{"id":3816,"date":"2008-12-15T20:41:05","date_gmt":"2008-12-16T01:41:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=3816"},"modified":"2008-12-15T21:32:25","modified_gmt":"2008-12-16T02:32:25","slug":"jimmy-can-obama-borrow-that-yellow-cardigan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=3816","title":{"rendered":"Jimmy, Can Obama Borrow That Yellow Cardigan?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Okay, so maybe we’re not<\/em> going into another Great Depression. Maybe That 70’s Show offers us a better glimpse.<\/p>\n

\n

Actually, the year that offers the closest historical parallels<\/a> to the present might be neither 1932 nor 1980 but 1976, and that analogy helps us understand the directions in which the country will be moving. Both in government and opposition, people might want to hold off on planning for the next New Deal, still less for a coming generation of liberal hegemony. In three or four years, the main political fact in this country could well be a ruinous crisis of Democratic liberalism.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The parallels are amusing if not cause for concern.<\/p>\n

\n

So disaffected was bicentennial America that it sought leaders unconnected to the establishment. In Jimmy Carter, voters found a candidate whose main qualifications were his lack of experience and connections within the Beltway or corporate worlds. Like Barack Obama, Carter claimed to rise above failed partisanship, while his New South background allowed him to symbolize racial healing. Carter, like Obama, sold himself mainly on the virtues of his character. He presented himself as a man of simple honesty, faith, and decency, and his lack of a track record allowed voters to see in him what they wanted, however far-fetched those hopes might be. If they hadn\u2019t believed it, they wouldn\u2019t have seen it with their own eyes. Above all, Carter promised change, a message that carried weight as long as its details remained nonspecific. The problem with messiahs from nowhere is that when they do exercise power, people discover to their horror what their leader\u2019s actual views and talents are. The disillusion can be dreadful.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Gulp.<\/p>\n

And as they did in 1976, Democrats now show every sign of repeating the blunders that led to a generation-long discrediting of liberalism.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Hee hee hee.<\/p>\n

But if liberals seem so determined to repeat the mistakes of that era, then we have at least a plausible sketch of the coming Obama administration\u2014of its rise and ruin.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Obama may have been right. They are the people we’ve<\/em> been waiting for…<\/p>\n

…to illustrate to those that weren’t paying attention: what happens when Liberals have the helm.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Okay, so maybe we’re not going into another Great Depression. Maybe That 70’s Show offers us a better glimpse. Actually, the year that offers the closest historical parallels to the present might be neither 1932 nor 1980 but 1976, and that analogy helps us understand the directions in which the country will be moving. Both […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":228,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20,25,51],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3816","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-democrats","category-history-and-its-making","category-liberal-tyranny"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3816","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/228"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3816"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3816\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3816"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3816"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3816"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}