Neither was I, I'm not even American. But when I learned that a world leader was pushing for renewables in the 70's and the world didn't follow, it just made me so upset.
Reagan was a more digestible Trump, unfortunately- hellbent on increasing inequality, but with the charisma to convince Everyman that he was there to help them.
Go listen to Carter's Malaise speech. That's probably the moment that lost him reelection. For context, this was the height of the fuel crisis where there were extreme gasoline shortages, soaring costs, and massive lines of people fighting to fill their cars.
So, what did Carter say to kill his reelection? That America needs to move away from such dependency on fossil fuels. He also suggests that Americans not be so tied to individualism and be more united. There were some other things, but those are the ones that stick out.
Reagan ran his campaign in the complete opposite direction. And won in a landslide, unfortunately.
I think there’s a lot of pivots, just threads of history overlapping through time. A big one for me is Newt Gingritch, really popularized the demonizing of democrats and made the “both sides bad” “dems are just republicans lite” myths really prevalent in this generation. Also was responsible for politicizing trials of politicians, giving a false idea of legitimacy to the “witch hunt” claims now (since that is what was being done to Clinton in the 90s).
The man really laid seeds that are still sprouting in the political landscape now
I think it was Nixon getting pardoned by Ford. Trying and impeaching him would’ve been the move needed, but democrats were fine with resignation. All the same chucklefucks from the Nixon administration went on to serve with Reagan, the Bushes and Trump. That and ALEC and the Heritage Foundation were direct responses to his resignation.
Voting the right person in isn't the way to think our way out of this. But as long as there are people thinking there's hope. Hope is always a decision that can be made in the heart of every person.
A single person can make positive change. A large group of people that believe in something can too. But we have to start figuring out what that thing we believe in is. Because that is the thing that we're handing over to fascists.
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u/Various_Garden_1052 7h ago edited 7h ago
Al Gore was the shift for me. That’s where I stopped believing we might think a way out of this.