MOTUS A.D.: Party like it’s 1979. Or maybe 1980.

Saturday, November 3, 2012

Party like it’s 1979. Or maybe 1980.

History: strange how it repeats itself.

As thousands of Iranians gathered in Tehran yesterday to celebrate the 33rd anniversary of the siege of the US embassy by burning American flags and chanting “Death to America,” Big Guy’s R-word opponent would have you believe that this election hinges on a single question: “Are you better off now than you were 4 years ago?”

Tehran, Iran 1979; Cairo, Egypt, 2012

On November 4, 1979, Islamist students calling themselves “Muslim Student Followers of the Imam’s Line” invaded the grounds of the US embassy and seized its staff. Fifty-two US diplomats were held hostage for 444 days.

After failed negotiation attempts, US President Jimmy Carter ordered a rescue mission, which tragically ended in the deaths of eight American servicemen and one Iranian civilian.

That’s silly. With all of history at our disposal, the real operative question here isn’t “are you better off than four years ago,” butt “are you better off now than you were thirty-four years ago?” You know, when Jimmy Carter was our president.

see other similarities here

I have to say, some of the images coming across the wire yesterday were oddly reminiscent of those good old Carter years:

Gas lines, 1979 (is that an empty chair by the pump!?!)

Gas lines yesterday (what’s with all the empty chairs!?)

Well, as I said, history does have a way of repeating itself.

As you may recall - if you were alive back then – gas lines formed in 1979 for the second time that decade when Iran seized our embassy and took 52 Americans hostage for 444 days.

Yes; Jimmy Carter (along with Tony Orlando) is also responsible for today’s plethora of colored ribbons.

If you weren’t alive back in the late 70’s when Jimmy Carter badly mangled America’s foreign policy, completely mismanaged domestic energy policy, the national deficit and domestic economy I suppose you can be forgiven for not noticing that Big Guy is standing under history’s exact same arch.

Arch of the Hurva Synagogue in the Jewish Quarter of Old Jerusalem: twice destroyed by Muslims

What would a Nobel Peace Prize winner do about Israel, I wonder?

And if you were not yet born in 1979, then you probably won’t understand how these current images of odd-even gas rationing cause flashbacks to another crucial election in America’s history; one in which many people were excited about voting for a guy who still thought of American exceptionalism as a shining city on a hill rather than a rusty bucket to kick down the road to perdition.

Rusty pail, meet empty chair

So maybe you don’t recognize the similarity between the election of 1980 and 2012. And you probably don’t recognize any similarity between this man, Romney, who is running for president, and the great Renaldus Magnus.

Butt I tell you, there are similarities. For example, Ronnie, too, was a man who thought of America as a place where people vote for “love of country” not for “revenge.” Men such as these view this country more as beacon of hope than a country that “at times has shown arrogance and been dismissive, even derisive.”

So as we watch the long lines waiting for gas we can’t help butt notice that most of the cars back in 1979 were American made, vans haven’t changed much in 30 years and gas was around 89 cents a gallon - only a buck less than when Big Guy took office! Of course now you can afford to pay a little more and you have an iPhone to entertain yourself with while waiting on line - at least until the battery dies. So I leave it to you to decide if you’re better off now or not.

Please shut off your engines: “idolization” no longer allowed.

So as news of the magnitude of the devastation of Sandy continues to roll in, as the plight of people whose homes have been destroyed and have no where to go, no food to eat, and no fuel for their cars let us remember that we are all just one catastrophe removed from ruination. Just one serious disaster away from a complete breakdown of social order.

Allow me to frame that in the immortal words of Ronald Reagan:

Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it on to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children's children what it was once like in the United States where men were free.

So, children…for the sake of the children, vote this time with your head, not your lady parts or “little head.” Your future, and your children’s children's futures, are not likely to be ruined by global warming and lack of contraceptives butt rather something much more treacherous.