69 points

A big reason why Ronald Reagan rose to power is because Jimmy Carter thought that he could talk to people like they were adults.

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6 points
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Yes, exactly (and some other shady fuckery too).

So the comparison is very legit indeed (and the benchmark below rock bottom).

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30 points

That’s one take. I don’t think it’s wrong, necessarily, but I watched that debate on YouTube. I agree with Carter, I would have voted for Carter, but Reagan completely wiped the floor with him in terms of communicating to the audience. Carter got up there and gave a lecture, Reagan got up there and sold everybody on a cool new pack of cigarettes.

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13 points

In my opinion it was this speech over a year before that debate that did him in.

Point one: I am tonight setting a clear goal for the energy policy of the United States. Beginning this moment, this nation will never use more foreign oil than we did in 1977 – never. From now on, every new addition to our demand for energy will be met from our own production and our own conservation. The generation-long growth in our dependence on foreign oil will be stopped dead in its tracks right now and then reversed as we move through the 1980s, for I am tonight setting the further goal of cutting our dependence on foreign oil by one-half by the end of the next decade – a saving of over 4-1/2 million barrels of imported oil per day.

Point two: To ensure that we meet these targets, I will use my presidential authority to set import quotas. I’m announcing tonight that for 1979 and 1980, I will forbid the entry into this country of one drop of foreign oil more than these goals allow. These quotas will ensure a reduction in imports even below the ambitious levels we set at the recent Tokyo summit.

Point three: To give us energy security, I am asking for the most massive peacetime commitment of funds and resources in our nation’s history to develop America’s own alternative sources of fuel – from coal, from oil shale, from plant products for gasohol, from unconventional gas, from the sun.

I propose the creation of an energy security corporation to lead this effort to replace 2-1/2 million barrels of imported oil per day by 1990. The corporation I will issue up to $5 billion in energy bonds, and I especially want them to be in small denominations so that average Americans can invest directly in America’s energy security.

Just as a similar synthetic rubber corporation helped us win World War II, so will we mobilize American determination and ability to win the energy war. Moreover, I will soon submit legislation to Congress calling for the creation of this nation’s first solar bank, which will help us achieve the crucial goal of 20 percent of our energy coming from solar power by the year 2000.

These efforts will cost money, a lot of money, and that is why Congress must enact the windfall profits tax without delay. It will be money well spent. Unlike the billions of dollars that we ship to foreign countries to pay for foreign oil, these funds will be paid by Americans to Americans. These funds will go to fight, not to increase, inflation and unemployment.

Point four: I’m asking Congress to mandate, to require as a matter of law, that our nation’s utility companies cut their massive use of oil by 50 percent within the next decade and switch to other fuels, especially coal, our most abundant energy source.

Point five: To make absolutely certain that nothing stands in the way of achieving these goals, I will urge Congress to create an energy mobilization board which, like the War Production Board in World War II, will have the responsibility and authority to cut through the red tape, the delays, and the endless roadblocks to completing key energy projects.

We will protect our environment. But when this nation critically needs a refinery or a pipeline, we will build it.

Point six: I’m proposing a bold conservation program to involve every state, county, and city and every average American in our energy battle. This effort will permit you to build conservation into your homes and your lives at a cost you can afford.

I ask Congress to give me authority for mandatory conservation and for standby gasoline rationing. To further conserve energy, I’m proposing tonight an extra $10 billion over the next decade to strengthen our public transportation systems. And I’m asking you for your good and for your nation’s security to take no unnecessary trips, to use carpools or public transportation whenever you can, to park your car one extra day per week, to obey the speed limit, and to set your thermostats to save fuel. Every act of energy conservation like this is more than just common sense – I tell you it is an act of patriotism.

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10 points
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I mean, he was right. Peeking at the history of the 1970s energy crises, it looks like it was the right medicine at the right time. I think maybe the problem was threefold:

  1. Asking Americans to be uncomfortable. By this point, I’m sure it was already a preposterous proposition, especially to boomers, who were the first generation that grew up with mainstream car culture. They also grew up accustomed to a very high standard of living compared to their predecessors.

  2. It looks like the energy crisis only continued to worsen as the US went into the election. That probably didn’t help. I’m not sure how much of that was the result of Carter’s actions here, but I’m guessing that this speech left him very little room to displace responsibility.

  3. Too much too fast. Especially given that there’d already been an energy crisis before his presidency, it seems like it would have been prudent to start working towards some of these goals well in advance of crunch time. By the time 1978 rolled around, he was (we were) already under the gun.

Would you agree that’s accurate?

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3 points

A coherent, intelligent speech aimed at thinking adults. How far we’ve fallen. 😭

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150 points

I hate that Reagan is supposed to be the benchmark here. That motherfucker set us on this path all those years ago by abandoning the great society view; there’s so much that’s fucked in the US today that can be traced back to him. The only thing I’ll ever give him good credit for is his opposition to nuclear weapons.

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39 points

I will say, this is EXCELLENT for my “that’ll show Dad” collection

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6 points

I don’t think I take your meaning

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27 points

They are implying a collection of various items, memes or otherwise, that contain facts, comparisons, or perhaps even philosophical quandaries that may stump, refute, or put into question their father’s staunch right wing stance

Or they’re looking to prove their dad right that they collect good memes, 50/50 chance

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16 points

He had the good decency to die as well.

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19 points

Yes, but after he’d already done as much damage as he could, not when he received a personal invitation.

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7 points

That motherfucker set us on this path all those years ago

Your path was set looooong before Reagan.

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9 points

He popularized the anti-working class agenda among the masses.

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8 points
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The founding of our country required a compromise that counted slaves as Three-Fifths of a person, just so that the conservative South could get greater representation in the House.

Those slaves, of course, would enjoy the protections and security that the Constitution offered as a result!

J/k they were fucked both literally and figuratively.

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3 points
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If anything, the New Deal and wealth accrued through rapid industrialization by becoming the world’s number one weapons manufacturer while taking little to no infrastructural damage during WW2 seem like anomalies.

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5 points

Reagan actively courted the Religious Right, which as everyone knows, was a bad idea for democracy.

Those fuckers do not compromise, because they want theocracy.

Now, the fact that there was a religious right in the first place is a whole other cn of worms.

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3 points

If you wish you carve a path from scratch, first you must create the universe.

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29 points

Imagine being worse than Ronald regan

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4 points

He’s his sequel. When has a sequel ever been better?

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1 point

Reportedly 22 Jump Street

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2 points
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Turns out it took someone becoming Hitler for someone to be worse.

And eouldn’t you know it, the Heritage Foundation played a big part in both of them coming to power.

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1 point

Trump is a symptom of the Reagan Revolution. A vulture come to feast on the carcass.

The compete societal capitulation to the whims of capitalism that was the Reagan/Welch revolution destroyed this nation, don’t give Trump that much credit.

It just took the body awhile to hit the floor. I’d argue that was Citizens United.

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10 points

Both are awful

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9 points

Apart from everything else, those three words alone should put him out of a job, but y’all are to fucking weak.

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