In 1976, a two-term Republican president (Richard Nixon) became extremely unpopular — much more so than the current Republican president George Bush, as seen in the fact that Nixon was forced to resign from office (the only such incident in all of American history).

The Republicans were ousted from office and Jimmy Carter, hailed as a “new kind of leader,” was ushered into the Oval Office with a majority of the popular vote. The Democrats held 67.1% of the House of Representatives and 62% of the Senate — overwhelming dominance in Congress, and the presidency.

What happened next?

Well, four years later Carter lost his bid for reelection by 8 million votes, taking only 41% of those cast. Republicans had a net gain of 12 seats in the Senate, gaining control of the body. Reagan was reelected in a landslide in 1984, then, after serving two complete terms, his vice president was elected to succeed him — something that hadn’t happened since Marin Van Buren succeeded Andrew Jackson in 1837.

Carter was rejected because it turned out that his total lack of experience (he was a peanut farmer) made him far too soft on America’s enemies, especially Russia, and totally unable to carry out foreign policy. Ronald Reagan was elected with a mandate to get tough on the USSR, and his escalation of the arms race bankrupted it and drove it into the dustbin of history. Soon thereafter, Republicans recaptured control of the House of Representatives.

Those who are celebrating the possibility that Barack Obama will win the White House this year, backed up by a Democratic Congress, would do well to remember a little history. They might also consider the fact that they’ve been claiming the country is about to plunge headlong into a horrible recession; if it does, Democrats will get the blame, just as they did for the nation’s economic woes under Carter (which he famously referred to as “malaise”).

There are many unsettling similarities between Carter and Obama, except that Carter didn’t have an incendiary religious background tied to racism and extremism the way Obama does with Jeremiah Wright, something that only adds more fuel to his potential funeral pyre.

But the left doesn’t seem to care, and is settling into an orgy of arrogance and hatred over the prospect of an Obama victory. I’m always amazed at the way liberals can attack Republicans for being unwilling to speak reasonably to America’s foes, and yet adopt exactly the same attitude towards those on the right. Rather hypocritical, isn’t it?

Same thing goes for religion. You know how those on the left scoff at religion, as if anyone who believes it isn’t a fully evolved human? Suddenly, it seems, they’re changing their minds, and deciding that Barack Obama is a “lightworker.” He became so studying racism at the feet of Jeremiah Wright, I guess.

Here are a few choice bits of their analysis:

JFK wasn’t assassinated for any typical reason you can name. It’s because he was just this kind of high-vibration being, a peacemaker, at odds with the war machine, the CIA, the dark side. Umm, OK, if you say so. But, didn’t JFK launch the Bay of Pigs and the Vietnam war?

I’ve heard from far too many enormously smart, wise, spiritually attuned people who’ve been intuitively blown away by Obama’s presence - not speeches, not policies, but sheer presence - to say it’s just a clever marketing ploy. Err, maybe. But when conservatives said that about Reagan, liberals called him the “Teflon president” who was elevating form over substance, and they said they despised that. Moreover, Apparently, none of these people were in California, Texas or New York, the nation’s three largest electoral powerhouses. Obama lost them all.

Even Bill Clinton, with all his effortless, winking charm, didn’t have what Obama has, which is a sort of powerful luminosity, a unique high-vibration integrity.

That’s for sure. Because when Bill Clinton “won” the presidency in 1992, 57% of the country voted against him.

So to recap: Liberals say the country is headed for a massive recession, yet they are rejoicing about the idea of being in power when it happens. They say they favor “democracy” and yet they are rejoicing about the end of the Republican Party and the day when Americans will have no other choice but Democrats. They say religion is for cave men, but they are creating a Church of Obama.

Santayana said that those who can’t remember history are doomed to repeat it. Truer words were never spoken.

And maybe this explains why the Dumbocrats haven’t reelected a president with a majority of the popular vote since World War II.