On Tue, 11 Jul 2000, Carrol Cox wrote:
> As to what might happen if we had a Democratic Congress and a Democratic
> President: go back and read the political news of 1977-1980. We had the
> launching of all the policies (including military expansion) for which
> Reagan was later to claim credit.
>
> Carrol
Which as always pretends that the President is all-powerful while ignoring changes in Congress. The 1978 Congressional elections saw massive gains for rightwing politicians, especially in the Senate, which encouraged the Boll Weevil Democrats to team up with the new GOP strength to pass the first cuts in capital gains taxes and filibuster any progressive legislation.
Of course, Carroll also ignores some of the very good legislation that passed in that period such as the massive expansion of aid for students in college.
-- Nathan Newman