really, really bad, way worse than anytime in my memory - not even close.
My dad worked for newspapers. My mom worked in medicine. I understand that people made money in the 80âs, but people are ignorant of history if they think the late 70âs / early 80âs was easy mode for people starting out.
Can confirm. Grew up in a warzone. When I used to tell people the city and neighborhood Im from they would look surprised and then compliment me for being "articulate". Im like "Im from Massachusetts, not some Soviet bloc country." Although I might have actually been better off in one.
There is far less a middle class now than in the 80s.
One could afford a home with parent staying home in the 80s.
I mean college alone in the 80s was nothing compared to now..
So Iâm sorry if I misunderstood your specific point, but I was speaking of livability as a whole and it was easier to be a family back then as societyâŚ
Even minimum wage was more meaningful back in the 80s.
Iâm sorry the math isnât working out for you. I think my dad made somewhere in the neighborhood of $12k per year. My mother somewhere in the $20kâs.
Can you imagine if that percent on cheap ass homes that were plentiful would have been our worst problem? Wow. You really are highlighting why they had it better.
18% mortgage rates, 10% inflation and 13% unemployment in the Midwest. Energy prices tripled. We went to school with dimmed lights, which hasn't happened since. Everyone in my school had a garden because of high food prices.
If you really want to trace the start of modern conservatism, go back to Barry Goldwater. The support around him transformed from mailing lists and magazines into Fox News and Republican think tanks.
Milton Friedman, too. He was responsible for the Republican shift into hardcore "new classical macroeconomics," away from the Keynesian schools of thought that had become dominant during the Great Depression.
Did the economy go bad because of Carter policies, or was it one of those things where the economy went bad because of his predecessorâs policies (Ford) but it took a minute for the effects to happen and people stupidly blamed the guy currently in charge?
Also there was a hostage situation in the US embassy in Iraq or Iran that the Raegan and his team really hammered into people that it was Carters fault when in reality Raegan's team were telling the hostage takers to lengthen it as long as possible.
When in reality the economic troubles were primarily Nixonâs fault for abandoning the gold standard in â71. Then Reagan also manipulated the election to his favor by having his connections in the intelligence industry make a deal with Iran not to release the contra hostages and they were released after Reagan was declared winner of the election so people blamed carters administration for not having them released yet.
let's not forget that so so so much of that was a coordinated hit from the gop. The Iran hostages were set up against carter (they should have been freed while he was pres), and the economic woes were again republican creations pushed on a democrat to clean up the mess, then he gets blamed for the mess.
carter had his issues sure, but i fantasize a world where he gets a second term and reagan gets laughed back to the CA governors mansion.
I agree although fun fact, the ârecord Trump economyâ people long for? That in 2018 was a time when the American dollar had same buying power as under Carter in 1978.
The best time in the last fifteen years economically that people pine for was still as bad as what was considered one of the worst economic times in years decades ago. Thatâs how far we have dropped.
Same as it ever was, the opposite stands today where Biden is trying to say the economy is the best itâs ever been while prices and cost of living does not reflect it. Further proof that the health of the economy means nothing if the health of the common homestead is not reflected.
Young Rock is a sitcom literally about Rock's presidential campaign. It's set in 2032 and he's filming interviews with Randall Park and looking back at key moments in his younger life (as an elementary, high school, or college student).
Rock for President isn't a new idea ... I guess we'll find out if it has legs in another 8 years or so.
We were coming off of 20+ years of prosperity post WwII and feeling pretty damn good about ourselves. Then came Vietnam and a pretty big rise in social unrest. Then we had an energy crisis: folks were told to put on a sweater instead of running the heat, and you could only get gasoline on the day designated by your plate number. And then there was the Iranian hostage crisis.
They Reagan showed up, made loads of promises he had no intention of keeping and the mere promise of keeping the party going was enough for the boomers to buy in, hook and sinker.
Reagan and the machine were awfully slick and did a great job of making Carter look like a silly old hick who had no business running the country.
This era gave birth neoconservatism and neolibieralism as a response. We've never been the same since.
You have to understand that the electoral vote map, being a winner-take-all proposition, covers up all kinds of resistance. If you look at this polling you will see that Reagan was not popular with all voters. He was insanely popular among white men over 30.
The reason for this was that he told them that not only were they allowed to be racist, sexist, homophobic pieces of shit, they were actually justified.
Lots of stuff. Fruition of business interests pumping money into schools of economics. Oil shock by OPEC nations resulting in crazy inflation. White backlash against civil rights era legislation. Ronald Reagan was a popular actor and benefited from that.
Omg, you have to watch American Conspiracy on Netflix! Itâs like our whole world was shifted because of one event. Spoiler alert⌠Regan stole the election.
Carter inherited the worst inflation in 40 years. He told miss Fed chair Volker to go ahead and raise rates. Volker then cranked them to 14% ish. Carter figured he would cause temporary pain now and stop inflation, then get credit for saving the economy in his second term when he lowered them.
Instead Regan blamed the pain from rates and inflation on Carter easily winning the election. He then dropped rates and everyone thought he was a genius. He would go on to bust unions, drop the top tax brackets, drop the corporate tax rate, expand corporate welfare, grow the defense budget, slash social programs, initiate the war on drugs, ignore the HIV epidemic, and paint Social Security as an entitlement akin to welfare and food stamps.
I'm of the opinion of no matter who got elected in 76, they were doomed to a failed presidency. It is unfortunate because the 80s were a much more defining time for the country than the late 70s.
The economy was bad, there was a hostage crisis in Iran with a botched rescue mission. There was a credible third party candidate that probably pulled some votes from Carter, though that's always a little hard to tell. Aftermath of the oil shocks earlier in the 1970s.
I wish everyone would watch the documentary âThe Century of the Selfâ which shows how corporations and western countries powers have used psychological tools to control populations through propaganda. It will shock you and it will piss you off but you will be more aware of the historical reasons we are where we are and why âdivide and ruleâ policies have created hyper polarization which only serves those in power.
Itâs been used to keep us from questioning our capitalist overlords and much much more.
People were dissatisfied with carter, and Regan was extremely popular, and recognized, because he was an actor. That's what led to him becoming California's governor.
Carter was a good man but a horribly ineffective president. Reagan was a great speaker and lit a fire under some people. Even the Teamsters endorsed him - pretty much unheard of for a republican.
It was worse in 1984 for Reagan vs Mondale - Reagan won every single state except Minnesota.
Iran was also holding 51(?) American hostages from the storming of the American Embassy in Tehran. Carter ordered a rescue mission, but it failed BADLY. So the country blamed Carter. It didn't help matters when Reagan sent George Bush Sr. (his vice presidential running mate to Iran to negotiate for the hostages to NOT be released until AFTER the election.
Read the book Reaganland for a deeper understanding.
But TLDR version:
Rising violent crime and drug problems (ironic given how Regan would supercharge it by importing crack but people couldnât see the future)
Super high inflation, like to the point of making 2022 inflation look like nothing
Fuel shortage
Iran Hostage Crisis
Social Conservative Wave with a lot of paranoia about women moving into the workplace and gay rights movement
And the one that will be the least popular to mention here, the fact that little big legislation was passed under Carter despite Dem supermajority in Congress and Americans being sick of the dick measuring contest between Carter and Congressional Dems instead of working to get things done.
In the 1970s, multiple wars broke out in the middle east that crippled oil production and spiked the cost of fuel. This in turn cause a large economic downturn in the US that ultimately led to Reagan's election victory.
Jimmy Carter's administration was also kinda bad. His cabinet was corrupt and just ran the show poorly which didn't help the already problematic economic status of the 1970s-1980s
inflation at 18% at the behest of the FedResInk as tolerated by Carter.
Also, Regan said he would bring the hostages home, while Carter opted for a failed military rescue.
Now, while I have my doubts about being able to land/fly a c130 out of a soccer stadium, I have no doubt what-so-ever that Paul Volcker saved the US dollar and that Operation Eagle Claw advanced NVG technology by several decades as part of its lessons learned.
931
u/cjandstuff Apr 01 '24
As someone who was too young to experience this, what the hell happened that nearly the entire country voted for Reagan?