Democratic economic policy in a Democratic 1980s

[GeographyDude]

Without Carter to bring human rights as a new focus, . . .

I think Carter deserves a lot of credit for putting human rights majorly on the agenda. It got people thinking, that if we're going to use it to indict the Soviets, we've got to start asking the same of our allies.

With South Africa, I think most of the world was in favor of divestiture, which were a type of economic sanctions and boycott. It was my own United States during the Reagan years and the UK during the Thatcher years who were out of step.

 

[interpoltomo]

That's one of the reasons I consider Carter to be one of the worst presidents but to each his own.

 

[Amadeus]

The mistake that the likes of Thatcher and Reagan made from a political POV was not so much the substance of their policies but the fairly obnoxious and rather gleeful way in which they implemented them (particularly in the case of Thatcher). As mentioned above, someone like RFK (who was never much of an economic statist) could have been a compassionate neoliberal reformer in the 1980s.

Seeing RFK and Thatcher in power at the same time would be really interesting, not just because their political philosophies were far apart but because Kennedy was Irish Catholic. (It's worth noting that Ted Kennedy wore a green tie when Thatcher visited the US in protest of her Ireland policies...)

 

[lerk]

You think that an America which has just gone through Watergate would elect RFK, which, needless to say, wasn't the cleanest person around?

 

[Amadeus]

You think that an America which has just gone through Watergate would elect RFK, which, needless to say, wasn't the cleanest person around?

Neither was Jimmy "I lust after women in my heart" Carter. Nor Ronald "I did not trade arms for hostages" Reagan. It should be said that RFK's wiretapping of MLK was already public knowledge in 1968 because it had been leaked during the primaries. Yet RFK still won California. There's a possibility that RFK's involvement in Cuba would be revealed if only in part by the Church Committee (of course, Brother Ted would do his utmost to ensure that Robert's political interests are protected and most leading Democrats would kindly follow along), but given how forgiving voters were to RFK in 1968 there's no reason to think that Kennedy's past would sink his chances of being President in the 1970s or 80s.

 

[GeographyDude]

. . one of the reasons I consider Carter to be one of the worst presidents . .

If you’re saying that with Carter’s new emphasis on human rights, there was compromise and hypocrisy, I’m going to say, yes there was, and yes, it bothers me. But that’s going to be the case wth almost any new policy.

If you’re talking about Carter visiting Iran and toasting the Shah on New Year’s Eve Dec. 31, 1977, I will easily agree that Jimmy went overboard, and and that it constitutes a blunder.

 

[interpoltomo]

Carter was a good chunk of why 1) the Shah fell 2) we got an islamicist government in the case of the shah falling instead of say a military regime.

 

[GeographyDude]

. . . say a military regime.

I agree that a military regime would have been better than Ayatollah Khomeini, as long as the military regime was reasonably run-of-the-mill.

Realize of course that you and I have just recapitulated U.S. foreign policy during the entire 40+ years of the cold war!

 

[GeographyDude]

President Ford's 1975 State of the Union address:

https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/doc...-the-congress-reporting-the-state-the-union-1

" . . . I have established a goal of 1 million barrels of synthetic fuels and shale oil production per day by 1985 together with an incentive program to achieve it. . . "

Let’s assume that Ford is no more successful on energy policy his second term than Carter was.

This does leave the field open for a Democratic administration taking office Jan. ‘81.