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Please join me in the Wayback Machine, if you will, for a trip back to 1980 and the presidential election between Democrat incumbent Jimmy Carter and Republican challenger Ronald Reagan. And if possible, try to suspend in your mind the reality of politics in America in 2023 and your thoughts about them.

The 1980 contest between Carter and Reagan was about far more than the two of them and far more about the political environment of 1980. Voters were concerned with double-digit inflation, rising unemployment, the crisis in Iran, the Cold War with the Soviet Union, and more:

The general election campaign between Carter and Reagan seemed more an exercise in shadowboxing than a serious discussion of the issues that concerned the voters:…Carter’s unpopular stances on the need for energy conservation, and doubts about his competence and that of the people around him.

Reagan stressed the communist threat abroad and the dire effects that “big government” was having on the country’s economy, but he never clearly spelled out his remedies beyond calling for a massive cut in income taxes. [Reagan tax cuts came later.]

Meanwhile, Carter spent most of the campaign attempting to paint his opponent as an extremist who would divide the nation and tend to shoot from the hip in international relations.

Put simply, as historian Craig Shirley wrote in a Fox News op-ed, Carter believed in bigger government, and Reagan believed in smaller government. Carter believed we could work and coexist with the Soviets; Reagan famously said he would “consign it to the ash heap of history.” Finally, Reagan believed in the individual, and Carter’s Democrat Party believed the federal government was the principal creator of jobs.

My oh my, what would Ronald Reagan think, today? And what’s the lesson to be learned?

The fundamental beliefs of neither party have changed. What has changed — and far for the worst — is the political discourse between politicians on both sides of the political aisle. Quite simply, a majority of voters are fed up with it. Even worse, the in-party discourse has become the worst change of all.

Anyway, back to the 1980 presidential campaign.

Reagan often jabbed Carter by saying, “Recession is when your neighbor loses his job. Depression is when you lose your job. And recovery is when Jimmy Carter loses his job!” Carter gave as much as he took, often attacking Reagan on his conservative issues. Finally, it all came down to the historic debate in Cleveland, one week before the election. As Shirley noted, “Carter was surging and ahead in some polls, but Reagan’s calm demeanor and command of the facts won the day and the debate for the Californian.” And the election, as well.

Reagan took personal command, as he had throughout his life. While the debate was Reagan’s first real introduction to the country at large, the American people liked what they saw and subsequently rewarded him with a historic landslide victory over Carter on November 8, 1980.

Six years later at the opening of the Carter Presidential Center in Atlanta, Georgia, on October 1986, Carter personally invited President Reagan to attend the opening ceremonies, and Reagan immediately said yes, while Former Presidents Gerald Ford and Richard Nixon declined Carter’s invitation. Reagan and Carter decidedly proved there were bigger things than ego at play.

Reagan gave the opening remarks, and as Shirley mentioned, he began by saying:

I want you to know that I often get invited to library dedications. There aren’t that many people still around who knew Andrew Carnegie personally!

The crowd of 9,000 genuinely laughed.

Reagan then got to the purpose of his remarks, as a country divided once again tried to heal:

None of us today need feel any urge, in the name of good will, to downplay our differences. On the contrary, in a certain sense we can be proud of our differences, because they arise from good will itself — for love of country; for concern for the challenges of our time; from respect for, and yes, even outright enjoyment of, the democratic processes of disagreement and debate.

Reagan continued to praise Carter, eloquently so:

Today our very differences attest to the greatness of our nation. For I can think of no country on Earth where two political leaders could disagree so widely yet come together in mutual respect. To paraphrase Mr. Jefferson: ‘We are all Democrats, we are all Republicans, because we are all Americans.’

For myself, I can pay you no higher honor than to simply say this: You gave yourself to your country, gracing the White House with your passionate intellect and commitment. Now you have become a permanent part of that grand old house, so right in tradition, that belongs to us all.

Reagan closed his remarks in classic Reaganesque fashion:

And there’s only one thing left to say. From the 40th president to the 39th, Happy Birthday! And, Mr. President, if I could give you one word of advice: Life begins at 70.

Again, genuine laughter — Reagan was 70 at the time. After Reagan finished, Carter got up to speak, quipping:

As I listened to you talk, I understood more clearly than I ever did in my life why you won in 1980, and I lost.

The crowd laughed in earnest at Carter’s magnanimous humor. Several years later, Carter returned the favor and attended the opening of the Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California.

Welp, back to the present. Where to begin?

While Carter’s presidency was marked as a time of malaise in America, which even he all but admitted in a July 1979 speech, in which he admonished America and its “crisis of confidence,” 2023 America makes 1979 America look like a Sunday walk in the park.

So, along came Joe Biden in 2020 with his worse-than-meaningless “message of unity” and “chance for a fresh start” nonsense. Worse than meaningless because on Day One of Biden’s presidency, he intentionally began to do anything but; beginning with canceling the Keystone XL Pipeline permit, throwing the southern border wide open to the ongoing invasion of illegal aliens, and ultimately calling Donald Trump and his loyal supporters “semi-fascists” who represent a “threat to democracy” in America.

And Donald Trump?

Ron DeSantis lives rent-free in Trump’s head, 24×7 (yet the Florida governor has come nowhere near announcing he’s running for president in 2024). Yet, Trump has again reduced himself to calling a fellow Republican sophomoric names, claiming he (Trump) was responsible for DeSantis’s 2018 gubernatorial win–and now calls DeSantis “disloyal” and worse, simply because Trump thinks DeSantis will run. And if he does? Trump’s attacks will intensify and heal nothing in the Republican Party; he will only tear the party further apart.

There have been times throughout American history — call it “chance,” “fate,” destiny,” or “divine intervention,” or whatever works for each of us, when the right candidate came along at the right time and won the presidency, and saved America from itself. Abraham Lincoln and Ronald Reagan stand out in my mind as perfect examples.

While Jimmy Carter (as awful as his presidency was) and Ronald Reagan exemplified far less ego and far more honor and grace than Joe Biden and Donald Trump ever will, I believe this country once again stands at a precipice that calls for the right candidate–and ultimately president–to steady the Ship of State.

Incidentally, while multiple commenters will predictably skewer me (which is beyond fine), I’ll end with this:

A detractor recently wondered “why Miller writes for RedState.” The answer of course is simple: because the name of the site is RedState, not TrumpState.

I’ve been a Reagan Republican from the beginning, and while the term has now morphed into constitutional conservative, the values remain the same. And so do I.