Light of the Nation - Part 4: Two Cowboys and a ProfessorLight of the Nation - Part 3: Looking Forward, Looking Back
As he was renominated without opposition, Walter Mondale could look back on the past four years with pride. He had accomplished much. But there was plenty to regret as well, and plenty still to be done.
Mondale’s landslide coattails had enabled him to overcome a Conservative Filibuster on an issue near and dear to his DFL Heart: labor. The Labor Relations Reform Act reversed course on attacks on Union Power. Right to Work was dead, strike restrictions were lessened.
Labor support was crucial in Mondale’s alliance with Ted Kennedy in passing Healthcare Reform, which would bring Health Insurance to every American via a single payer system. A victory for the President and for the Party.
Mondale also passed the Humphrey-Hawkins Act, mandating full employment as a federal goal. Augustus Hawkins rallied the Congressional Black Caucus, and Coretta Scott King, behind the act, while Mondale’s mentor Humphrey helped it through the Senate.
However the act needed to be watered down in order to pass, and proved a bittersweet final act for Humphrey who passed from cancer in 1978. Later that year roughly midterms would prohibit the sort of liberal reforms Mondale had persued early in his term.
Inflation remained high, and many saw Mondale’s policies as merely exacerbating the issue. Energy prices spiked in 1979, only adding to the problems. The economy seemed intractable for the Administration, and the GOP reveled in their opposition.
Abroad, Mondale continued détente, although with a cautious edge. He worked to return the Panama Canal to Panamanian control, but elsewhere in Latin America maintained American support for right wing dictators. CIA money continued to flow south, to the detriment of human rights.
Similar developments occurred in Asia and Africa, although Mondale did work to sanction South Africa. Mondale kept a solid working relationship with China, and got along well with European leaders. Egyptian-Israeli talks collapsed, but things seemed under control until 1979.
Iran exploded into Revolution, as the US backed Shah fled. A left wing attack on the US embassy prompted Mondale to withdraw the embassy, sparking backlash. However later that year, Islamist students stormed the Soviet Embassy and took hostages. Things spiraled quickly from there
The resulting Iranian Civil War caused skyrocketing Oil Prices, as well as an end to détente. The US backed up a rotating cast of Secular Generals/Liberals/Shah Men/Islamists against the Soviet backed forces. Others powers like Iraq piled in as well.
Polls were rapidly fluctuating as the public reacted to events on the ground and at home. The economy was shaky, and inflation was high. But Mondale was accomplishing things and holding the line abroad.
A lot, of course, would depend on his opponent.
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Light of the Nation - Part 4: Two Cowboys and a Professor
The 1980 Republican Primaries saw Ronald Reagan in an unexpected position: the center. As the front runner, he took an above the fray approach, eschewing gladhanding. This looked presidential, but left him open to attack.
Former Democrat (but then, so was Reagan), Former Nixon Cabinet Member and Former Texas Governor John Connally made himself the on the ground conservative, going into the churches and saying all the right things about abortion and the gays and the moral decline of America.
Moderate Illinois Congressman John Anderson ran his own oddball campaign. Anderson supported a balanced budget and spending cuts but also raising the gas tax, and protecting the environment. A strong NATO but also the ERA. He became a favorite of students and intellectuals.
Reagan’s strategy paid off in Iowa. But he only won New Hampshire by the skin of his pearly white teeth. True disaster came when John Connally shellacked him in the South Carolina primary. This was followed by bruising losses in the South to Connally and New England to Anderson.
But Reagan wasn’t out yet. His campaign brought out all the tricks, from push-polling to attack ads to win the day. His campaign blasted Connally for being a slimy flip-flipper and Anderson for being out of step with the party. Neither was exactly false.
Meanwhile Reagan started campaigning in earnest. And The Gipper had not lost his charm. Despite early losses he kept on rolling.
The killing blows at home for his opponents. Connally’s win in Texas was so thin it seemed a loss, and Anderson just flat out lost in Illinois.
Reagan would secure a majority on the first ballot of the convention. He initially wanted Gerry Ford as his Vice President, but the former President asked for too much. Faced with a time crunch, Reagan went with the familiar and chose his friend, Senator Paul Laxalt of Nevada.
Two Western Conservatives on the ticket raised eyebrows, but exhilarated Southern Evangelicals. Reagan promised to make American great again and took the attack to Mondale. Anderson would slink off, and begin his own Independent campaign for the Presidency.
The stage was set.