My life as a “Conspiracy Theorist” began in 1980, during hostage crisis with Iran…
I had to have been the only kid in 8th grade who would go to bed at 9:30 PM and set my alarm for 1130 PM so I could get up and watch Nightline with Ted Koppel. Then afterwards I would reset my alarm for 6:35 AM, giving myself 25 minutes to get ready for school before Good Morning America with David Hartman and the news updates by Steve Bell that started at 7 AM.
I’d leave for school around 7:45 AM, riding my bike to get there around 8 AM- and the dash into the library where fresh copies of the Orange County Register, Los Angeles Times and the Wall Street Journal awaited my eager perusal. The bell rang to go to class at 830AM where I would go through the motions of being a middle schooler. Until I could go home, gather the evening editions of the newspapers from my driveway – which I paid for by the way – and watch Eyewitness News with Jerry Dunphy and ABC’s World News Tonight with Peter Jennings. To get the latest hostage news updates, of course.
I was one sick puppy.
I kept that up for over a year and during that time got to watch the 1980 Carter/Reagan Presidential Race. It was an election where the hostage crisis was always front and center as an issue in the campaign. We all know that Reagan won and thank G-d. But one thing always stuck in my mind, which seemed fishy. Reagan made a big deal about how if he were elected to the Presidency, that he would free the hostages. Then VOILA – on Inauguration Day, the hostages were freed!!!
My grandfather, who was a big contributor to the Orange County, California Republican Party, said something that day that always stuck in my mind, “We never would have got rid of that bastard Carter if he would have gotten the hostages released.”
At the time I didn’t think much of it.
Not until I came across an editorial in the New York Times by former President Carter’s National Security advisor, Gary Sick – he also wrote a great book called the October Surprise which left me in shock and crestfallen. In it Sick details a plot carried out by, who would become Reagan’s CIA Director, Bill Casey and former CIA Director and Reagan’s Vice-President, George Bush. One where they promised to supply arms to Iran- to assist in their war with Iraq- if they would hold the hostages until Reagan was elected.
All of my heroes in the Reagan Administration and the Republican Party,
in general, involved in a conspiracy to hold the hostages for political gain?
Not to mention all the rumors of strange deaths, mysterious meetings and other innuendos involved in the coverup.
That was my first taste of political reality; where people will kill, bribe, blackmail and for all intents and purposes, engage in treason to achieve political power.
I should have given up on politics back then, but foolishly I didn’t. No, instead I
decided to completely ruin my life by getting a Bachelors Degree in
Political Science, a Masters in Government and a Juris Doctorate.
Part 2 to follow.
“In politics, nothing happens by accident. If it happens, you can bet it was planned that way.”
Franklin D. Roosevelt
“Since I entered politics, I have chiefly had men’s views confided to me privately. Some of the biggest men in the U.S., in the field of commerce and manufacturing, are afraid of somebody, are afraid of something. They know that there is a power somewhere so organized, so subtle, so watchful, so interlocked, so complete, so pervasive, that they had better not speak above their breath when they speak in condemnation of it.”
Woodrow Wilson, 1913
Straight from the horses’ mouths.
Glad you stayed addicted to politics despite your hero getting knocked off the pedestal you had him on. Maybe I’m naive but I’d like to think that the overwhelming majority of those that enter the field, at least start off with honest intentions. Almost impossible to compete in the mire without getting covered in it.
Another good quote might be;
“I have come to the conclusion that politics is too serious a matter to be left to the politicians.”
Charles De Gaulle
Can’t want for Part 2 , David.
There’s a certain political rouge that looms large in KCMO politics was utterly and convincingly charming to myself, CJ and any number of the early Pitch as a newsweekly staffers.
We would all go out for drinks and he would spellblind us with inspirational tales of his liberal leaning triumphs and causes.
But later – and not too much later – we would all find out how big of a scumbag he was. I remember the time he brought us a pre- written, ready to publish, political hit piece – complete with art (a political cartoon as I recall).
Years later at the Star I discussed with then editor Art Brisbane this man’s character, or lack thereof. So manipulative and seedy was he that Art had reportedly told metro reporters not to use him or quote him in the newspaper. He was effectively banned.
And Brisbane said the same thing the Stomper just did. That this man had started out with high ideals. JFK, MLK, RFK – you name them. But somewhere along the way, the process had turned him.
He’s still around and quite active and many of the same reporters who were forbidden from having anything to do with him quote him freely and allow him to tip them off to his advantage.
Guess that’s how the game is played.