San Francisco Plus 40
The first Democratic National Convention I attended was in San Francisco in 1984. UN Ambassador Jeane Kirkpatrick indelibly labeled attendees “San Francisco Democrats,” because of their left-leaning policies.
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Forty years later it appears little has changed. Then, Vice President Walter Mondale, who was nominated to take another crack at the invincible Ronald Reagan, gave an acceptance speech that contained many promises and criticisms today’s Democrats are likely to renew at their convention this week in Chicago.
Then, Mondale claimed to have learned a lesson from his and Jimmy Carter’s defeat by Reagan in 1980, but it didn’t sound like it, nor does it sound like it now as Mondale’s party has moved even further left.
In his acceptance speech, Mondale used the familiar buzzwords, including “family,” “hope,” “caring,” “patriotism,” (delegates were given small American flags to wave in front of the TV cameras), and “the future.”
He claimed he would not raise taxes, but later in a debate with Reagan he said he would. He bashed corporations and “the rich” (sound familiar?), claiming they were better off, but “working Americans are worse off.” They didn’t think so and most voted for Reagan a second time, resulting in his winning 49
