What’s Old Is New Again?

I don’t know if it’s just me, or if there’s something to this nostalgia thing. It seems that we, as a nation, have become embarrassed with where we were as a nation over the past eight years under Barack Obama, and now, we’re going back to a time when we remember it fondly. When I was a kid in the 60’s and 70’s, that would describe Eisenhower and the 1950’s. However, I’m talking now about Ronald Reagan and the 1980’s.

Think I’m joking? Look at what’s been happening…

We have a president that after the previous administration’s failure to right the ship economically, is doing so. In the 1970’s that was Jimmy Carter. 46 years later, it was Barack Obama.

We have a president that has a positive, “feel good” message about being American. Back in 1980, remember? It was “Morning again in America” when candidate Ronald Reagan ran for office. In 2016, it was “Make America Great Again” under candidate Donald Trump.

Under Ronald Reagan, we didn’t mince words when it came to fighting foreign powers. Under Jimmy Carter, all we had was failure (remember the Iran hostage crisis, and the failed attempt to rescue them? I’m sure Oliver North does!) Today, we are dealing with failed foreign policy moves by Barack Obama that cost us (like the Iran nuclear deal, the TPP, and Paris Accords). Those were all ideals that Obama knew would never pass muster in Congress, so he never made them law, but rather executive orders. Under Donald Trump, he took those executive orders and threw them all in the trash.

OK, enough of politics. Do you need some other examples? What were the popular TV shows in the 1980’s? MacGyver, Murphy Brown, Magnum PI, and Rosanne, right? Geez, have you LOOKED at the lineup of TV shows lately? All four of those shows are coming back or are back and are doing very well! So, by the way is Hawaii 5-0, which is a retread from an even earlier time.

So, it would appear that there is this nostalgia craze to take us back in time about 35 years. That in and of itself isn’t surprising. We did the same type of thing musically about 15 years ago. That’s when the classic rock format really started taking hold with radio stations. Actually it goes back to the mid 1990’s. But music from groups like The Eagles never went out of style, they just went from the Top 40 stations to Classic Rock stations. They’ve ALWAYS been on the radio. And who do you think is making comebacks in commercials today? MC Hammer! When was he popular? Yup.

I understand we all want to go back to a simpler time, and we all look at our youth as that time (except the hippies from the 1960’s, because it wasn’t so simple back then…they just turned into mean-spirited Democrats!) The whole thing is that in this day and age, we are reminded so clearly of Ronald Reagan…who by the way was also embroiled in a scandal that never really went anywhere. Do you remember? It was called Iran/Contra. And while it may have taken down some minor players, the president remain unscathed. Same thing happens today with Russian Collusion.

The more we change, the more we stay the same! Just sayin’

Carry on world…you’re dismissed!