Celebrating our 250th birthday over the weekend brought back memories of our Bicentennial in 1976 and the similarities between then and now. The fall of Saigon marked the humiliating end of the Vietnam War. We maintained something of a detante with what many thought was an ascendant Soviet Union, with us in decline. We were suffering from stagflation, a stagnant economy with ever-increasing prices. Many were pushed into higher tax brackets, while their income bought less.  

After Watergate and President Nixon’s resignation, we were looking forward to the less-than-thrilling choice between Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter for President. I hoped that Ronald Reagan would somehow prevail at the Republican Convention the following month, but it wasn’t to be. It was the period that caused Jimmy Carter, as President, to give his “malaise ” speech.

President Ford’s “Whip Inflation Now” Campaign, with its WIN buttons and voluntary appeals to save rather than spend, plant gardens, turn down the thermostat, and carpool, summed up his policy. After the progressive McGovern fiasco, the Democrats turned to a Georgia peanut farmer about whom nobody knew much, especially what he’d do.

We celebrated our birthday, but we wished we could be more upbeat about the future. Maybe those prophecies of gloom and doom were right, and we were in decline.

I thought we had all this behind us, but Déjà vu, here we are at 250 with many of the same or similar problems. A war gone awry, with humiliation in the wings, inflation refusing to go away, and most people having little faith in the abilities and policies of our two major parties. Again, maybe we’re in decline, and the American dream is gone for good. Some share New York Mayor Mandani’s dark view of America, where the wealthy oppress working people.

The memory of people hanging from the last helicopters leaving our Saigon Embassy seared into our minds the knowledge of our impotence. Now we have a vast armada in the Middle East, and we can’t keep an international waterway open. According to the Wall Street Journal (WSJ), when we began to open the Strait of Hormuz, Saudi Arabia told us no and closed its airspace to us. They might suffer damage. While Iran is raking in big oil revenues, we have achieved none of our goals.

If anyone knows what we’re doing in this war, please tell me. As it stands, we look like fools.

In the 1970s, Richard Nixon told us he wasn’ta crook, only to find on tape that he was. On Friday, June 3rd, the Wall Street Journal had three front-page stories shining light on President Trump and his family’s questionable dealings.

One informed us that the President raked in over a billion dollars while those investing in his World Liberty tokens and memecoins lost big. Another showed remarkable timing in his stock trades relative to administration announcements. The last alluded to Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin getting more government contracts, as Amazon founder’s friendship with the President grew.

If the coming election gives the Democrats control of either the House or the Senate, the President will face endless congressional investigations, equalling or even dwarfing the Watergate hearings. There may be no fire, but there sure is a lot of smoke. The second half of Trump’s term may look a lot like Nixon’s, smothered under Watergate.

. Trump was returned to the Presidency in part to remove the stain of our withdrawal from Afghanistan. Equally on the minds of the electorate was the worst inflation since the 1970s. Here we are almost halfway through the term, and we’re still dealing with rising prices.

Whatever positive effects Trump’s supply-side tax and regulation policies have had have been more than offset by his extreme tariffs and disruptions from the Iran War. Even with a growing economy, people like those in the 1970’s find they have less at the end of the month, and they’re not happy.

Just as in 1976, few see either party offering solutions or the leadership to institute them. Seen as making things worse, both are very unpopular. The Democrats offer the warmed-over failed policies mirroring Marxism. The Republicans offer Trump and whatever he thinks at the moment.

Yes, today seems a lot like the downbeat 1970s; it is well to remember that, even though we went on to double-digit inflation and interest rates, resulting in a recession, we came out of it better and stronger. Even though I don’t remember any reporting on it at the time, 1976 saw Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak start Apple. America’s innovation was still alive, and it soon ushered in a new era of growth.

While we remember Jimmy Carter as an ineffective President, his administration saw the start of deregulation. For instance, it opened up transportation. Plane flight, heretofore the province of the well-to-do, became accessible to the masses. Deregulation lowered prices.

Ronald Reagan continued and expanded these policies, and coupled them with supply-side tax reform to curb inflation and allow the economy to grow.

Perceiving that the Soviet Union was revealing the inherent weaknesses of Marxism and falling behind our newly invigorated economy, Reagan pressed for arms expansion and a confident foreign policy, which ultimately led to the Soviet Union’s collapse.

While it wasn’t much fun to go through the 1970’s, by moving towards our free-market, innovative roots, under leadership that understands what makes us tick, we bounced back better than ever. The clouds parted, and we again could see the “Shining g City on the Hill.”

As Milton Friedman reminded us, America means “Free to Choose”. Our dismal political situation may result in more and better options, providing the competence we’ve sorely lacked. We could develop workable strategies for Iran and Ukraine.

Artificial Intelligence (AI), rather than a job destroyer, is more likely to follow in the footsteps of our other great innovations; while disruptive, it will improve our lives.

Maybe I’m Pollyannish, but the clouds could part, as they did after the 1970s. One of the advantages of a long life is that you get to see how some things turn out.