In 1980, Jimmy Carter told America the truth. Ronald Reagan told us a lie.

[Ardent15]

And voting Americans rejected the truth, and bought into the stupid fucking lie.

[laughingliberal]

1. And they are still buying it today. nt

[Greyhound]

7. I really should start reading replies before making my own...

:blush:

[laughingliberal]

9. Not a problem. Some things bear repeating. Do you think the current support for Reaganism is due to

an ignorance that this is what we are seeing or is it because we now have a whole bunch of supply side Democrats?

[Greyhound]

11. I think the biggest single factor is age.

The "30-years-and-still-counting Big Lie campaign" has been devastatingly effective, as has the open collusion between both political parties and the corporatocracy, but most important, IMO, we have a third generation being born that has no idea of what America was. Combine that with nostalgia for the way it never was, and you have about half the voting public walking around mindlessly repeating The Big Lies.

I was in a store the other day and saw a magazine (GQ?) with the return of Gordon Geko on the cover. Eew.

[musette_sf]

2. I tried and tried and tried to tell my friends

what Reagan was all about, to no avail.

[Drunken Irishman]

3. Mondale did the same thing in 1984.

[Captain Hilts]

4. People often vote for style, not substance. nt

[Ozymanithrax]

5. There is no contest when a beautiful lie competes with an ugly truth.

[Greyhound]

6. And we're still buying it today, wholesale! n/t

[DearAbby]

8. I am proud to say, I voted for Carter TWICE!

Good man.

[laughingliberal]

10. As did I.

And for Mondale. :)

[Sherman A1]

12. Precisely

and we are still reaping the "benefits" of the snow job that St. Ronnie performed on this nation.

Still in my opinion the absolute worst President ever to take office.

[zbdent]

13. and, don't forget ... nobody who had his ear

had the balls to tell Reagan the truth ...

Read some David Stockman ...

[Odin2005]

14. Voters are heavily into denial.

[DavidDvorkin]

15. Don't ignore the role of the media in misinforming the public in 1980

This was preceded by nightly reminders, on network news, of the ongoing hostage situation in Tehran and constantly denigration of Carter, even before the embassy takeover.

Couple that with fawning praise of Reagan during the campaign.

I don't the Carter campaign was ever able to break through the noise. The same thing happened four years later to Mondale.