As we celebrate Barack Obama’s second term victory, and as we thank Bill Clinton for his super efforts for Obama, crucial to Obama’s victory, we can have a wistful moment and wonder:
How would America be different if Jimmy Carter had won a second term as President in 1980?
Ronald Reagan would never have been President, just be seen as a mediocre, second rate actor on Death Valley Days and the General Electric Theater on television, and a few good movies in Hollywood, and a mixed record as two term Governor of California. We would not have him being seen as an icon, a god like figure, totally misrepresented by those who adore him!
We would not have George H. W. Bush as Vice President for eight years, and then be the successor in office after Reagan left.
We would not have had George W. Bush as President, and we would not be speculating about Jeb Bush as possibly a candidate for the 2016 Presidential Election.
We would have had a much more responsive, sympathetic reaction to the rise of the AIDS epidemic in the early 1980s, and would have saved many lives in the process.
We would not have had a tripling of the national debt, as Carter was very tight fiscally, and added very little to the national debt.
We would have had a President who would have continued his great environmental work into a second term.
We would not have allowed the rich to get richer, and the poor to get poorer, and the maldistribution of wealth to accelerate, and then again occur again under George W. Bush.
We would not have seen the decline of labor unions, caused by Ronald Reagan being our President.
We would have had Vice President Walter Mondale having a much better opportunity to be our President in 1984, a continuation of the tradition and principles of Hubert Humphrey and Minnesota progressivism.
The Iran hostage seizure crisis would have been resolved sooner with Carter having defeated Reagan in November 1980.
The early 1980s would have seen further promotion of human rights, a policy backtracked by Ronald Reagan.
There would have been no friendship with Saddam Hussein in Iraq, and no backing of the South African Apartheid regime.
These are just 12 ways life would have been different if Jimmy Carter had been reelected in 1980. And Carter would not have been constantly attacked and ridiculed as a failed President if he had served a second term.
Oh well……