I remember my fourth grade teacher pimping McGovern in class back in `72 (man, I’m old).
We have been given a shot reprieve
Time is of the essence
The change will not last forever
🛐🙏✝️
I recall back in the 70’s, teachers would tell you about the typical political model in which communism was on the far left and fascism on the far right. American democracy is just a balance between the two, with Democrats a little to the left of Republicans. But that’s a false model, because what is fascistic about limited government, which is what Republicans believe in? Communism is actually just one form of fascism, since again the government has absolute power. To the far, far right therefore would be anarchy, but we of course don’t want that either. A more accurate representation of their model would therefore be fascism on the far left and anarchy on the far right, with the American form of democracy in the middle.
I was in elementary school and the school held a “mock election.”
Same here, though it was our 3rd grade class. The only two Carter supporters were the teacher (first use of “Ms.” That I remember saving encountered, though I add that she was a great teacher) and the kid (now gay) whose dad was a big time union man. So, 24 for Ford, 2 for Carter. I really followed the 1984 and 1988 races a lot more closely, but it was the 1976 race that really got me into it.
Interesting article. Like the author, I was also for Carter over Ford in 76. That was the first election where I was old enough to vote. And like the author I badly wanted Reagan to win four years later.
Your knowledge of Gerald Ford was from watching SNL.
That was my experience as well. Ford was a stupid bumbling fool. Reinforced day after day by media focus on minor missteps. Compared to Biden though Ford was a ballerina.
Work on fixing the election system, we have very little time to do so. Voter ID, in person voting, ballots tied to a person, and votes not in by 8 pm are rejected.
Carter most resembled our last President. He was a yes man for the powerful.
I remember the 1960 election, age 6. For some unknown reason I liked Nixon, (maybe because the girls in my class liked the handsome Kennedy?).
I was with my dad when he went down to Kennedy campaign office in our town and he put a Kennedy button on me. I remember being mad about that.