History Retreats Itself

Someone on Facebook posted this old comic strip I did for the Yolo County tabloid, Winds of Change back in those crazy days of 1984. I replaced noted underground icon Robert Crumb, who did the masthead and contributed illustrations and comix along with his wife Aline Kominsky. I did the strip for eight months, but lost all the originals somewhere between moves at the end of the 80’s.

The above installment chronicles the hijinx at the Democratic convention in San Francisco, when Mayor Dianne Feinstein was considered a frontrunner for the veep nomination, only to be passed over in favor of NY rep Geraldine Ferarro.

I recall one of my bay area friends crowing about how Mondale would crush Reagan in the November election. He was shocked when I predicted a landslide for the Gipper. Wish I had put some money on it.

Mark Twain once said that history doesn’t repeat itself, but sometimes it rhymes. Thirty-five years later, an 86 year old Senator Feinstein finds herself surrounded by angry children demanding that she sign on the the Green New Deal. When she tries to explain to the precious ones that much of the deal is impractical, the new left swooped in to label her as old and out of touch, a hag who should just crawl into her grave and pull some dirt over her worthless decomposing self.

And that’s how it goes as the race to 2020 kicks into gear. We must be absolutely in sync with the resistance, or be left in the rising sea level of history. In Oregon, legislators are pushing a new bill to lower the voting age to 16, and it’s obvious why. Who can resist the tearful doe-eyed children’s crusade? We can run the country on pure emotion, and worry about the details later.

It remains to be seen how this shift to the far left will play in next year’s presidential sweepstakes. Will they alienate enough voters to reelect a president even goofier than Reagan? Alexandra Ocasio Cortez, the new madonna of the woke, didn’t do her party any favors by dancing on the grave of 25,000 Amazon jobs. The old guard Democrats are praying for Methuselah Biden to enter the race and try to restore some balance before it’s too late.

And as Twain predicted, history may go in another completely different direction. Maybe Bernie or one of the women candidates will carry the day. If so, they will find themselves facing another historical precedent; the one where Obama won in a landslide, only to get whupped two years later when the middle class discovered that they, not the billionaires, were going to foot the bill all the new entitlements and programs.

Get yourself some popcorn and settle in. This next year should be one hell of a show.

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3 Responses to History Retreats Itself

  1. Chris Peterson says:

    One of the people here in Oregon that is sponsoring the bill is State Senator Shemia Fagan, who says, “There are a number of issues that affect teenagers, like gun violence in schools, school funding and climate change, for instance, but those same students don’t have a voice in the democratic process.”
    I say “Hear here!” and add that infants suffer most for the act of abortion, therefore, let them vote also. Grade school kids are directly affected by our decisions on school vouchers, so we dare not leave them out. Even illegal aliens, whose fate is constantly being brought forward for possible legislation, must have their voices heard.

    So, with all of that, I propose OR69- EVERYBODY VOTES. If you have a pulse, then you have a place at the polls. (And I would strongly support research into the possibility of legislation for animal rights in our political process.)

  2. rl crabb says:

    Excellent idea. We could register them to vote when they get their birth certificate.

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