We often like to say, “history repeats itself.” This is useful, but never absolute (I prefer to say “historians repeat themselves”). No two historical events are ever exactly the same, never arise from the precise same historical circumstances or environment, and thus can never be truly “repetitive.” However, there are certain eternal principles of action that, if continually duplicated, will frequently produce similar results. If you beat your head against a wall every day, don’t be surprised if you end up with a headache every day. In this way, history can “repeat itself.”
We do see, in history, certain happenings that parallel each other. Some events are alike in many respects and can lead to similar outcomes. When we look at the 1980 presidential election, and compare it with the upcoming 2024 contest, we can perceive several resemblances that could give Republicans a measure of hope. I want to discuss a few of these “parallels,” but also, as a warning, mention a major difference. These parallels and differences make a concomitant result possible, but not certain by any means.
First, some parallels.
1. Carter and Biden—two of the worst presidents in American history. Historians like to take “polls” and “rank” the presidents as to who the great, the mediocre, and the failures were. Since most historians are liberals, their polls are virtually worthless. My poll wouldn’t look anything like any Harvard history professor’s. By every possible, intelligent standard, Jimmy Carter was a failure as president of the United States, domestically and internationally. Joe Biden has been the same. America has had 46 Presidents, and they should both be at, or very near, the bottom of the “greatness” scale.
So, in both 1980 and 2024, we have failed presidents desiring a second term; it is, of course, not guaranteed yet that Democrats will give Biden that opportunity. But he wants it, for sure. These two election years have that in common.
2. Perceived American weakness abroad, economic malaise at home. Nobody around the world fears Joe Biden, indeed, he is being mocked in many places. The world is not a safer place today than it was in 2021 when he became president. And, concomitantly, the world was not more secure in 1980 than it was in 1977 when Jimmy Carter was inaugurated. The Iranian hostage crisis made Carter look weak, and Americans didn’t like it. Biden hasn’t solved any international disturbances, he screams for more taxpayer money for a useless and futile Ukrainian war, he is clueless how to handle the Israeli-Hamas conflict, our greatest enemy (China) is his buddy, and his open border policy is beginning to irritate even some Democrats. Domestically, Biden is trying to tout his “low unemployment rate” and “GDP” growth, but the numbers are, at best, being skewed, and middle-class Americans sense and know the economy is not good. And that it’s Biden’s fault. The parallels here to Carter’s “stagflation” in 1980 are unmistakable.
3. The Republicans are nominating a “conservative, pro-American” candidate. Ronald Reagan was a true conservative, of this there is no doubt. Donald Trump says many of the right things that have gotten the Republican “base” excited about his candidacy again.
So, some distinct “parallels”—a failed, weak liberal Democratic President against a feisty, conservative pro-American Republican. 1980 and 2024. Reagan won in a landslide. Let’s hope history repeats itself in that way.
But there is at least one decided difference that needs to be mentioned.
1. America isn’t the same country in 2024 that it was in 1980. The leftward drift of the nation in the last 40 years is unmistakable. There are nightmares happening today that we never even dreamed about in 1980, and would never have been tolerated, even by Democrats: drag queens, child mutilation, pedophilia, transgenderism, open borders, political oppression of opposition—and a host of other anti-Christian and anti-American activities. These are staples of the Democratic Party now; they certainly were NOT in 1980. Obviously, America has moved much farther into globalism and hedonism in the last 40 years. This year’s election is being held in a far different environment, nationwide, than in 1980. Even Ronald Reagan would have difficulty getting elected in this current moral and anti-American climate.
This problem arises from the fact that we have lost the education system. The 1960s radicals became the college professors of the 1980s and beyond, and thus the last two generations of American youth have been propagandized by godless, Leftist ideology. Normal, decent Americans, and churches, didn’t realize what was going on in the classroom, and we’ve only just begun to wake up to it. But now, for the “millennials,” it's too late. They have been grounded in far left-wing ideology, and the Democratic Party is now their home. These 1960s Leftists were anti-American, anti-Christian, anti-history, anti-science, and were globalists, Marxists, and pro-licentiousness and promiscuity. And, again, they pilfered America’s education system. We are seeing the disastrous fruits of it today.
The modern Democratic Party, which never was terribly moral to begin with, has become the entrenched home of these brainwashed masses. The Democrats’ power and positions come from these people, and they aren’t going to go back to normalcy and decency—power is the temptation they cannot resist. So, we find a completely different “zeitgeist” in America in 2024 than in 1980. Whether the country has swung so far to the Left as to be no longer capable of electing a traditional, pro-American president is what we will find out in 2024. I can’t answer that question. Only November can.
Thus, we will have a largely conservative, pro-American candidate running against a miserably failing leftist president. That combination, in 1980, led to 12 years of Republican presidencies. Let’s hope that parallel holds up. But it IS a different country now, and whether enough decent Americans exist to still save the country is the matter to be decided.
How will history handle this one?
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