DON’T GET COCKY: GOPerdammerung: Signs of a Seismic National Shift and a Red Tidal Wave. Americans rejected impotence in 1980. Something comparable is afoot this election year.
Upon graduating from college, I applied for, and got, a newswriting internship at influential Washington, D.C. station WTTG’s The 10 O’Clock News. There, even as a young punk, I could recognize the historic importance of the 1980 presidential campaign, although not yet the magnificence of the Republican candidate, Ronald Reagan. My focus was on Jimmy Carter, and how two occurrences — one tragic and one comic — seemed to highlight his incompetence.
The worst of these was indirectly caused by Reagan, specifically his incomprehensible — to the Democrats — competitiveness in the race. The Carter team had wanted to run against the unacceptably right-wing — so they thought — Reagan as opposed to the formidably respectable steady hand, George H. Bush. But Reagan consistently hitting Carter for the Iran hostage fiasco resonated with the American people, and certainly me. A July 1980 Harris poll showed Carter losing to Reagan 53 to 26 percent (independent John Anderson had 18 percent). The desperate Carter went against his nature and authorized a military rescue of the hostages. This resulted in eight soldiers dead and a helicopter burning in the desert without combat.
The lesser incident, which took place two months prior, became humorously known as the Attack of the Killer Rabbit. President Carter was alone in a small fishing boat on a Georgia lake when a small white rabbit swam right toward him. Carter tried to repel the beast with a paddle and the rabbit swam away. Pictures of Carter wielding his oar against the non-monster took on ridiculous proportion and made him a mockery at the worst time, even in the then still valid Washington Post.
On November 4, 1980, I was at the Republican National Headquarters helping the WTTG reporter cover election night. It was the most electrifying night of my life. I watched a giant electronic map of the United States go red in 44 states in what seemed like half an hour. Saw the faces in the crowd change from shock to elation amid screams of joy. Looking back, I view the two Carter incidents as omens of the seismic shift in American politics and culture that took place that night. Eight years of a strong, patriotic American comeback followed — accompanied by some of the best films and music ever produced — leading to the collapse of the Soviet Union. Then George Bush came in and mucked it with his “kinder, gentler nation” idiocy. Nonetheless, I see similar signs of change now, and foresee a sharp turn for the better this November 8.
Related: Independent Women Swing Hard Toward GOP Despite Democrats’ Abortion Push.
Republicans made massive gains with independent women in recent weeks as Democrats ramped up their messaging on abortion ahead of the midterm elections.
Forty-nine percent of voters plan to vote for the Republican nominee to represent their House district while 45 percent said they’d back their Democratic opponent, according to a New York Times/Siena College poll released Monday. Of particular note was a 32 point swing among independent women toward the GOP. In September’s iteration of the poll, Democrats boasted a 14 point lead among that demographic, but by October, Republicans held an 18 point advantage.
While Democratic officials and progressive commentators had suggested that the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade might lessen the expected electoral blow of the midterms, the swing toward the GOP among independent women — the group most heavily targeted by Democratic strategists — suggests that their focus on abortion might be to their own detriment.
Still though, eschew the cockiness. As Glenn advises, “Seriously, if you care about this election, you need to be out volunteering and donating. Commenting on the Internet doesn’t count.”