Are we turning America back to 1972? Here in 2022, there are too many similarities to America today and 1972
I saw this meme in the social media page of a friend last week. Reading this, they are concerned we are going back to 1972 if the predicted election Red Wave hits today. It made me think, are we going back 50 years, or are we already there?
The concerns of 1972. I was seven years old, so I didn’t know personally much of what was going on, but let’s look at the some of the issues of the day back then:
1. Inflation. Thanks to government overspending and printing money, inflation was up to 5.75% in 1970, down to 3.25% in 1972, then rising to 13.5% by 1980 (End of the Carter years). In 2021 the inflation rate was 1.25%. Since then it has exploded to 8.2% in less than two years of Joe O’Biden. Hey, 3.25% doesn’t sound bad.
2. Fuel shortages and cost. In 1972, the cost of a gallon of gas was ¢36, about $2.44 today. The average cost of gasoline today is $3.79. Hell, $2.44 a bargain compared to $3.79, but still better than the $5.00 a gallon from this past summer, thanks Joe. In the 70s, we had gas rationing and dry pumps. We are not at rationing yet, but the supply is low. And diesel anyone? We’re down to a 25 day supply of the fuel that runs our most critical transportation systems.
3. Radicals on Campus. In the late 60s/early 70s, universities across the country were the breeding grounds for extremists. Students organized against the Vietnam War, but also against other perceived social ills (racism, sexism, etc.). Today, the radicals who were students in the 60/70s are now the tenured professors teaching the next generation to tear down the west in general, and the United States in particular. As an aside, the radicals hatred of money doesn’t apply to them. The “average” inflation rate for higher education has soared to 8%, and the cost of college doubles every 9 years. The average pay of a full professor in the US is now 144K, while the average college president makes orders of magnitude more. The president of Savanna College of Art and Design make over five-million dollars a year.
4. Crime. In the late 60s/early 70s, the United States experienced a crime wave, leaving the relative calm of the 50s and early 60s in the dust. In 1972, the murder rate was 10.5 per 100,000 compared to 6.9 in 2021. Now in context, the murder rate had dropped in large degree due to better trauma care, and technology (e.g., police body armor). But there was a spike beginning in 2020. I wonder why? Could it be the war on police started by Democratic politicians at the local, state and federal level? I’ve written on this countless times, for the foreseeable future, cops will join the fire department. That is they will start their shift, handle their calls for service, and not do anything self-initiated. That’s what gets you nailed. Playing it safe gets you to retirement.
5. Riots. We’re just two years removed from the George Floyd riots, when, in the middle of a pandemic, where people could not go to school, bury their loved ones, attend church services, but they could riot in dozens of cities, causing billions in damage. And the only funeral that didn’t cause a Covid risk was George Floyd’s. In 1972, we had regular riots due to resistance to the Vietnam War. You can argue if the war was justified or not, but no questions, the riots caused an enormous amount of damage, both physical and societal. Just like the Floyd/Antifa riots. And we’re going 50 years back?
6. Abortion. Gloria Steinem, the original Abortion Barbie, has an immortal quote, “If Men Could Get Pregnant, Abortion Would Be a Sacrament.” Putting her sacrilege aside, several states were moving to liberalize abortion laws before that abortion of constitutional law, Roe v Wade:
In June 1967, the American Medical Association voted to change that body’s long-standing opposition to abortion. With a new resolution, the AMA now condoned abortion for the life or health of the mother, for a baby’s ‘incapacitating’ physical deformity or mental deficiency, or for cases of rape or incest.
That same year, Colorado, North Carolina, and California became the first states to adopt versions of the ALI “reform” abortion law. By 1970, though, four states – New York, Alaska, Hawaii and Washington – passed laws that basically allowed abortion on demand. Of those four, New York’s was the only law without a residency requirement and the state quickly became the nation’s abortion capital…
I’m going by an almost 40-year memory from a constitutional law class, so I may be off somewhat. As I recall, the professor said before Roe, abortion services were available to approximately 75% of women within 300 miles from their home. Understandable, as the largest state (California), and second largest (New York) had liberalized abortion law. In the aftermath of the Dobbs decision, states are deciding the level of abortion services permitted in their jurisdictions, and women are traveling for abortions if needed. Just like it should be handled and was handled before 1973.
7. A corrupt DOJ/FBI. A DOJ being used by the president to go after political enemies, using the FBI as the enforcement arm of that goal? John Mitchell? Yes, with the most famous/infamous director, J Edgar Hoover, as corrupt as they can be. However, what about our current Democratic Attorney General and FBI Director. Merrick Garland has targeted American citizens for the crime of wanting to control the schools educating their children, the schools these people pay for with their tax dollars. And then lied about it. The FBI, under Christopher Wray, is now the enforcement arm of this war against American parents. John Mitchell perjured himself and was eventually sentenced to prison. If ever there was an AG who needed to be impeached and removed, then prosecuted, his name is Merrick Garland.
In 1993, I was reading an article in the American Spectator called “99 Reasons Jimmy Carter is better than Bill Clinton.” It concluded with, “Carter led to something Clinton never can. Ronald Reagan.” Hopefully the elections today are the beginning of the end of the O’Biden error, and the countdown to another conservative in the White House. Time will tell.
Michael A. Thiac is a retired Army intelligence officer, with over 23 years experience, including serving in the Republic of Korea, Japan, and the Middle East. He is also a retired police patrol sergeant, with over 22 years’ service, and over ten year’s experience in field training of newly assigned officers. He has been published at The American Thinker, PoliceOne.com, and on his personal blog, A Cop’s Watch.
Opinions expressed are his alone and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of current or former employers.
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I wouldn’t dare to compare Bill Clinton to Jimmuh Cahteh, but it is not the comparison that matters. They were both pretty lousy at what they did. I would argue that Clinton was a much better president, but only because he was able to see when he lost an ideological battle, where Cahteh was just an outright hypocrite and was an angry progressive. and I am no fan of either.
You make some good comparisons between now and 50 years back. I graduated from high school in 1972, and I remember filling up my first tank of gas in that 1968 Ford Torino that I adopted from my dad, after he put a couple hundred thousand miles on it. 24.9 cents a gallon. Four bucks to fill that tank.
Oh, back to the Clinton-Carter comparison. What I remember of little Jimmuh was that he was the micromanager who botched things, and got some fine soldiers killed and hostages suffering and died in Iran. And a real man got the problem corrected, literally overnight, where Carter let the problem linger, which stemmed from remnants of his two state solution towards Israel. Reagan was a president. Carter only held the office, but was never much of a president. He is still trying to make something out of all the mistakes he made during his tenure in office. Clinton? He couldn’t care any less about the USA, other than someone wearing a blue dress underneath the Resolute Desk.
If only we corrected several of the problems we faced back then, just imagine how much better off we would be today. I often say I would love to go back to those times, but that would only give both ideologies another opportunity to screw things up, and I rather enjoyed those Reagan years.
It is good to have these kinds of thought experiments, isn’t it?
Jimmy was a hypocrite. Reading the book of a retired Secret Service agent, one point Cater made was carrying his own bag from the airplane. It was empty. Just one example of how he tried to put up a front.
I graduated in 83, and I remember gas being around .25 a gallon (I was less than 10). I remember the shock it was when gas went over a buck, and Jimmy’s only answer was, “We will all have to use less energy and pay more for it.” Idiot.
I think some of the idiots who voted for his are getting sticker shock now that the election is over. The student loan handoff is getting blocked by the courts, and with no election to motivate him to keep oil prices low, he won’t be raiding the SPR anymore. Oh well, 3 bucks a gallon wasn’t as bad as what’s coming up.