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Nixon to Ford to Carter · Saberian History Lectures

0:00
All right, wires on. So before I get to the particulars,
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I kind of want to lay out a broad timeline. So
0:04
you probably want to write this down because
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some of this is in the text and some of it isn't.
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So we left off 1972. Richard Nixon is reelected
0:16
with the widest electoral margin since Monroe
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ran unopposed. He carried every state but Massachusetts
0:23
and Washington DC. So 1972, Nixon reelected.
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During the election of 1972, or prior to November,
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during the campaign of 1972, there was the break
0:46
in at the Watergate Hotel of the Democratic National
0:50
Committee's headquarters at the Watergate Hotel
0:53
in Washington, DC. So this is before the election.
1:05
That scandal, which occurred before the election,
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would carry into the second term of the Nixon
1:11
administration, resulting in his resignation
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in 1974. 1976, a relatively speaking unknown
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governor from the state of Georgia will be elected
1:32
president. So that's Carter is elected in 1976.
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Four years later, Jimmy Carter will lose his
1:39
bid for reelection and Ronald Reagan will be
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elected president of the United States. Okay,
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so 1976 Carter defeats Ford and in 1980 Reagan
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defeats Carter. Now in this space, which if you
2:05
think about it is only eight years, there is
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a large amount of turmoil in the government and
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turmoil in the world. And so the fundamental
2:18
question I have for you is, how did Jimmy Carter,
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who was a relatively speaking unknown democratic
2:24
governor of a small state, become president of
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the United States, and in four short years, how
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did he lose it? So that's where I'm going to
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start off with, or rather, I'm going to kind
2:35
of dial it back. In order to understand the rise
2:39
of Jimmy Carter, you need to understand the fall
2:43
of Richard Nixon. Let's talk about the Watergate
2:45
scandal. There's a lot to it. Even though the
2:49
scandal itself really only lasts about two years,
2:52
it has come to dominate recent history and popular
2:58
culture. Every time somebody's talking about,
3:01
oh, there's a new scandal, they talk about it
3:04
in terms of the next Watergate. I often say it's
3:12
sort of the effects were worse than the event.
3:16
So you have, during the election of 1972, you
3:20
have, and we kind of don't really talk about
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this, but you kind of, for lack of a better word,
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you try and spy on your opponents as best you
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can. And so one of the things that happened was
3:31
people who were connected to the White House
3:35
Chief of Staff through the government bureaucracy,
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through the CIA. were basically what they called
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the Department of Dirty Tricks, for lack of a
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better word. And so what happened was, during
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the campaign in 1972, you have the break -in
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at the Watergate Hotel, which was, it was in
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the Watergate Hotel that the Democratic National
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Committee had their campaign headquarters. Now,
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why do you have your campaign headquarters in
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a hotel? We'll just write this as DNCHQ. That,
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the book doesn't go into in any great detail,
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but here's your basic idea. Think about this
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for a moment, and it's a little awkward because
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most of you don't get into commercial real estate,
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and I don't either, is typically if you're renting
4:27
commercial space from an office building, you're
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investing a lot of money into making that office
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space work for you, and you're usually talking
4:38
like a five, 10 -year lease. running a presidential
4:43
campaign, how long do those last? A year, maybe
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two, then you transition into a government building.
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So what was not uncommon and is not uncommon
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even to this day is what you do is you set up
4:56
local and even national campaign headquarters
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in office space that you lease from a hotel.
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Just because hotels are used to shorter term
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stays, for lack of a better word. And so the
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fact that the DNC had an office space in the
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Watergate Hotel That was not unusual. What was
5:15
unusual was there was a group of people tried
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to break into the DNC headquarters to steal information.
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They got caught. It was a major scandal. And
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part of the reason I think that the scandal was
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pursued was still there were a lot of people
5:27
in the media and in the Democratic Party in general
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who could not believe that Richard Nixon won
5:32
by as wide of a margin as he did. I mean, it
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was an insult to their sense of reality. Now,
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when... The investigation begins. Let me also
5:44
point out, 1972 Nixon is re -elected. His vice
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president is Spiro Agnew. Agnew is going to be
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important a little bit later. Okay, so you have
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two types of investigations. You have the congressional
5:58
investigation led by the Democrats in Congress.
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So you have a congressional investigation and
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you have a Department of Justice investigation
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By the way, who's in charge of the Department
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of Justice? What cabinet appointee is in charge
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of the Department of Justice? The Attorney General.
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But he's the Chief Prosecutor. Who appoints the
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Attorney General? Correct. And the Attorney General
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serves at the pleasure of the President. He is
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a cabinet appointee who is confirmed by the Senate.
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Okay? So... Couple of things start going on.
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The attorney general of his own volition recommends
6:56
an investigation takes place. Nixon fires his
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attorney general. Now, think about this for a
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moment. If you're being investigated and you
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fire the investigator, does that look good for
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you? So Nixon fires his attorney general. His
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sitting vice president, Spiro Agnew, resigns
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in protest. Yes, yeah Cox was the Attorney General
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Agnew resigns in protest By the way, even before
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you get him any type of impeachment doing so
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when you're sitting vice president resigns What
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are you gonna do? You saw the president so it's
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not the end of the world, right? But you need
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a new vice president. Don't you? Well, you're
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not gonna have another federal election so Nixon
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As the president, it is his right to appoint
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a new vice president. So Nixon appoints a member
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of Congress by the name of Gerald Ford. Gerald
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Ford is a Republican member of Congress. Now
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here's the thing that's kind of interesting.
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Is that most presidential appointments are only
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confirmed by the Senate. Okay? Federal judges
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confirmed by the Senate. Secretary of State confirmed
8:12
by the Senate. But since this is the vice presidency,
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Ford has to be confirmed by both the House and
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the Senate. And he is, okay? So, Cox is fired,
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Agnew resigns, Ford is appointed and confirmed.
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Everybody got that so far so good. Part of the
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investigation centers around a very basic idea.
8:42
What did President Nixon know and when did he
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know it? So let's try this on for size. Is it
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possible that, for lack of a better word, people
8:53
in his administration would have broken into
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the Watergate Hotel without his knowledge or
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consent. And if that's the case, would he be
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liable for it? Not at all. But if he was aware
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or in fact complicit in that, then he'd be on
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the hook for it. And so one of the key pieces
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of evidence trying to understand whether or not
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Nixon was trying to cover up the information
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which is engaging in obstruction of justice or
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aiding and abetting in other federal crimes was
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the White House tapes. So I'm going to talk to
9:29
you about the White House tapes. Now, one other
9:31
thing that you have to bear in mind. Nixon did
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have an enemies list of reporters and congress
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people. Some of those lists go back to when?
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If you're Richard Nixon and you're Worried about
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people opposing you. What type of people did
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you oppose in the 1950s? Communists and especially
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if you're Richard Nixon Looking at the press
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and how they covered the protest movement looking
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at the press and how they covered the Vietnam
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War It almost seems as if the press and the protest
10:08
movement are providing Aid and comfort to the
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enemies of the United States whether that's Jane
10:14
Fonda going to Hanoi or whether that is protesters
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waving North Vietnamese flags or what have you.
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And so one of the things that a lot of people
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talk about Nixon's enemies list is this type
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of, you know, evil one -party domestic surveillance
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in a way. It really is a continuation of his,
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for lack of a better word, Manichaean view of
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the world, that you have the free world that
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has to be defended against communist infiltration
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and communist subversion. This had been a fear
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going all the way back to the 1950s. Now, unfortunately
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it carries you no favor with Congress. So, here's
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where the White House tapes come in. So, and
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I don't know how far back it goes. I think it
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goes as far back as Kennedy. They used to actually
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have a recording device in the Oval Office of
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the White House. Now why, if you're the President
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of the United States, would you want a recording
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device in the Oval Office that was always on
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and you never bothered to turn off? In case you
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had a good idea. In case you had a good idea
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or if you had a substantive meeting that you
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wanted to recall. Remember, is it unusual for
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a key business executive or for any governmental
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proceedings, whether that be the judge's chambers
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or an open court or a legislative proceeding,
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is it at all unusual that a record be kept? No.
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Typically, what was the means of keeping that
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record in a courtroom today? How are records
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kept? Because we don't have cameras in every
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courtroom. What do we have? Stenotypists, yes?
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A stenographer will keep a court record of it,
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yes? And so part of it was you had the White
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House, the Oval Office tapes being recorded as
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much a matter of general procedure as anything
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else. And also, even to this day, there's still
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the official White House photographer who runs
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around taking hundreds of pictures every week
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of every president doing everything except maybe
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going to the toilet. President and his dog, president
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signing a bill, awkward moment as president almost
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trips to look out the window. I mean, now a lot
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of them go to the cutting room floor and don't
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get housed in the Smithsonian, but man. The president's
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got his own paparazzi. Now, I mean, the question
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is whether the White House tapes were privileged.
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And so what was that issue was the concept of
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executive privilege because the investigators
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wanted the White House tapes and the White House
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wanted to retain the tapes. Now, if you are the
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president and you're having your conversations
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taped, why would you not want them released to
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the public? Not just that. Think about this for
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a moment. We're not just talking about military
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secrets, which presumably would be transcribed
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and then redacted by the Department of Justice,
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who is also obliged to deal with counter surveillance,
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but also this. Think about this for a moment.
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If you know you're being recorded, are you going
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to be as candid with the leadership? And so there
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is this entire idea of executive privilege that
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If I know everything's going to be recorded,
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I may not be as candid. Because how many of you
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know people who behave differently when they're
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on camera or when they know they're being recorded?
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Now, I'm pretty sure that no one was trying to
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troll President Nixon, you know, when he's being
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recorded, you know, that reminds me of this one
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time. You know, sometimes when people know they're
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going to be recorded, they do ask. Asinine things
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you know you watch that some of those news clips
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are here You got the reporter and you got the
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one dude making faces behind the recorder or
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mooning the camera or what -have -you Anyway
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Okay, so It went to the Supreme Court court ordered
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the tapes to be released there was damage to
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30 seconds of the tape the secretary either deliberately
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or inadvertently cut some stuff out of the tape
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and So that didn't look good Now you're Nixon
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you're under investigation. You've lost the call
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case for your tapes Now let's go to the math.
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You know articles of impeachment have been drawn
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up. So I kind of want to talk to you about the
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impeachment process and I want to go back to
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the map for a moment. That's 1972. That map belies
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certain pieces of information. Here's why. 46
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million people voted for Richard Nixon. 46 million
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people did not vote Republican straight ticket.
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When Nixon is president in 1972, the presidency
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is Republican, the House is Democrat, the Senate
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is Democrat. So one of the things that you have
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to keep in mind is even though you have a Republican
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president, you have a Democratic House and Senate.
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This gets interesting when we start looking at
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impeachment. Here's why. Now, now we get to the
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math. We have talked about impeachment before.
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Who was the first sitting US president to be
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impeached? I know you talked about it in history
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1301. I know your 1301 instructor was an idiot,
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but I'm sure he talked to you about the impeachment
16:08
of Johnson. Andrew Johnson. It was Andrew Johnson.
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Very good. Now, let me get to it. So you may
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have recalled from You may have recalled from
16:22
your 1301 class the impeachment of Andrew Johnson.
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Now, here's the thing. How many chambers of Congress
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do we have? We have how many? Two. You have the
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House and you have the Senate. Okay? To impeach
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a president is like Congress handing down an
16:47
indictment. It requires a simple majority in
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the House. Now, in 1974, which party is the majority
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in the House of Representatives? The Democrats.
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Congress doesn't go Republican until 1994. So
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if you're Nixon, just raw party labels, are you
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going to win this one? Probably not. Probably
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not. Now, the Senate trial... which is closely
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to what's called a pettit jury. A pettit jury
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is the one that actually does the conviction
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or the acquittal. Now, remember the trial of
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Andrew Johnson. Was Andrew Johnson impeached?
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Yes. Was Andrew Johnson convicted? No. He was
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acquitted by one vote. You may remember. So to
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convict a president, a two -thirds majority.
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Now in 1974, the Democrats had a majority in
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the Senate. Did they have a two -thirds majority?
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But if you're a Richard Nixon, are you afraid
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that enough of the Republicans might turn to
18:38
give you the two -thirds majority? So, you're
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a Nixon. You know that the articles of impeachment
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have been drawn up. What do you do? Do you fight?
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Or do you go? You go. So Nixon, knowing he didn't
18:57
have the votes, resigns and he couches it in
19:02
the context of the Cold War. He talks about the
19:07
enemies of the United States, how the chief executive
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could not afford to be distracted and therefore
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he would resign the presidency effective at noon
19:16
and that Gerald Ford would be sworn in as president.
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Now let's go back. So Nixon resigns his office.
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But could he still face criminal prosecution
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as a private citizen? Yes. And so this is why
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in 1974, immediately after Nixon's resignation,
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Gerald Ford's first act was to pardon Nixon.
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Now you're Gerald Ford. You are the first American
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president who was never elected. Even The presidents,
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by succession, in some way or form, were on the
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ticket. Right? They stood for federal election.
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Except for Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr, who
20:02
actually were candidates for president and finished
20:04
runner -up. But we changed that pretty quick,
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didn't we? Why do you pardon Nixon? Oh, if you
20:19
waited long enough, that would have happened.
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Not just... Think about this. Think of the practical
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political expediency. You're the first unelected
20:32
president. Do you really want the trial of the
20:35
century when Richard Nixon is on trial for obstruction
20:37
of justice? Perjury etc etc, or do you just want
20:40
a clean break? Clean break you get the idea and
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so when he pardons Nixon he says in his presidential
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address America's long national nightmare is
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over Some things still remain. Okay, let's go
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to Ford Ford, in many ways, is a, oh, here's
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Nixon as he's getting on the aircraft, as he's
21:11
getting the Marine One to go home. I don't know
21:16
about you, I'd be happy to get out from under
21:19
that too. Ford years, first un -elected president.
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He died in 06. All right, Ford had a couple of
21:25
things going against him. So, everybody got this
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part, yes? Okay, so, sir, yeah. Okay, so, Ford
21:36
administration, here's the thing. Ford is a continuation
21:40
of Nixon in some ways. He negotiates a second
21:43
strategic arms limitation treaty with Brezhnev.
21:50
He vetoes some of the spending bills brought
21:52
to you by the Democratic party in the House and
21:55
in the Senate. Now, a couple of things Ford has
21:57
going against him. Okay, so Ford has pardoned
22:03
Nixon, but Ford also has some unfortunate baggage
22:09
he inherits besides Nixon's scandal. Remember
22:14
the stagflation I was talking about, where the
22:17
currency had become devalued? Remember you had
22:21
the spending cuts, rising taxes, and high interest
22:33
rates. Is that good for an economy? And is it
22:39
good for your, and if your president is having
22:42
a good, bad economy, good for you? No. So you
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have Ford has spent political capital Pardoning
22:50
Nixon. He inherits an economy in shambles. And
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so when he runs for election in 1976, he has
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a couple of other things going against him. He
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also has a primary challenger. So 1976. Primary
23:16
challenger, a man from the West. A man who had
23:20
spoken most eloquently for the policies of Barry
23:24
Goldwater, which was lower taxes, less government
23:27
intervention, and increase in defense spending,
23:30
won Ronald Reagan. So Ronald Reagan also challenged
23:40
the Nixon -Ford legacy of detente as a type of
23:44
appeasement. And so you have the doctrines of
23:47
peace through strength, increasing defense spending.
23:58
and less government intervention. In many ways,
24:03
Goldwater's idea of decreasing taxation and decreasing
24:06
government intervention was ahead of its time.
24:10
Now, that's in the Republican Party itself. The
24:14
Democrats put forward Jimmy Carter, the former
24:23
peanut farmer from Georgia. Jimmy Carter, a graduate
24:28
of the Naval Academy, served in the Navy of some
24:30
distinction. goes back home, is a local politico,
24:37
eventually governor of the state of Georgia.
24:39
He does not have large name recognition, but
24:43
he also doesn't have any big scandals to his
24:46
name. And also Jimmy Carter, to his credit, here's
24:50
what he's able to do. He's able to get the Democratic
24:56
coalition back, because if you look at the election
24:59
of 64 and of 68, What group did not vote Democrat
25:05
that usually voted Democrat? Southern whites.
25:09
What's Jimmy Carter? Southern white. And so what
25:13
Jimmy Carter's able to do, he's able to get the
25:15
southern whites back and to combine it with northern
25:21
liberals and also the new radicals. So again,
25:32
the protest movement hasn't gone away. just because
25:35
the U .S. exited Vietnam, just because Richard
25:39
Nixon is no longer in power. That protest movement,
25:42
whether it be feminism, whether it be socialism,
25:45
is still in a thing. On college campuses, it's
25:50
still a thing in American life. It is still agitating
25:53
to change American society. So let's go to the
26:01
election of 1976. Here's 1976. First look at
26:12
- oh. No, it's not. Hang on. There we go. It's
26:24
thinking about it. Oh, come on. OK, look at the
26:43
electoral spread. Look at the numbers first,
26:46
and then I'll show you the map. Carter wins the
26:51
electoral college by only 57 votes. Close. Look
26:57
at the popular spread, less than 2 million. Look
27:04
at the map. It's not a map that we've seen in
27:10
a while. You'll notice. The West has voted solidly
27:15
Republican from California all the way to the
27:19
Mississippi with the exception of Texas. Texas
27:26
has voted with all of the American South except
27:29
for Virginia. Missouri went blue but Kansas went
27:33
red. Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan went Republican.
27:39
Minnesota, Wisconsin went Democratic. Do you
27:42
see how this is a very It's not a regional map.
27:46
It's very willy -nilly. It's very close. And
27:48
even within those states, it was very close.
27:50
You get the idea. Now why do you suppose that
27:55
is? Here's the part you have to understand. And
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I'm not going to dwell on this too long, but
28:07
it's important. In American electoral politics
28:12
from 1948 to 19... 1996. Party labels were not
28:27
ideologic. Let me say that again. It really isn't
28:33
until 1996 that party labels stop being ideologic.
28:39
Now what I mean by that is this. We cannot look
28:43
at Jimmy Carter and at Gerald Ford as simply
28:46
Republicans or Democrats, simply as liberals
28:48
and conservatives. Here's what I mean by that.
28:50
Within the Democratic Party and within the Republican
28:54
Party, there were conflicts over social issues
28:56
that have now become monochromatic inside of
28:59
parties today. So let me sort of take you through
29:02
the aside so that you can understand what's going
29:04
on here. Okay, I'm a Democrat. There are liberal
29:10
Democrats from the North, so you have Northern
29:14
liberals, and then you have Southern conservatives.
29:20
In the Republican Party, there might be Eastern
29:27
progressives or eastern liberals or eastern progressives
29:34
and western libertarians. So let's try this on
29:39
for size. This is going all the way back to 1972.
29:48
If I'm a libertarian, do I like gun control?
29:52
No, because that's the government getting into
29:55
my stuff. If I'm a southern conservative, do
29:57
I like gun control? No! So these people, and
30:00
I'm just going to use smiley faces and sad faces,
30:03
so you got a sad face for gun control if you're
30:05
a southern conservative member of the Democratic
30:07
Party from Georgia or Texas. You have a sad face
30:10
when it comes to gun control if you're a western
30:11
libertarian. But if you're a northern liberal,
30:17
gun control makes you happy! I mean, not really
30:20
happy, but you get the idea. Let's try abortion
30:31
on for size, for a moment. Were there elements
30:35
of the Democratic Party, if you're a southern
30:37
conservative, do you think abortion is a good
30:38
idea? No, if you're a northern liberal, you're
30:41
okay with abortion. If you're a western libertarian,
30:45
you think what business of it is of the government
30:47
what people do with their bodies. And so you
30:50
had within the Republican Party pro -choice,
30:53
pro -life people. pro -gun and anti -gun people,
30:56
and in the Democratic Party. And so you really
30:59
don't have this ideological purity when it comes
31:01
to guns, when it comes to social issues, really
31:03
until 1996. And so I thought it was kind of ironic,
31:07
and I am going to talk about this just for a
31:09
moment, when Hillary Clinton said in one of the
31:11
Democratic presidential debates that her proudest
31:13
moment was when she made an enemy of the NRA.
31:16
And I said when I heard that, I remember 20 years
31:19
ago when there were Democrats in the NRA. Now,
31:22
are there Democrats in the NRA? Maybe less than
31:25
what I've got on one hand, but do you see what's
31:29
happened? So I should not look at this map as
31:33
Ideologic at this point in American history It's
31:35
not that these people were you know for the massive
31:38
expansion of the welfare state for gun control
31:41
for Roe v. Wade No, it's just they were voting
31:44
for Jimmy Carter because in a stagnating economy
31:51
They didn't want the party in power to stay in
31:53
power And what's interesting is if you look at
31:57
the broad electoral swath, okay, 1960 to 1968,
32:03
between Johnson and Kennedy, it was Democrats
32:05
in the presidency. From 1968 to 1976, it was
32:12
Republicans in the presidency. Oh, by the way,
32:14
have we had one party eight -year runs now? Yes.
32:19
Okay, moving on. Carter is elected president.
32:26
Let me talk to you briefly about Carter. I've
32:27
got 10 minutes to get through a relatively speaking
32:30
short presidency. I don't know if he's actually
32:33
himself short. Actually most of them tend to
32:35
be rather tall. Okay, so 1976. Jimmy Carter is
32:43
president of the United States. A southern governor
32:45
is president of the United States. Couple of
32:56
things going on. And I'm actually going to leave
33:02
this in this mode so I can transition out. limitations.
33:08
Carter was not like LBJ, fancied himself as trying
33:13
to improve American society at home with little
33:15
regard to what was going on in the world. Compare
33:18
that to Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford who negotiated
33:22
nuclear arms treaties, who provided CIA funding
33:25
to reactionary regimes preventing the spread
33:27
of communism, and you sort of get the idea. So
33:30
a couple of things going on. 1977 Carter administration
33:35
returns control of the Panama Canal to the Panamanians.
33:50
During the Carter administration, you have a
33:53
transition in America's foreign policy away from
33:57
communist containment towards a doctrine of universal
34:01
human rights. Now, prima facie, that may sound
34:05
very wholesome and good. Here's the problem.
34:06
If you think about this for a moment, to prevent
34:09
the spread of communism, the United States had
34:12
given money to some really dastardly people who
34:14
had to do some really dastardly things. And why
34:17
do you give dastardly people money to do dastardly
34:20
things? Because the dastardly people have one
34:22
thing going for them. They're not communists.
34:28
As one person said, to prevent the spread of
34:31
communism, I would rather have Satan running
34:33
this country than a communist. You get the idea.
34:37
So, a couple of people that the United States
34:40
provided money to in the Nixon administration.
34:43
You have Augusto Pinochet in Chile. The book
34:46
actually references that in Chapter 28. And the
34:49
Shah of Iran. Well, in Iran. Also, you have the
34:56
US supporting colonial regimes in Africa because
35:00
the African liberation movements, they were afraid
35:02
that they would have ties to communism. This
35:04
is one of the reasons why the United States would
35:07
support the apartheid regime in South Africa
35:09
into the 1990s. Well, Soviet Union doesn't collapse
35:15
until 1991. You get the idea. And so... Some
35:21
of these places, so with the Carter administration
35:24
valuing human rights, the government begins to
35:27
stop support for regimes that were previously
35:29
supported under Eisenhower, Kennedy, LBJ and
35:33
Nixon. The key one is Iran. Let's go to Iran.
35:40
Okay, so 1977, Carter returns to Panama Canal.
35:43
1978, there are rumblings in Iran. 1979, you
35:46
have the Iranian Revolution. The Shah is deposed
35:51
and flees to Egypt. A pro -US monarchy was replaced
36:00
by an anti -US theocracy. But you also have the
36:05
hostage crisis. So students from Tehran University
36:08
stormed the US embassy and take the embassy personnel
36:11
hostage for nearly two years. And so you have
36:17
in the news media countdown of how long the people
36:20
have been held hostage. Now, here's the thing
36:22
that most people don't appreciate. This was a
36:24
breach of 400 years of traditional statecraft.
36:26
In modern times, if you don't like a country,
36:28
what do you do with their embassy staff? You
36:30
don't take them hostage, what do you do? You
36:33
kick them out. Calling hostages goes back to
36:37
cavemen. Nice try. No. And most countries had
36:42
switched from a hostage -style diplomacy to a
36:46
diplomat -style diplomacy, where if the diplomats
36:49
aren't behaving well, you kick them out of the
36:50
country. Now, so if you're the major superpower
36:59
and a third world country is holding your people
37:01
hostage, does that make you look strong? There
37:04
was a rescue effort that was organized. It failed.
37:07
Those helicopters are still in the Iranian desert.
37:09
The people got out, but the helicopters had to
37:11
stay. Also, so that's November, 1979. December,
37:18
1979. Soviet Union invades Afghanistan. The United
37:28
States would not stand for this. They responded
37:31
in the most terse possible terms. They boycotted
37:33
the Moscow Olympics. I'm not kidding. By the
37:45
way, guess who won the Moscow Olympics in a big
37:47
way since the U .S. wasn't showing up? The Russians.
37:52
Alright. Now, here's the part I'm getting into.
37:57
With Iran as a key producer of oil not being
38:01
friendly towards the United States and other
38:04
tumults in the Middle East, you actually have
38:05
an oil crisis creating oil shortages at home.
38:16
And you still have the stagflation that started
38:20
under Nixon continues under Carter. So you still
38:22
have a period of high inflation, high interest,
38:26
high taxation. So if you're the average American
38:31
voting your pocket, are you happy with the Carter
38:33
administration? If you are a nationalist American
38:38
wanting America to regain its strength and place
38:41
in the world? Are you happy with the Carter administration?
38:45
No. And so, and actually I kind of want to link
38:50
this speech to the canvas. I'm not going to do
38:52
it, I'm not going to, I don't have time to air
38:54
it to you in public. He does make this American
38:57
melee speech, and literally, it is not a confidence
39:01
-inspiring speech. The national melee speech
39:03
really was nothing short of rhetorical suicide
39:05
for President Carter. I will share that with
39:08
you in Canvas. But anyway, here are the hostages
39:13
in black and white. If any of you saw the film
39:16
Argo, it references that. So, Reagan runs for
39:22
the Republican nomination again. This time he
39:26
gets it. in the general US election, partially
39:31
because, again, so let's, let me, and I got time
39:36
for this, alright, so if I look at the Democrats
39:39
in 1980, and the Republicans in 1980, double
39:49
of the things you got going on. Let me get to
40:00
Democrats and Republicans. You have Roe v. Wade,
40:06
which while it occurred under Nixon, it starts
40:10
coming into effect and becomes a big issue in
40:13
American politics. By the way, is Roe v. Wade
40:15
still a big issue in American politics? Yes,
40:17
it doesn't go away. You have the school prayer
40:20
case that again makes its way into national life,
40:27
and you have the rise of social Christian conservatism
40:32
trying to take America back to its traditional
40:35
roots, for lack of a better word, or what was
40:36
perceived as its traditional roots. So remember,
40:40
Southern evangelical Christians voted for Jimmy
40:42
Carter in 1976. They go from being Democrats
40:46
to joining the Republicans. So you have Southern
40:51
conservative evangelicals, Reagan had the West,
40:59
and even people in middle America, working class
41:02
folks who were being harmed, by the horrible
41:05
economic conditions of the 1970s, joined the
41:09
Reagan coalition. So basically, what Carter had
41:12
going for him was the protest movement, which
41:15
we can now say as leftists, feminists, and the
41:19
like. So let me show you the map. 1980. Reagan
41:28
wins by about 8 million votes. Popular vote.
41:33
489 electors to 49. Here is the map. On the bright
41:41
side, Jimmy Carter did carry his home state of
41:43
Georgia. He carried Georgia, West Virginia, Maryland,
41:47
and Minnesota. What's interesting about these
41:50
states are, Georgia is his home state, Maryland,
41:53
West Virginia, coal country traditional, West
41:55
Virginia is coal country traditional Democrat,
41:57
Maryland is Port City with some liberal tendencies,
42:02
and then Minnesota. Oh, and Rhode Island, which
42:05
you can barely see it from this part of the map,
42:07
but yes. But again, it's not that ideologically
42:15
the country had moved from the left to the right,
42:17
but rather that they had chosen different leadership.
42:21
What's interesting is throughout all of these
42:23
tumults of the presidency, there were a lot of
42:26
people in Congress who kept their seats no matter
42:30
who was president. And so part of that negotiation,
42:36
that wheeling and dealing was from these regional
42:40
coalitions of parties rather than these ideological
42:44
coalitions of parties. Now, the Reagan administration
42:48
will transform America and will lead to the end
42:52
of the Soviet Union. More to follow.