I've been waiting 36 years for a backlash from the American people...

[TeamPooka]

I've been waiting 36 years for a backlash from the American people to the destructive policies that Ronald Reagan and his conservative, ie: corporate coalition forced upon us but the citizens remained silent while I shouted.
Reagan and the GOP decimated a tax base drawn from the wealthy that paid for a space program, basic infrastructure, and the building of a Great Society.
They outsourced every damn manufacturing job they could to China so we have to compete with slave labor wages and surrender the middle class.
They have set the poor against each other with race baiting and divisive rhetoric.
They convinced us that unions were a bad thing, the way Robber Barons did in the Gilded Age.
They used people of faith in this country as political dupes by promising "moral laws" they never delivered and labeled any political opposition as an evil force in the world.
They let people die every day when lives could be saved with regulation or the simple humanity behind universal access to basic healthcare.
They've told us we can't do great things anymore and we shouldn't even try.
When Republicans like Donald Trump say America isn't great anymore they are right, but not in the way they mean because they caused the decline for which they shed crocodile tears.
For 36 years the American people have gone along with all of it like sheep to the slaughter repeating "tax cuts" like a zombie on the Walking Dead, all while I've been hitting my head over and over and over again.
They ruined our country and told us to thank them for it and be grateful for the crumbs they left us.
Republicans like to call back to a great time in this country, usually the 1950's, but forget the tax rates on the rich were around 90% when they reached the 1% level of wealth.
And we went to the moon because of it.
Democrats were never much help because after getting spanked electorally along the way somewhere winning became more important than policies. So even if we were electing Blue Dogs to Congress and moderates like Bill Clinton to the White House it was okay by them because we were WINNING.
We were winning by acting like conservatives.
We were winning everything except the fight to fix what was broken by Reagan and the rest because the "moderates" sold out the progressives, so we continued to lose jobs, wealth, and the middle class.
It's not all Reagan's fault either.
MY generation screwed up a lot of shit the last 36 years.
We knew it was our job to save the ecology of the planet back in the 70s but as a generation of Alex P. Keatons we let our corporate careers take precedence, only to lose those white collar careers to downsizing and outsourcing like the manufacturing sector.
We knew it was our job to create equality for all sexes, races and people in the LBGTQ community but we went along with DOMA and 'don't ask, don't tell" instead.
We knew it was our job to save the manufacturing jobs but traded that for cheaper iPhones and plastic crap from Wal-Mart. Steve Jobs is the Henry Ford of China, not an American hero.
We knew it was our job to take care of our veterans, from Vietnam to the Gulf Wars, but we let our politicians fail them over and over again.
We didn't do any of what we knew needed to be done because it was easier to not do it.
We didn't act but our children have started to do what we failed to.
The amazing thing is we didn't change as a people and the fabric of our greatness remains, waiting to be raised like a flag and flown proudly once more.
We can fly that flag again and live up to the potential our generation once had by doing the things we failed to act on in the past.
Every revolution we have changes this country for the better.
A revolution founded the country.
A revolution freed the slaves.
A revolution got women the right to vote.
A revolution re-founded this country with The New Deal.
I've been waiting 36 years for a backlash from the American people to essentially say they were sick and tired and they weren't going to take it anymore, as Paddy Chayefsky once wrote.
I think I saw that backlash truly begin in Iowa tonight with Bernie Sanders leading it.
I'm ready to fight again and I feel like a lot of citizens are finally on my side and ready to fight too.
Won't you join us?
Together, this time, I know our side will win.
By the way, the revolution will be televised, as promised.
We are going to make this country great again, but sorry Donald, it's going to be great for everyone, not just a lucky or chosen few.

[Stardust]

1. K&R!

[TeamPooka]

3. I am a little warm. :) nt

[Populist_Prole]

4. Absolutely quotable

I am humbled. You knocked it out of the park and into the next galaxy.

[PatrickforO]

5. With you? I've never left!

Bernie is great because he is us. He is a good man, and we are great whenever we are good. I think deToqueville expressed that though.

Let us now reawaken that goodness.

[TeamPooka]

9. It has begun. :) nt

[GoneFishin]

6. Wow. Inspirational. This belongs on a 70's style blacklight poster written in dayglow paint,

or whatever the equivalent would be on Chatbook or Facesnap.

[WiffenPoof]

7. That is Easily One Of The Best Posts I've Read on DU

You nailed it my friend. Excellent post. Well stated and worthy of the highest posting on the Greatest Threads on DU. Wow... Simply wow!. Thank you.

[TeamPooka]

8. Thank you Wiffen. nt

[felix_numinous]

10. Patterns of behavior in an abusive relationship

can be seen in a culture living under abuse. The minorities, or those parts of us that become intimidated not to dominate, either get buried or learn alternative ways to survive. Usually it is the most creative and truthful parts of us that get oppressed and intimidated, ridiculed and marginalized. These are the parts focused on in abuse.

When our most natural instinctual parts of us get buried, the dynamic changes profoundly. We are full of doubt and are too intimidated to act from our core.

I can remember clearly deciding 'Well if you can't beat em join em' --for awhile--partying hard as long as I could. Luckily for me I got sick and had to break away and break up and start my life over from scratch elsewhere.

I see the killing of JFK RFK MLK, the systematic eradication of indigenous tribes, the planet and now outright abuse of AA as an oppressive over culture that uses these events as a method of control--because there is a complete lack of any justice whatsoever. 911 was never resolved for this reason, as a reminder of what powerful
people can pull off. Abusive families always have a scapegoat, and often out of instinct the rest cope by numbing escaping or joining with this culture just to survive.

And this was the yuppie phenomena of the Reagan years, party on, movies got rougher and dystopian-- 'greed is good' and the worst old stereotypes appeared in films again as if they had never been challenged. It was 'back to the future' reviving and superimposing 50s blindness just when we badly needed to stop warmongering, racism and getting off of fossil fuels.

Our better selves KNEW THIS, but by then we gave in to addictions on infotainment. This abusive system used propaganda and then fearmongering to keep us kettled in, to keep us from uniting and awakening---and remembering who we are.

I see this year 2016 as our divorce from the over culture, we are declaring our independence from it, unifying ourselves, remembering that we do know who we are and we do know the way forward. It takes courage--and NOT LISTENING to the abusive messages that only want us addicted, blind and asleep.

[TeamPooka]

11. hear hear! nt