question for those who can remember the '84 election

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was everybody screaming about leaving the country and hating america as loudly? That election was a hell of a lot more decisive than this one. If watching half the country disagree with you creates such feelings of apocalyptic impotence, I can't imagine what it was like when Mondale took nothing but Minnesota.

(I was 5, so I don't really remember the vibe)

― miccio, Thursday, 4 November 2004 01:40 (twenty years ago)

I was two years out of high school! The feeling was doom.

― Orbit (Orbit), Thursday, 4 November 2004 01:42 (twenty years ago)

i was all of 14, but here goes to the best of my recollection ...

... reagan's re-election was seen as kinda inevitable, so by and large no-one was overly shocked when he won. considering some of the stuff said about him in 1980 (and certain comments that he made on mike earlier in '84 about "outlawing russia the bombing starts in 5 minutes,") many were just happy that he didn't actually blow up the world.

and as awful as he and his administration were in countless ways, at least they were competent and occasionally amenable to reason.

― Eisbär (llamasfur), Thursday, 4 November 2004 03:02 (twenty years ago)

then again, i grew up in what was then a pretty rock-solid northeastern republican suburb. they still had moderate northeastern republicans who could occasionally rein in the nutjobs back then -- believe it or not.

― Eisbär (llamasfur), Thursday, 4 November 2004 03:03 (twenty years ago)

i was 3 or 4 days old. my dad had just voted for reagan. yay!

― caitlin oh no (caitxa1), Thursday, 4 November 2004 03:15 (twenty years ago)

It was the first election I voted in.. I don't think anyone was surprised by the result .. a lot of us wanted Reagan out, but I don't remember the feeling of complete dread like we're seeing now.

― dave225 (Dave225), Thursday, 4 November 2004 12:23 (twenty years ago)

The liberals I knew then hated Reagan with the intensity that liberals now hate Bush. I was dating a Mondale activist and she constantly referred to Reagan as a bigoted dimwit, referred to the stupidity of the American electorate, and how, other than Thatcher, the world knew Reagan was a dunce. Like now, celebrities were openly disdainful of Reagan. Reagan pissed a lot of people off with Bittburg, various NATO issues like nukes in Europe, Star Wars missles, cutting taxes, cutting spending and AIDS. Reagan had fierce enemies in the press.

― don weiner, Thursday, 4 November 2004 12:57 (twenty years ago)

Back then, liberals hadn't yet castrated themselves.

― Colin Meeder (Mert), Thursday, 4 November 2004 13:26 (twenty years ago)

I can't imagine what it was like when Mondale took nothing but Minnesota.

And DC! You can always count on DC - even McGovern took DC.

― Michael Jones (MichaelJ), Thursday, 4 November 2004 13:34 (twenty years ago)

I was five years old. I told my (mondale-voting) parents that I wanted Reagan to win. When they asked why I said, "Because he lost the debates, so I wanted him to win something."

― Hurting (Hurting), Thursday, 4 November 2004 13:50 (twenty years ago)

Fritz 'n tits

― lawrence kansas (lawrence kansas), Thursday, 4 November 2004 14:06 (twenty years ago)

I was in college. I was a lot more tuned out to politics once I got to college than I had been in high school (partly because my moral certainties had gone through an upheaval, and partly because I suddenly had an actual social life), so I don't remember much. I might have voted (in which case I would have voted for Mondale). I don't remember.

― RS, Thursday, 4 November 2004 14:17 (twenty years ago)

Ew.

The vibe in 1980 was a lot worse.

― You've Got to Pick Up Every Stitch (tracerhand), Thursday, 4 November 2004 14:18 (twenty years ago)

In '84 I was 9, I think I was pulling for Jesse Jackson, but I liked the idea that a woman could be vice-president too. In '80 I was 5 and my parents seriously had gotten us all set up with passports in advance of a Reagan win...I asked them about this recently and I guess my dad had been looking at a short contracting job in saudi arabia! (he was a telephone repairman) So even though we were really just scraping by at the time and that job would have paid well, I'm glad we didn't go.

― teeny (teeny), Thursday, 4 November 2004 14:21 (twenty years ago)

As a kid in the UK (I was 13 in '84) my view of Reagan was almost exclusively constructed by the "The President's Brain Is Missing" sketches on Spitting Image (satirical puppet show), so I really did think the stupidest man on Earth was in charge.

Now, of course, they don't need the puppets :-)

― Onimo (GerryNemo), Thursday, 4 November 2004 14:24 (twenty years ago)

Lefties hated Reagan, but no one was really expecting much electoral light or heat from Mondale, I think. He made Kerry look like, well, Clinton.

― Formerly Lee G (Formerly Lee G), Thursday, 4 November 2004 14:38 (twenty years ago)

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