Today marks the anniversary of Jimmy Carter’s deeply unpopular “Malaise speech,” which actually was not deeply unpopular and actually never used the word “malaise.”
Among a whirl of "I warned you...I told you but..." thoughts and charges, the paragraph from Carter's speech that begins "We are at a turning point in our history. There are two paths to choose." is one that should be engraved somewhere. He warned us. Reagan was the response and we've gone seriously downhill ever since. I'm afraid we haven't yet reached bottom.
And that response reached its apotheosis and logical end point with President Trump, and now the Marjorie Taylor Greene-run House. At least I hope its the end point. It can't get any worse, right? Right?
Honestly, I'm not so sure that it can't get worse. An ex-president convicted of rape who tried to overthrow an election, who has been criminally indicted twice with more to come. In 2015-2016, if this had happened, it would be all over the news 24/7 and that politician's career would be over. In a few short years, we're at a point where he is the leading contender in his party.
And the second place contender picks fights with businesses he doesn't like, bans books, intimidates teachers, and attacks marginalized people. I just saw this morning that Ramaswamy is now tied with DeSantis in the polls for the #2 spot. Ramaswamy wants to raise the voting age to 25.
On top of this, MTG was showing porno picks of Hunter Biden on the House floor. When I commented about her hypocrisy on twitter (she cheated on her husband with multiple men at her gym), I received a tidal wave of tweets calling me a pedophile.
Bottom line: I don't see it getting better. With all the lies ("disinformation" cleans it up too much) on youtube, cable "news," and coming soon - AI deep fakes - I think the best we can hope for is that it doesn't get much worse.
It always seemed to me that President Carter was a thoughtful man who was willing to look at new ideas and solutions. Of course, he was not charismatic and asked people to consider things outside of their own self interests. From my reading on U.S. history, that has never been a popular stance except in the case of war. It's difficult to be optimistic about our future, given the trajectory since 1980 but I want to try!
Thank you for another example of "confused memory" history and for providing facts.
Among a whirl of "I warned you...I told you but..." thoughts and charges, the paragraph from Carter's speech that begins "We are at a turning point in our history. There are two paths to choose." is one that should be engraved somewhere. He warned us. Reagan was the response and we've gone seriously downhill ever since. I'm afraid we haven't yet reached bottom.
Amen.
And that response reached its apotheosis and logical end point with President Trump, and now the Marjorie Taylor Greene-run House. At least I hope its the end point. It can't get any worse, right? Right?
Honestly, I'm not so sure that it can't get worse. An ex-president convicted of rape who tried to overthrow an election, who has been criminally indicted twice with more to come. In 2015-2016, if this had happened, it would be all over the news 24/7 and that politician's career would be over. In a few short years, we're at a point where he is the leading contender in his party.
And the second place contender picks fights with businesses he doesn't like, bans books, intimidates teachers, and attacks marginalized people. I just saw this morning that Ramaswamy is now tied with DeSantis in the polls for the #2 spot. Ramaswamy wants to raise the voting age to 25.
On top of this, MTG was showing porno picks of Hunter Biden on the House floor. When I commented about her hypocrisy on twitter (she cheated on her husband with multiple men at her gym), I received a tidal wave of tweets calling me a pedophile.
Bottom line: I don't see it getting better. With all the lies ("disinformation" cleans it up too much) on youtube, cable "news," and coming soon - AI deep fakes - I think the best we can hope for is that it doesn't get much worse.
If you're ever struggling for an idea, just snatch a headline from "Our Dumb Century" and explain its backstory.
Honestly, this is a brilliant idea.
I just ordered the book. Should be fun, entertaining, enlightening, and sad all at the same time.
It always seemed to me that President Carter was a thoughtful man who was willing to look at new ideas and solutions. Of course, he was not charismatic and asked people to consider things outside of their own self interests. From my reading on U.S. history, that has never been a popular stance except in the case of war. It's difficult to be optimistic about our future, given the trajectory since 1980 but I want to try!
Thank you for another example of "confused memory" history and for providing facts.
Thank you. Such a vivid fork in the road.