DeSantis wants to bring back the 1950s? Cool

Donna Brazile, the ethically challenged Democrat operator, said on Sunday, “Ron DeSantis is running on a 1950s America, not a 2050 America.”

Cool because the 1950s were a period of peace, prosperity and promise in America under President Eisenhower.

After 20 years of wars and depression under Democrat presidents, America was ready to roll again, this time without Uncle Sam spending money he did not have on the military.

America remained, however, the champion of the free world. We drafted the King of Rock and Roll to drive a tank to protect West Germany from a Soviet invasion. Elvis did not complain. He saw it as his patriotic duty because he loved the country. Once his service ended, he came home and resumed his career as a singer and actor.

Imagine some rapper or even country star doing that today. And for the record, Jimi Hendrix served and was a member of the 101st Airborne. That was in the 1960s, which shows the values we had in the 1950s had staying power.

Eisenhower had won the War in Europe in the 1940s. He knew war and he avoided it. His first accomplishment as president was ending the hot war in Korea. He refused to enter England’s dispute with Egypt over the Suez Canal and declined the invitation to join the Hungarian revolution.

Our economy blossomed. Factories hired. Stores stocked up. For the first time since the heyday of Calvin Coolidge, America was booming again without a war.

Eisenhower did this through lower tax rates, balanced budgets and building infrastructure. Not only did he begin the criss-crossing of America with interstate freeways, but he worked with Canada to build the St. Lawrence Seaway, which opened the Great Lakes to global shipping.

After a 20-year hiatus, the suburbanization of America resumed. People fled the crowded, polluted and corrupt cities for a new life in suburbia with large yards, good schools and clean air — much to the despair of Democrats who complained about commercialism, materialism and something they called affluenza.

Democrats point to race relations. But the Supreme Court — led by a chief justice appointed by Eisenhower — stared down stare decisis and reversed Plessy v. Ferguson which had created the right to make black people second-class citizens. Need I mention that the chief justice overseeing Plessy was appointed by a Democrat president?

As for women, Katrina Holte wrote, “In Defense of the 1950s Housewife” on February 9, 2019.

Holte wrote, “In comparison with our modern lives, I have good reason to believe that overall the 1950s would have been a more idyllic sort of lifestyle. People lived closer to their food sources (‘farm to table’), got plenty of fresh air and easy exercise (walking to the market a few times a week), had a much stronger sense of community with their neighbors (‘Ethel, can I borrow some sugar?’), and didn’t have to deal with the stress of heavy traffic and long commutes!

“While the 1950s woman may have had a lot on her plate, her position was held in high esteem and she was praised by society. I guarantee you she never heard the modern-day question, ‘You’re a stay at home mom? What do you do all day?’ On the contrary, every magazine from the 1950s in publication is crammed with advertisements exclaiming, ‘Make the housewife’s job easier! With new, time saving devices!’ Everyone understood that keeping a clean house, doing the cooking, dishes, laundry, errands, being a home manager plus hostessing was a serious, full-time job.'“

People now mock Donna Reed. Why? She won an Oscar and later starred in a TV show that lasted 8 seasons. Her character was just a housewife as in a volunteer, good mother, good neighbor and good wife.

Exploited? No, dearie. It was “The Donna Reed Show,” not “The Carl Betz Show.” She called the shots too. Every year she threatened to leave unless the number of episodes were reduced so she could spend more time (wait for it) with her family.

Women were healthier, too.

The Daily Mail reported, “They may not have worked out in the gym, competed with men in the office or followed the Atkins Diet.

“But 50 years ago women still managed to burn up many more calories than their counterparts today.

“Research suggests the housework and general exercise that stay-at-home housewives did in 1953 were more successful at shedding the pounds.

“The mothers and grandmothers of today's generation burnt well in excess of 1,000 calories a day through their domesticated lifestyle, according to the study by the woman's magazine Prima.

“But females today get through only 556, even though seven in ten think they are healthier than the post-war generation.”

You’ve come a long way, baby.

Maybe you should go back and take the rest of the pod with you.

Thanks to interstates and a rise in car ownership, Americans took up Dinah Shore’s offer to see the USA in their Chevrolet. Was there a better production car than the 1957 Bel-Air?

I am not alone in praising the greatest decade in American history — greatest because it expanded the middle class. Millions of people achieved the American dream.

V. Paul Reynolds wrote on November 24, 2019, “The 1950s were a wonderful decade.”

Writing from his experience in Maine, he said, “In the aftermath of a terrible world war, teenagers and their parents had reasons to be proud of their country, their flag and the freedoms hard won. In those days families had dinner together, and there was conversation. No iPhones. For youngsters there was creative play outside all day, and parents didn’t worry about sex offenders in the neighborhood or mass school shootings. Public education worked. Child obesity was not an American problem. Most children were raised by their mothers and fathers, not by day care providers and teachers.

“Health care was a family physician, Dr. Wagner, who would make house calls and remove a needle from your cat’s throat if need be. The charge was five bucks! If somebody was out of work, which was rare, and in hard times, the town looked after you.

“In Milo, there were five very active churches, and as many restaurants and a mill that employed townspeople. Gas was cheap. If you looked under the hood of your car you didn’t have to be a mechanic or an electronic wonk to identify the moving parts.

“There were dances on Friday night and you could understand the lyrics of a song. Yes, some folks drank too much, but nobody died from drug overdoses. People got married and had children. Abortion was a rarity.”

Nostalgia plays tricks on the mind, sure, but it is not as powerful and empty as the indoctrination that has turned the 1950s into a pejorative.

100,000 overdose deaths last year and 50 million abortions in the last 50 years prove the case for the 1950s because happy people don’t kill themselves or their babies. If DeSantis wants to bring those years back, that is fine with me. DeSantis 2028.