Ronald Reagan is at this moment on his death bed. Yeah, yeah, I know what you're thinking. The dirty old dingbat kicked the bucket nearly three-and-a-half years ago, true. But the revolution which bears his name and the era of unprecedented greed, incompetence and political corruption which was ushered in with his election in November of 1980, is about to go the way of the 45 RPM and the 8-Track tape. The twenty-eight year period of right wing lunacy which has destroyed the infrastructure of a country which used to be a nice place in which to live, is within hours of being shoveled onto history's shit pile. And you and I are going to make it happen.
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Tomorrow night, the so-called Reagan Revolution will be rendered dead as a door nail. Deader than the Gipper himself.
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But it's only going to happen if we all make a Herculean effort to get out the vote. Otherwise, we're in for at least four more years of the slowly closing coffin of America's cultural and economic suicide. If enough people foolishly choose to send John McCain and Gidget von Braun to the Oval Office - to the White House, for Heaven's sake - I will probably be the only person in the country who makes less than two-hundred and fifty-thousand dollars a year who will benefit.
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I'm the type of guy who, if you give me a bag full of really nasty tasting lemons, I'll go out and whip up a pitcher of juicy, thirst quenching lemonade. Such was the case when George W. Bush became president of the United States. Although the disgusting, half-witted little thug was the worst thing to ever happen to this country, he was the best thing that ever happened to me! The hideous little jackass has damned near made me famous. If you don't believe that, "google" my name sometime. See what comes up. We've been quoted in several newspapers and magazines world wide and have been mentioned in a book (Amoral America by Robert Fearn). They're starting to talk about "The Rant" out there, folks. Note to the good people at the Kellogg's Corn Flake Company, Battle Creek, Michigan: I'm open for advertisements.
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If Wednesday morning's headline reads that McCain and Unable were somehow able to pull off the biggest upset since Truman defeated Dewey sixty years ago this week, I'll be fine and dandy, thank you very much! I'll have been delivered four more years of dynamite political material to write about. Also, I'm a millionaire! That's not a subject that I particularly like to talk about but it's the truth. Believe me, if the American people are naive enough to send John McCain to the White House tomorrow night, I'll be swimming in the gravy, baby! Don't cry for me! Cry for yourselves. Better yet, cry for your children; cry for your grandchildren. They're the ones who are eventually going to suffer - horribly. Not me, though! Truth be told, people like me did great during George W. Bush's reign of error! In fact, I did so well under Bush, I was able to quit my job and devote myself to writing full time. Life is literally peppered with these delicious little ironies, isn't it.
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Think about this for a minute: Barack Obama has surrounded himself with brilliant people. The campaign they have run is as well orchestrated as a Swiss watch. John McCain has surrounded himself with reactionary, political hacks. The man who literally wrote the laws which directly led to our current fiscal meltdown, former Texas senator, Phil Gramm, was slated to be the Secretary of the Treasury in a McCain administration. His campaign has been directionless and disorganized.
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Here's the sixty-four dollar question:
Which group do you want managing the executive branch of your government for the next four years? Ah! I thought as much!
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As I have said so many times it's starting to sound trite: This is the most important election in our lifetimes. Not since Franklin Delano Roosevelt sent Herbert Hoover packing back to Iowa have the stakes been higher (FOR THE HISTORICAL RECORD: Hoover actually spent his remaining thirty-two years of life living in a suite of rooms at the Waldorf Astoria in New York City. The only time he went back to Iowa was to be buried there). The Republican party has been hijacked by an organized conspiracy of kooks, criminals and fools - and they show no signs that they are about to rehabilitate themselves anytime soon. As Paul Krugman wrote in his column in this morning's New York Times:
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"The G.O.P.'s long transformation into the party of the unreasonable right, a haven for racists and reactionaries, seems likely to accelerate as a result of the impending defeat."
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Heavens to Betsy! It just doesn't get any better than Krugman. It really doesn't!
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Send the message to as many people as possible. Forward to them this column if you have to. (The more readers the merrier, ya know what I mean?) The results of tomorrow's election will be resounding three-quarters of a century from today - and beyond. Don't believe it? Do you or any members of your family depend on a monthly Social Security check from the government? Do you seriously think that they'd be getting that check today had Hoover had won in 1932? As I said before, the stakes have never been higher. We've still got work to do.
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Where I live in New York state, Barack Obama is a sure thing. All I can do is get the message out to those of you who live in the so-called "purple states" like Florida or Virginia or North Carolina or New Mexico or Ohio or my mother's home state of Indiana (Hi, Uncle Bob! Hi, Aunt Nancy!) The party of Rush Limbaugh was able to steal the elections in 2000 and 2004 because victory depended on a slim margin in single states (Florida and Ohio respectively). What we need in 2008 is a landslide. Barack Obama will need more than a 49/51 victory. If he is going to be able to govern effectively, he'll need a mandate! Let's get to work.
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Just think about the historical ramifications of tomorrow night! This country, which was literally built upon the lacerated back of the Negro slave, is about to send to the White House an African American. And not just any African American! Senator Obama is not Jesse Jackson; He's not Al Sharpton. His is without a doubt the most extraordinary candidacy to come down the political pike in our lifetime - or at least since Jack Kennedy in 1960. If we reject him for the likes of John McCain and Sarah Palin - SARAH FREAKING PALIN??? - honestly, were going to look like a nation of knuckleheads, don'cha think?
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By the way, former Monty Python member John Cleese recently made the following observation, "I used to think that Michael was the world's funniest Palin". Not any longer. Not by a long shot.
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We're almost there. If you can afford to, take tomorrow off; volunteer to drive your home bound, elderly neighbor to the polling place; make phone calls; if you're an African American, make damned sure that all of your friends and everyone in your family gets out and votes. We're within reach of taking our country back from these hideous bastards and bitches. They're going to challenge our votes - particularly the votes of the young and people of color. We've got to make a massive effort. It's our country, goddammit, and we're going to take it back!
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God help them if they try to stop us.
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Tom Degan
Goshen, NY
tomdegan@frontiernet.net
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AFTERTHOUGHT:
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The photograph to the left of the column is of an RCA Victor record album that Reagan recorded in 1964. It was called. "Ronald Reagan speaks out against SOCIALIZED MEDICINE". It was a forty minute diatribe against Medicare and Medicaid. You can hear it in its entirety on You Tube. It's an absolute scream. What can I say? The man was a contemptible asshole.
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Special thanks to Louise Carle for the photo at the top of the page of Senator Obama embracing one of the millions of victims of this disgusting administration.
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FLASH!!!
Just seventy-seven days to go until the Bush Mob is History!
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