Dear Editor,
This message was distributed in the most-seen print medium of the day:
“To put it bluntly, we see ourselves as a nation on the decline, a country overwhelmed with problems thought to be too big for anyone to solve. Inflation tops 10%, unemployment especially among young black people is glossed over, and foreign policy is a mess. European and other world leaders are impressed by performance, not conversation, and talk seems to be all they get from the current occupant of the White House, a well-intentioned, hard-working public servant who has DEMEANED the office of the Presidency by portraying his opponent as a warmonger with simplistic, antiquated economic ideas who would divide the country into antagonistic racial, religious and geographical factions. America needs an administration determined to solve our painful problems by attacking the basic causes of social and economic ills rather than by applying local anesthetics in the form of quickly dissipated Government handouts.”
Sound familiar? These are the almost identical messages we heard from mainly the Trump campaign just this year (substitute “insurrectionist” for “warmonger” and it could have been a GOP ad or speech in 2024). The same message — apparently nothing has changed, seemingly nothing has gotten better. All the same complaints, all the same problems.
So, where does this political message come from? It was printed in TV Guide – the most widely printed and distributed medium of its day — by its owner Walter H. Annenberg in November of 1980 – 45 YEARS ago.
One thing to note: When Jimmy Carter was first in office in 1977, the gas price was 59 cents a gallon. When Ronald Reagan ran against him, “inflation” – particularly gas prices – was a major issue, because gas was up to 88 cents a gallon! Once Reagan was IN office, gas went up to $1.35 a gallon in 1981, and Reagan saw it fall slowly, after 2 terms, to $1.06 a gallon by 1989. Obviously, what folks WANTED Reagan to do about gas prices … bring them down … he did not do. Ooops!
Jeff Harrison
Buffalo, Texas
