There are many similarities between the Carter administration and the Obama administration. A souring economy, a majority in both houses of Congress, the worship of diplomacy as the answer to all conflicts, and promotion of government programs for every imaginable purpose, to name a few.

 

What follows here is a comparison of the inaugural speeches. At times it is hard to distinguish Carter's 1977 entry from Obama's 2009 prose. See if you can correctly guess who is speaking in these excerpts:

 

Excerpt 1: "This inauguration ceremony marks a new beginning, a new dedication within our Government, and a new spirit among us all."

 

Excerpt 2: "What is required of us now is a new era of responsibility, a recognition on the part of every American that we have duties to ourselves, our Nation, and the world."

 

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Excerpt 3: "To be true to ourselves, we must be true to others. We will not behave in foreign places so as to violate our rules and standards here at home, for we know that the trust which our Nation earns is essential to our strength."

 

Excerpt 4: "Guided by these principles once more, we can meet those new threats that demand even greater effort, even greater cooperation and understanding between nations."

 

 

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Excerpt #5: "Time and again, these men and women struggled and sacrificed and worked ‘til their hands were raw so that we might live a better life. They saw America as bigger than the sum of our individual ambitions, greater than all the differences of birth or wealth or faction."

 

Excerpt #6: "We cannot afford to do everything, nor can we afford to lack boldness as we meet the future. So, together, in a spirit of individual sacrifice for the common good, we must simply do our best."

 

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 And now, the envelope please, ... the answers are #1,3,6 belong to the peanut farmer turned president; #2,4,5 are statements made by the man with the "funny name" as he put it. The nation and the world have changed much since the 1970s. Isn't it strange that liberals have not changed? America is selfish, rogue nations can be tamed if we only sit down and talk with them, it's time for the rich to share with everyone else, and the citizens of the United States aren't smart enough to know what they really need or want.

 

Four years of incompetence by Jimmy Carter led to an inflationary monster consuming everything in its path, a former ally becoming a radical, sworn enemy of the West, and the roots of this current financial crisis by enacting the Community Reinvestment Act.  The question then is what friendly nation will turn venomous as a result of Obama's diplomacy? Also, what behemoth similar to the infamous Departments of Education and Energy will Obama saddle our nation with? Finally, who is it that is waiting in the wings to lead us, in 2012, to that shining city on a hill where, as Reagan believed and proved, citizens are seen as more capable than bureaucrats in spending their money?

 

Gasoline prices are out of control. The cost of groceries seems to increase every time you push a shopping cart down the aisles. Dire predictions spew from the talking heads on the evening news broadcasts. Elected officials wipe the sweat from their brows as they attempt to craft and approve legislation to help the average citizen. Our adversaries appear to be gaining in strength despite our nation's attempts to preserve freedom for ourselves and our allies. We cannot afford to wait. Government must take drastic measures and do so with haste.

 

If you think the above paragraph is a description of 2009 as President-elect Barack Obama is set to take office, think again.  Every sentence of the opening paragraph describes the nation and the world as we knew it during former President Jimmy Carter's administration. The comparisons between Obama-speak and Carter-speak are striking. However, the reality behind the speeches could not be much more different. For instance, socialism or communism was still a formidable threat in the 1970s. Today, there is no "superpower" communist nation to contend with at every turn. Also, the economy of 2009, while battered and bruised, is far more robust than the high-interest, high inflation doldrums of the 1970s. Furthermore, the 2009 version of OPEC is not your father's version that existed in the 1970s. Have those of us old enough to remember forgotten how bad those times were? Those who are too young to remember please join in this brief recounting of events:

 

** Lines of automobiles that sometimes stretched to several blocks long while waiting for a rationed number of gallons to put in your gas tank. Need a refill? If you waited in line again you could get another rationed amount, IF the supply at the station had not run dry.

 

**A stock market having diffculty recovering from a nearly fifty percent loss in 1973-74. Daily reports of dismal economic news only adding to the despair in financial markets.

 

**The stinging defeat of Vietnam still fresh in the nation's memory. Pacifist, idealistic world views of Carter and Cyrus Vance, the Secretary of State, further diminish military pride and patriotism. Add to that the bumbling efforts to resolve the Iran hostage crisis.

 

**Instead of a motivated, confident leader there is President Carter, begging and pleading for people to conserve energy, curb consumer spending, and apologizing for our nation's excesses. Taking to the airwaves to proclaim a crisis of confidence and offering solutions that would only make things worse if actually implemented.

 

**ABC, CBS, NBC, PBS, local newspaper(s), local radio stations that squeezed in a newsbreak at the top of the hour. There was no alternative media, no talk radio, no cable television, no internet access, no personal/home computers.

 

**The results of the 1976 election were: A Democrat president, Senate with 61 Democrats-38 Republicans-1 Independent, House of Representatives with 292 Democrats-143 Republicans.

 

As you can see, in many ways things then were much worse than they are now. Let's move on now to an interesting comparision of campaign promises. Who claimed he was the anti-government candidate, the one who would bring hope and restore people's trust in American idealism? In 1976, Elizabeth Drew stated in American Journal that this strategy was responsible for Carter's election victory. (Source: The American Presidents. Copyright 2000, Salem Press, Inc.) Guessed Obama? You're also correct! Hope, change, transparency in governing, sound familiar?

 

In summary, our nation has been "here" before. Barack Obama's claims of utter and total collapse without immediate trillion dollar government spending is the same old grab for power that liberals have always favored. And, like during the Carter years, those same liberal politicians who were responsible for energy and economic woes proclaimed they had the solutions for fixing them.

 

Conservatives in the 21st century find themselves in a much better situation than our colleagues of the 1970s. Our mission now is to remember what Goldwater, Reagan and Gingrich taught us while developing methods for that message in the internet and multimedia world we now live in.