VOTING AGE FIRST PRESIDENT JIMMY CARTER

I came of voting age just in time to vote for President Carter.

Why not have a naval academy graduate in the White House?

I was eighteen in 1974, not an election year.

That was the year Gerald Ford pardoned former president Nixon.

 

On Sunday, September 8, 1974, President Ford addressed the nation from the Oval Office to announce his decision to “grant a full, free and absolute pardon unto Richard Nixon for all offenses against the United States which he, Richard Nixon, has committed or may have committed.” 

 

Two days earlier I’d signed a two year contract with the U.S. Army.

My recruiter said I’d be a colonel by the time I was done.

I gave him the bird from the bus. Colonel, ha. More like General.

After two years I’d rocketed up the ranks to Private First Class, E-3.

I keep thinking how different my life would have been if I’d made E-4.

How different? None at all. I like my underdog status.

All of the best soldiers are privates. The army runs on privates.

I ran off Fort Dix on September, 6, 1976 with my honorable discharge and into the November elections for Jimmy  Carter.

I’m older now than he was then and reflecting back after seeing him at his wife’s funeral.

Some people look frisky at 99. Jimmy Carter is not one of them. He looked the way I’d expect to look in thirty more years.

 

Voting Age During The Carter Years 

President Carter did presidential things, ran for re-election, and lost in 1980.

What surprised me was the story of how he lost. 

 

Though it has long been charged that a Reagan campaign with victory in sight went behind the US government’s back to secretly reach out to the Iranians and prevent this bump from happening, this weekend, the New York Times published an explosive piece of evidence that backs it up.

Ben Barnes, a former Texas politician, told the paper how he and his mentor — former Democratic Texas governor John Connally, who had run for the GOP nomination in 1980 and had a plum Reagan administration post in his eyes — traveled around the Middle East delivering a message to be relayed to Iranian leadership, that Reagan would give them a better deal when he won the presidency.

Connally then briefed Reagan’s campaign chair, William Casey, about the effort upon returning home, according to Barnes.

 

This quote comes from a website defined as socialist leaning, or something. I checked other sources with paywalls and they all made the same claims.

After my vast government experienced as an Army Pfc, 1980 looked suspicious.

The new president, Reagan, was ten years older than Carter, which seemed odd coming out of the sixties and seventies.

For comparison, Reagan was born in 1911; JFK was born in 1917.

In addition, Reagan’s vice president was a former CIA director and his campaign manager was an old WWII spy who would become the new CIA director.

 

The Senate Intelligence Committee had planned to quiz him on Dec. 16, but he suffered a seizure the day before and then underwent surgery for a cancerous tumor in his brain. He never recovered, and spent his last months in and out of hospitals.

 

fBefore he got quizzed he had a Godfather-like plot twist?

 

Tom Hagen, having known Pentangeli for years, knew of Pentangeli’s interest in history. Without ever explicitly suggesting he do so, Tom led Frankie into a conversation about the Roman Empire and what happened to people who plotted against the Emperor. If plotters wanted to make sure their families were taken care of, they could commit suicide.

 

The Next Voting Age Presidential Election

Boomerpdx is not in the business of endorsing candidates running for anything. What you get here, what I intend to convey, is a fair and impartial opinion on a daily basis.

With that said, who the fuck can believe an election denier three years in is still denying he lost his last election and tried to work things out with a little help?

I remember my interactions with the legal community. Was I speeding? Did I stop at that stop sign?

Can I dedicate the rest of my time whining and complaining about the law singling me out and officers with an agenda?

Sure, I could dress up, put on my make-up, and march for my rights as a jackass who can’t get over my own mistakes.

Why not bull horn some bull shit for kicks?

Because, my friends, there are voting age people in the house.

This is for them:

 

When I was a child we watched small black and white TVs.

One small black and white TV.

Now and then an old man would come on the screen who reminded me of my Grandpa.

The old guy was President Eisenhower.

He was replaced by a young man, President Kennedy, who seemed about my dad’s age.

I was six years old and every adult looked alike; they were all bigger than me and it never seemed to change.

Years later I read accounts of the 1960 election.

Do you know what I didn’t read about? Nixon pissing and moaning for three years.

What did Al Gore do when he lost a presidential election based on the vote count from Florida governor Jeb Bush, his opponent’s brother?

 

He Stepped Back

Voting age people need to believe their candidate with represent them, and if they lose, bow the hell out.

What is the other option? A one trick pony shit-talking to a willing crowd, a mesmerizing man charming men and women equally, a figure so thinly disguised they can’t wait to show their new rig.

To the new voting age people: An old man on his last legs looks like Jimmy Carter. We’re supposed to look like Jimmy Carter.

Joe Biden is twenty years younger than Jimmy Carter. If he lives long enough he’ll probably look like Jimmy, too.

The point to remember is that Biden is, and looks like, what he is. An older man.

Not an older man pimped up and dog-walked, not an older man preying on the weak, not the only man who can solve all the problems in about two weeks.

Joe Biden is a company man, and America is the company.

Our America likes the company man.

I believe Biden would have made a good Pfc. So would Mrs. Biden.

Keep that in mind when you talk to voting age people.

Tell ’em you read it on a blog to really drive it home.