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I know most of my audience is younger and it's more likely their parents were born in the '70s than they know anything about it, so I'll try to convey the feelings during the time.

You might not believe it from the music that's stayed popular, but in politics, the '70s were complete and utter chaos from beginning to end. You had a lost war, urban decay, mass hysteria, the rise of cults, stagflation, nuclear tensions, the Iranian Revolution, the oil crisis, four presidents in less than three years, and a public who were quickly growing sick of it all.

So let me set the stage, in 1968 President Richard Nixon was inaugurated as president of a country losing the will to fight the war in Vietnam. The Civil Rights Era was coming to a close and what we had instead was an unsustainable situation of rising crime rates and a faltering economy.

Despite the problems the country faced, Nixon remained popular and won a massive landslide. He the type to claim to know the best course of action in maintaining law and order within the United States. He was as much of a guard dog as he was a president to some, which made the scandal at Watergate Hotel that much more shocking.

Faced with possible impeachment over spying on an opposing campaign, Richard Nixon resigned. Having been running an administration that was apparently full of corruption, Nixon's electoral running mate, Spiro Agnew, had resigned over tax evasion and other corrupt acts he committed as Governor of Maryland. So when Nixon resigned in '74, his new Vice President, the unelected former Congressman, Gerald Ford, became president.

Nowadays, Ford is an admired figure, but at the time he certainly was not. Having been the one to pardon Nixon and finally wrap up the ending of the Vietnam War, his major decisions were controversial at the time but would come to be celebrated later.

Unfortunately, the almost psychotic levels of hysteria that existed in the '70s would consume Gerald Ford, much like political opposition had JFK, RFK, and MLK in the previous decade. On September 5th of 1975, President Gerald Ford was murdered by Lynette Fromme, a cultist, in Sacramento, California.

Vice President Nelson Rockefeller would succeed Gerald Ford as President of the United States. If you're having trouble keeping track, let me some this up again. Nixon and Agnew got elected, Agnew resigned as Vice President and Nixon appointed Gerald Ford into the position. When Nixon resigned, Gerald Ford became president and appointed Nelson Rockefeller as his Vice President. Following Ford's assassination, Rockefeller would become president.

With the Watergate Scandal, the highest profile assassination since '68, and a seeming revolving door of executives, the American public seemed to be at their breaking point when Rockefeller was sworn in. In his first address to the nation, he promised "A time of healing for America and its people" and laid out a plan for urban renewal, healthcare and military reform, and called for an end to the detente between the US and Soviet Union sought out by Nixon and Ford.

After possible internal party pressure, Nelson Rockefeller would appoint former Governor of California, Ronald Reagan as his Vice President. At the time, Reagan was believed to be the future of the Republican Party by many of its strongest supporters and his ascension to the VP spot was celebrated by them.

In the '76 election, it felt as though there hadn't been a presidential election in an eternity. Rockefeller with Reagan were able to easily sweep the nomination, barring a well publicized elector revolt on the floor of the RNC that tried to switch Reagan and Rockefeller's names on the ticket.

On the Democrats' side, the field was more divided. Political outsider, former Governor of Georgia, Jimmy Carter, and Senator Frank Church emerged as the ticket for the Democratic Party.

Whether it was sympathy over Ford's assassination, trust in Rockefeller's message about healing America and rebuilding public confidence, or the weak candidates the Democrats had put up, or a combination of the three, Rockefeller and Reagan won with 54% of the vote and just over 300 Electoral College votes.

As a newly elected president, Nelson Rockefeller would take a stronger course of action in favor of reform at home and against the USSR abroad. Tensions between the superpowers was put on hold when the Iranian Revolution began in October of '77.

'77 would prove to be one of the darkest years of the decade. Chaos swarming around America's major cities were compounded by the Iranian Hostage Crisis which began in late October of that year. In December, Nelson Rockefeller had a heart attack and his incredibly poor health became more apparent to the public.

Rockefeller had been known for having been rather sickly, but the health scares he had since taking office in September of '75 had largely gone under the radar until his hospitalization on December 17th of 1977. He died early the next day, making Ronald Reagan the third president to succeed a president in less than five years and the second president to succeed a president following the president's death.

Reagan faced a number of major obstacles as soon as he took office. He had an incredibly hard time navigating the hostage crisis, the economic turmoil that had gripped the country for nearly a decade wasn't letting up, and gas prices began to skyrocket. Surprisingly, his popularity never fell under 40% with all of these swarming problems. These problems seemed to have no solution until Ted Kennedy stormed onto the scene.

Senator Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts, the brother of JFK and RFK, lead a campaign somewhat reminiscent of the late Nelson Rockefeller's speeches about healing. "We must begin a new chapter in American history. We shall not forget the past, but we will no longer let it make us fear the present." Is a quote that stood out to me during one of his speeches. He would pick John Glenn, the Senator from Ohio and former astronaut, as his Vice Presidential candidate.

On the Republican side, Reagan picked Howard Baker as his Vice President, and VP candidate, after winning a hardly contested primary. There were several candidates running against Reagan's poor handling of the presidency so far, but none were able to get their campaigns off the ground.

Going into the 1980 presidential election, it became increasingly clear that Reagan was screwed. The Kennedy/Glenn ticket was leading by a lot, and would win a landslide on election day. Ted reportedly said, "Charm can't save him now" in reference to Reagan's charisma on election night.

Within two years of Ted Kennedy's inauguration, it felt as though the worst of the 1970s had just been a bad dream. The hostages were released unharmed, urban decay was slowly dealt with, and the economy was booming.

To this day, I swear that Ted Kennedy is the best president in my lifetime and I doubt he will be topped anytime soon, especially with the likes of Giuliani in office.

Edit: This short story thing was partially inspired by this thread
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