"A Better Ex-President Than President"

"Businessman, Navy officer, evangelist, politician, negotiator, author, woodworker, citizen of the world--Carter forged a path that still challenges political assumptions and stands out among the 45 men who reached the nation's highest office. The 39th president leveraged his ambition with a keen intellect, deep religious faith and prodigious work ethic, conducting diplomatic missions into his 80s and building houses for the poor well into his 90s."

Bill Barrow of the Associated Press reports the death of former U.S. president Jimmy Carter.

Jos Joseph at The Hill writes that "Jimmy Carter was the Christian most politicians pretend to be."

Lindsay M. Chervinsky at The Bulwark adds that "Jimmy Carter redefined his legacy after his presidency."

But Jonathan Schlefer at The Nation contends that by "[t]urning sharply toward neoliberalism (before that term was commonplace) and weaponizing markets, [Carter] set the US economy on its path toward lousy working-class wages and steeper financial crises."

"His Biggest Political Battle of His Life with Weapons That no Longer Worked"

"Four years later, Michael Dukakis declared that 'this election is not about ideology, it is about competence.' In the next cycle, Bill Clinton declared himself 'a different kind of Democrat' and jettisoned some of his party's positions about crime and welfare. Al Gore began his political life as a centrist, much in the model of Clinton."

Jeff Greenfield at Politico calls Walter Mondale "The Last Old-School Democrat."

"A Propaganda Effort"

"Critics will quibble that these documents don't prove the actual specifics of the long-alleged 'October Surprise.' This is true. According to the Times, they don't show Reagan striking a deal with the Iranians to delay the release of the American hostages until after the election, but simply working behind the scenes to thwart negotiations to free them. Perhaps someone out there exists who thinks this is better."

Branko Marcetic in a 2020 Jacobin article writes about revelations about the 1980 presidential election from the papers of David Rockefeller.

"Fabricated the World as He Wanted to See It, in Ways Unprecedented at the Time but Which Have Become All Too Familiar in Years Since"

"But Reagan was also a brilliant politician. He had a performer's grasp of character and humor as well as an instinctive sense of when to micromanage. Several times in the book, Perlstein reproduces Reagan's own painstaking revisions to the work of his speechwriters, rewrites that often had little to do with content and everything to do with rhythm, cadence, rhetorical inflection. Even more than 40 years later, the folksy charm drips from the page. Reagan's acting career is often referenced through middlebrow fare like Knute Rockne, All American and kitsch like Bedtime for Bonzo, but his longest-running role was as the host of General Electric Theater. He was a pitchman, and it was this skill that he most effectively put to use in his post-acting life."

Jack Hamilton at Slate reviews Rick Perlstein's Reaganland: America's Right Turn, 1976-1980.

"America's Economic Illness Has a Name"

"This sickness, not so much the product of venal interests as of a complex and long-term web of changes in government and private industry, now manifests itself in myriad ways: a housing market that is bifurcated and dependent on government life support, a retirement system that has left millions insecure in their old age, a tax code that favors debt over equity. Debt is the lifeblood of finance; with the rise of the securities-and-trading portion of the industry came a rise in debt of all kinds, public and private. That's bad news, since a wide range of academic research shows that rising debt and credit levels stoke financial instability. And yet, as finance has captured a greater and greater piece of the national pie, it has, perversely, all but ensured that debt is indispensable to maintaining any growth at all in an advanced economy like the U.S., where 70% of output is consumer spending. Debt-fueled finance has become a saccharine substitute for the real thing, an addiction that just gets worse. (The amount of credit offered to American consumers has doubled in real dollars since the 1980s, as have the fees they pay to their banks.)"

Rana Foroohar at Time in 2016 explains the scourge of "financialization."

And David Dayen at The Nation shows how private equity killed Toys "R" Us.

The Last Republican

"He supported the Equal Rights Amendment, freedom of choice on abortion and food-stamp programs. His reversal of support for the Vietnam War by the early 1970s and his early call for President Richard Nixon's resignation during the Watergate scandal placed him in sharp relief against a growing conservatism in the Republican Party."

Anne Kenderdine at the Chicago Tribune writes an obituary for John Anderson.

Chris Ladd at Forbes asks, "How did the Republican Party become a dangerous cult?"

And at New York, Jonathan Chait describes the "Republican War on Economics."

"Habitat For Humanity Investigated For Working Conditions After 92-Year-Old Laborer Collapses On Site"

"At press time, witnesses reported seeing the gaunt old man being forced onto a plane to go dig wells and lay pipe at a rural African project site just hours after being released from the hospital."

From The Onion.

"What Was Once Deemed Irresponsible by Some Soon Became the Norm"

"On Election Night in 1980, Ronald Reagan's victories in the East made him the clear winner, even before voting had finished in the West. TV networks declared that Reagan had defeated Jimmy Carter--and Carter had even conceded--while polls were still open in parts of the country.
"'There was an uproar in the West... when NBC News led its two rivals in calling the election for Ronald Reagan at 8:15 p.m. Eastern time, almost three hours before the voting ended in California and other Pacific Coast states,' David Broder wrote in The Washington Post in April 1981. 'There were reports of people leaving the lines outside polling places, of drivers on their way to the polls going home instead. There were accusations from losers of close local races that the broadcasts had cost them the election.'"

Callum Borchers in The Washington Post looks at controversies over voter projections on election day, then and now.

"In 1974, Young Liberals Did Not Perceive Financial Power as a Threat"

"Over the next 40 years, this Democratic generation fundamentally altered American politics. They restructured 'campaign finance, party nominations, government transparency, and congressional organization.' They took on domestic violence, homophobia, discrimination against the disabled, and sexual harassment. They jettisoned many racially and culturally authoritarian traditions. They produced Bill Clinton's presidency directly, and in many ways, they shaped President Barack Obama's.                    
"The result today is a paradox. At the same time that the nation has achieved perhaps the most tolerant culture in U.S. history, the destruction of the anti-monopoly and anti-bank tradition in the Democratic Party has also cleared the way for the greatest concentration of economic power in a century."

Matt Stoller in The Atlantic explains "How Democrats Killed Their Populist Soul."

"Once Again Rendered a Prophet Without Honor"

"On April 16, in Los Angeles, Chairman Brock assured Reagan that he now opposed the election reform package. An issue of the RNC magazine First Monday ran an article on 'Fraud and Carter's Voter Registration Scheme'; then subsequently, under Brock's own byline, another headlined the 'Democratic Power Grab.' John Rhodes, after what The Washington Post called 'unremitting opposition for his original stand,' directed his House Republican Policy Committee to adopt a statement of formal opposition. When the first item on Carter’s reform agenda, extending public financing to congressional elections, came up for consideration, New Right organizer Richard Viguerie drummed up one of his patented direct-mail scare campaigns, and the measure was filibustered to death. The other items expired soon after: a more perfect democracy, sacrificed on the altar of right-wing political expedience."

Rick Perlstein in The Washington Spectator brings up Jimmy Carter's doomed 1977 proposals for expanding voter participation.

"So Is It Fair to Say That Obama Is the Most Liberal President of the Past Half Century?"

"If you were to call him the most liberal president since LBJ, you'd be right. There's really not much question about it.
"But that's not because he's some kind of wild-eyed lefty. It's because there have only been two other Democratic presidents in the meantime, and both of them were relatively conservative. It's easy to forget now, but Jimmy Carter's strength in the 1976 Democratic primaries was largely based on his appeal to evangelical Christians. This spawned the ABC movement—Anybody But Carter—midway through the primaries, but it was motivated not by Carter's liberalism, but specifically by a fear among liberal Democrats that Carter was too conservative for the party. And he was. In office, Carter governed mostly from the center left, infamously opening himself up to a crippling primary challenge in 1980 from Ted Kennedy.
"Ditto for Bill Clinton, who explicitly ran and governed as a centrist liberal."


Kevin Drum at Mother Jones discusses relative political positions of recent Democrats.

"This Campaign May Now Be Romney’s to Lose"

"And I suspect—or should I say, fear—that the reason the polls moved so much is that there were a lot of voters who had tuned Obama out as a result of the bad economy. They were ready to vote against him so long as Romney passed a reasonable threshold, which he did. We’ve seen this before in presidential campaigns: in 1980, Americans were looking for an excuse to vote against the incumbent, Jimmy Carter, and so what mattered most in the debates was that Reagan didn’t look like a right-wing maniac. In 2008, Americans were looking for an excuse to vote against the de facto incumbent, John McCain, and so what mattered most in the debates was that Obama didn’t look like a novice. If the debates are really about people disillusioned with Obama becoming comfortable with Romney, it doesn’t really matter that Obama did better than Romney tonight because Romney did well enough. He again and again reminded Americans that the economy is worse than Obama said it would be, and he offered some kind of plan to make it better."

Peter Beinart at The Daily Beast worries that Mitt Romney now has the inside track for election.

"It's October, So It Must Be Time For a Surprise"

"In the end, the Republican plan didn't work and the letters were never released. Why? Perhaps because Wendell Willkie decided it was beneath him. Perhaps because the Republicans were worried it would cause a backlash. Or perhaps it was because Willkie had a mistress and FDR made it clear that two could play the October Surprise game. Whatever the reason, the letters stayed in their vault and Roosevelt ended up winning the election by 5 million votes."

Kevin Drum at Mother Jones runs through past "October Surprises."

"The Next American Capitalism"

"The failed Reagan-Clinton version of American capitalism was just one of half a dozen models that we Americans have tried and discarded. As methods of organizing production in the real economy, there have always been alternatives in the U.S. to the shareholder-obsessed corporation, including somewhat exotic ones like producer cooperatives and public-private hybrids. The U.S. had a banking system only a few decades ago that was an appropriately dull utility."

Michael Lind in Salon wonders what direction the political economy will take.

Waiting for the Great Leap Forward

"To be sure, the last 30 years have had plenty of problems—corruption, crackdowns on dissidents, environmental degradation, unequal educational opportunities and a failing rural health system. Chinese leaders lacking confidence in their ability to maintain public order are not likely to listen to Western advice on how to handle human rights, minorities and dissidents. China will move at its own pace, but Deng’s revolution demonstrated that it is able to take positive lessons from the West."

Ezra F. Vogel in The New York Times argues that sixty years after the creation of the People's Republic of China, "the true revolution belongs to Deng Xiaoping."

Obit Overview

The Los Angeles Times publishes obituaries for Hollywood columnist Army Archerd, comedy writer Larry Gelbart, agriculturalist Norman Borlaug, Carter administration press secretary Jody Powell, actor Patrick Swayze, comedian Henry Gibson, and singer Mary Travers.

"I’ll Spend the Goddamn Money"

"But even if Obama fails, the authors offer one large consolation. There is an art to losing, too — in a way that can tee up the issue for future presidents. Truman lost but nonetheless redefined the terms of debate, setting the stage for Medicare (which is why Johnson honored Truman when he signed it into law). Compare him with Clinton, who walked away from the wreckage of his health care plan and rarely mentioned the subject again. According to the authors, this allowed opponents to gain control over the spin and history, so that the Democrats’ signature cause slipped out of political sight for a decade."

Robert B. Reich in The New York Times reviews David Blumenthal and James A. Morone's The Heart of Power: Health and Politics in the Oval Office.

The Lion Sleeps Tonight

John M. Broder in The New York Times reports the death of Edward M. Kennedy.

Andrew Sullivan writes an appreciation in The Sunday Times.

Shakedown 1979

"Self-sufficiency, discipline, sacrifice, conservation, independence, the striving for meaning and purpose beyond material wealth. All of these characteristics were once associated with conservatism, and they were all part of a speech given by a man who was naval officer, farmer and large landowner, small businessman, Sunday school teacher, and Southerner."

Sean Scallon in The American Conservative argues that Jimmy Carter's "Crisis of Confidence" speech was "one of the most conservative presidential statements of the last 30 years."

Up from Liberaltarianism

"Note that almost all of the policy proposals that excite the American public are exactly the sort of old-fashioned, 'paleoliberal' spending programs or systems of government regulation that are supposed to be obsolete in this era of privatization, deregulation and free-market globalization, according to neoliberals and libertarians. Bill Clinton to the contrary, the public clearly does not think that 'the era of big government is over.' Nor does the public show any interest in the laundry lists of teeny-weeny tax credits for this and that that neoliberals love to propose, to appear compassionate without spending real money. The public wants the middle-class welfare state to be rounded out by a few major additions--chiefly, healthcare and childcare--and the public also wants the government to grow the economy by investing in public works and favoring companies that locate their production facilities inside the U.S. There, in a sentence, is a program for a neo-Rooseveltian party that could effect an epochal realignment in American politics."

Michael Lind in Salon offers a way forward for an emerging Democratic majority.