I have waited 28 years to watch these fuckers crawl...

[PCIntern]

On Election night, 1980, I called my father of blessed memory and asked him, "Dad, what are we gonna do?"

I was a few months out of dental school with loans and facing a fascist Reagan-state, and scared to death of what the future would hold. My father, a man of great practical and historic wisdom replied, "What you're going to do is you're going to get up in the morning, shower, dress, and go to work. You're going to eat your meals, you're going to date your girlfriend, you're going to go down to the Jersey Shore for weekends in the summers. And you're going to wait. You're going to watch and wait for possibly a very long time, and someday, these bastards will get their just desserts. They call for less government...we'll see just how long the system can run on full throttle cronyism before it collapses."

Well, it didn't occur in his lifetime, and I miss having him and my Mom to talk to about all this...as I once mentioned, they sat shiva for 50 years following Adlai's loss in 1952, but this is the fate of the Progressive.

So it is now about time for the chickens to come home to roost. We are watching the death of the insane movement - it is still gasping and choking for air, and idiots like Limbaugh still spew, but soon we may hear the death-rattle in the throat of the beast.

From my lips to God's ear.

[BlooInBloo]

1. Jesus - it really has been that long since Reagan, hasn't it?

:rofl:

[kmdemqueen]

164. I was only eight

I still remember my mother spitting at the T.v. when Reagan won.

[Pete2069]

168. They will wind up pushing all this BS on the democrats.

Republicans which are coming up for re-election will not vote
for this measure and on their campaign trail , they will pin
Bush's deregulations of these institutions on the democrats.  
They is a sucker born (democrat)  every minute and there are 2
crooks (republicans)  to string then in.
I don't understand why are the democrats leading this charge
for making the so called crisis , have somewhat of an over
site.  while the republicans are going on the news media
saying we should not bail them out and blaming the democrats
for the problem which Bush and their controlled government
created.
If you remember the democrats before 2006 could not even have
a room to hold meeting. But every since 2006 the republicans
are hollowing the democrats are not being bia partisan..
Our government could not have been more partisan and
controlled by the republican party then it has since 1994.
Why don't the democrats just say if the party which created
this destruction will not face up to it and stop playing the
political card , then hell no ,, we will not either.....

[two gun sid]

2. Great post!

Your father was so right.

I'm gonna enjoy watching these fuckers self-destruct right before our eyes.

[tavalon]

41. Going to?

I am.

[bread_and_roses]

81. I would enjoy that too, Sid

Let's just hope that's the way it plays out.

[Matariki]

3. I was a few months to graduating from Art School

we played German beer hall music and marched around my friends kitchen in parody of the fascism we perceived. To keep from crying. The dirty dealing with the hostage crisis and the contras was so evident.

Within months, many of my junior schoolmates had to drop out due to cuts in financial aid. And in these 30 years, we've really witnessed significant dumbing down and greater political crimes. On the other hand this current election gives me much more faith in my fellow citizens. Best of times, worst of times...

[rucognizant]

58. SO how is your art career going?

I had already been running a free lance art business for 7 years, raising 2 kids after a divorce, with NO child support.
I felt the blows one by one through the 80's, still exceeding my income of '79............until Neil Bush's SIverado & Mccain's Keating 5...........yeh! My mortgage was sold, my current patron was pushed into bankruptcy...........and I had to sell my house at a loss just ahead of a foreclosure. ( I was charged for the court proceedings, and my credit was ruined for 7 years..)
I put all the money into a much lesser house owned outright in a rural area! So far so good!
Oh career? NONE! All my artist friends are not selling no matter where in the country they live!
We live in a society of warriors, sportsman, & medical personell, ( because out imbalance is making us sick)

[road2000]

107. Your story touches a chord.

It's similar to mine in many respects, including no child support and ruined credit back in the eighties. I did thrive better in the nineties, and I am sticking with my modest house -- absolutely refusing to borrow against it. I'm glad to see my child in grad school on scholarship before the complete collapse arrives.

Back on topic... I've thought of what I'd do the night of the election: get drunk, scream, laugh, cry, dance in the streets when the nightmare is finally broken.

[Matariki]

116. Yep. Art isn't too valued here.

Shortly after school, in the 80's, for a 'day job' I worked in an 'art factory' - (mass) producing canvases - big innocuous abstracts that ended up in corporate offices or matches for people's couches.

Later, I had my own business doing something similar with cast paper 'art' and screen prints. Switched to web design and then to development. I actually feel less compromised this way.

As far as my 'real' art career. Sigh. Ran a few alternative galleries and had some fun, but the lack of enthusiasm in our culture has a wearing affect and makes it harder and harder to stay excited about painting.

There's a link to my portfolio site in my profile, if you're interested...

[Laelth]

4. Hear, hear! n/t

:dem:

-Laelth

[natureman]

5. Similar Story

My Dad who is 80 years old told me back in the 80's that Raygun was the working man's enemy. He told me a few years back that if you give a republican enough rope they will hang themselves. I hope I get the chance to enjoy them swingin in November. I would love to be with my elderly parents to watch a very intelligent man win the white house and a Democratic ass-kicking in the congress. I would charish that for the rest of my life. Many Republicans respect my Dad. They can't believe that such an honest, hard working and family centered man is a Democrat.

[calimary]

20. Welcome to DU! My dad always said he was an independent. I knew he always voted

republi-CON. But I think, seeing what's happened over the last seven-and-some years, even he would be recoiling in disgust. And he's the one who taught me about "IGMFU" (stands for "I Got Mine... well, you get the idea).

[MsLeopard]

6. I'm with you

I've waited since St. Ronnie assumed the throne too. Personally, I thought the Repubs impeaching Clinton in such an obvious power grab would sink them then, in the late 90s. But I overestimated the intelligence of the voting population, or election fraud was taking place then too.

If this sequence of events doesn't cause the Republican party to go the way of the Whigs, then I hold little hope for our survival as a nation.

[Mira]

7. K&R you made my arm hair stand up

[PCIntern]

8. No greater compliment...

Thanks!

[OneGrassRoot]

47. Ditto. n/t

[Left Is Write]

9. You brought a tear to my eye.

In all sincerity. This is a great post, and I lift a glass in your dad's memory.

[SpiralHawk]

10. Your old man really had the republicons pegged

...some 28 years ago.

Tragically, now every American knows...

[grannylib]

11. Amen, amen, let it be so. I'm ashamed to admit it but I would REVEL

in seeing all these filth perp-walked to prison. Assets seized. Lives basically OVER. It's better than they deserve.

[undergroundpanther]

158. I want them gone

Not to prison but sentenced and for them to be forced to walk into a crowd of people they victimized ALONE..Soon their bodies would just ripped apart by the furious mob.I hate them.If they want to be America's Mussolini's let them DIE like Mussolini did than.I want them and their cronies and all their ruthless kind to be put to an end forever.Prison is too kind for some psychopaths.

[specimenfred1984]

12. K&R

I hope we Americans have the balls to jail the criminals for a long, long time.

[Surya Gayatri]

13. PCIntern, thank you so much

for expressing in one beautifully written paragraph what I have felt and lived for the last 30 years.
SG

[formercia]

14. I remember when they screwed over Carter

I watched it happen from the inside.The October Surprise was definitely an inside job.

[ramapo]

90. The Dems got the job started

I was amazed at what a hard time Democrats gave Carter. Remember that Kennedy mounted an credible primary challenge.

The failure of the rescue mission really did Carter in. There is no doubt that the October Surprise was an inside job, the first of many con jobs perpetrated by the Republicans.

I'll never forget my utter dismay as so many of my peers (I was then 25 years old) got behind Reagan. That he appealed to the under-25 crowd was just so distressing.

My dad was a die-hard Republican. He thought Reagan was great and I remember him getting so angry with me when I would mock Reagan's capabilities. It wasn't until the fiasco of the Clinton impeachment that dad finally saw those bastards for what they really were (are). He's been gone for ten years now and I'm glad he missed what has transpired.

It is difficult to comprehend what has taken place in the last 28 years. The future sure hasn't turned out how I envisioned it as a young pre-Reagan adult.

There was just one disappointment (that is too weak a word) after another. The Clinton election was a brief glimmer of hope but that didn't turn out all that great either. He signed a lot of bad legislation, did little to nothing on energy independence (actually encouraged the SUV debacle) and certainly did not act in the most responsible way.

Now there is a chance, a good chance, that the old cabal will finally get kicked out on their asses. I try to deny myself any real hope that this will really happen, lest the worst happens. If McCain somehow sleazes his way in...well I really don't know how I'll deal with it. I try to go by the old "hope for the best, expect the worst" but I know if the worst happens that I will be devastated.

[formercia]

108. I could tell you stories about the failed rescue mission.

I dated the ex-girlfriend of the mission commander and she told me stories that will never be declassified.

It was a mother of all fuck ups and Carter had nothing to do with it.

When the team abandoned the landing site after the tragic collision between one of the helos and a C-130, they left behind the complete mission op plan, overhead imagery of the target and a list of Iranians that were on our payroll. The Iranians rolled up almost all of our agents because of that.

A follow-on mission would have been almost impossible without an invasion.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

114. Yes Carter was set up

[carnie_sf]

120. My cousin

was on that mission and he still won't really talk about what happened. He's been a communist ever since though.

[leveymg]

132. They couldn't have screwed up and revealed more if they tried.

Guess who was on that mission to Desert One? The newest member of the JCS, AF General Norton Schwartz, along with Gerry Boykin, who needs no introduction. This is how the 25th year commemoration was reported in the Pentagon press office: http://www.defenselink.mil/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=31346

"On April 25,1980, the rescue attempt, dubbed "Operation Eagle Claw," came to a flaming end on the floor of the desert near Tehran. Eight Americans -- five airmen and three Marines -- were killed when the rotor of a helicopter sliced into the fuselage of a C-130 transport aircraft.

The eight killed in the failed rescue attempt were' Air Force Maj. Richard L. Bakke, Marine Sgt. John D. Harvey, Marine Cpl. George N. Holmes Jr., Marine Staff Sgt. Dewey L. Johnson, Air Force Maj. Harold L. Lewis, Air Force Tech. Sgt. Joel C. Mayo, Air Force Maj. Lyn D. McIntosh and Air Force Capt. Charles T. McMillan II.

Today's ceremony, sponsored by the White House Commission on Remembrance, also brought together 10 of the hostages. The hostages were finally released by the Iranians after 444 days in captivity.

There was sadness at the ceremony, but there was also admiration for the courage the men showed and the knowledge that out of the fires of Desert One -- as the site in Iran was known -- came the impetus for a new, stronger, more integrated military and special operations force.

Air Force Lt. Gen Norton Schwartz, director of the Joint Staff, called the failure of the Iran hostage rescue mission a seminal event in recent American military history. He said the mission was "so important that the nation's self-image, it's standing and reputation in the world community, and the fate of a presidency hung in the balance."

When the mission failed, media reports were full of recriminations, and nations around the world called the United States a toothless lion. "Yet at the same time, the memory of Desert One propelled a generation, of which I am a part, to assure that America would never again repeat that searing, transforming experience of the 25th of April 1'80," Schwartz said.

"Never again would we be so unprepared, so ill-equipped, so entirely dependent on the skills, resourcefulness of our people, who, despite shortcomings in force cohesion, equipment and external support, lifted off into the darkness with only one mission imperative' bring Americans home," he said.

Schwartz said the often-maligned heroes of that mission lifted off from the deck of the USS Nimitz with the "conviction that completing the mission served interests far larger than themselves, at a moment in time when the nation's reputation and American lives truly hung in the balance."

The general said that all Americans share the grief of the families who lost loved ones that day. But they died trying, Schwartz said. They kept the promise. "Because on that murky night, when they faced America's adversary and their own fears, your men did not submit," Schwartz told the families. "They did not retire. They didn't then, and we, their successors -- in large measure in their honor -- do not and will not now."

Army Lt. Gen. William Boykin was one of the would-be rescuers that day. He said that accident "was the greatest disappointment of my professional career because we didn't bring home 53 Americans."

Now principal deputy undersecretary of defense for intelligence and warfighter support in the Pentagon, Boykin also called the mission one of the proudest moments of his career. He said all the men in the rescue effort knew the risks. "None of us wanted to die; none of us expected to die, but we knew the risk," Boykin said. "We knew that we were up against an entire nation with a force of barely 100 people."

Old neocons never die.

[bperci108]

139. Is that the same Boykin that made the "Our God is bigger than their God" comment a few years back?

Or am I thinking of someone else?


:shrug:

[Thothmes]

185. He was the President

He was the Commander in Chief. If it would have been successful, he would have reaped high praise and adulation for the success. It failed, he has to accept the slings and arrows for the failure. That is the nature of the office of the Presidency.

[defendandprotect]

127. There is only one way the right can come to power: LIES, STEALS, ASSASSINATIONS --

coup on JFK was actally a coup on democratic government --

[disndat]

135. Starting with Reagan,

there was the "angry white men backlash' against all we had achieved with the Civil Rights/Women's Rights movements. Maybe we will come full circle with the election (pray!) of Barack Obama.

[EC]

159. I agree, with the under 25 crowd getting behind Reagan....

I argued till I was blue in the face with fellow students that their Pell Grants would be cut and they would have to quit school. Well, they disagreed and when we all had to quit, I took no pleasure in saying "I told you so" I stopped talking or having anything to do with any of them after that...Since then I did not have anything to do with ANYONE that was a repub, would not work with them, get acquainted with them, do business with any establishment I knew was red, noda....

[defendandprotect]

126. How few seem to understand the October Surprise ...

and how less than curious the corp-press has been about it --

[formercia]

141. Just about as curious for the current 'October Surprise.'

They will try to tie Obama's hands just like they did to Carter and do their best with the Great Wurlitzer to discredit him.

[defendandprotect]

152. Agree ---

[byronius]

15. I was twenty.

I wrote in my journal: "So Big Brother comes to power now."

I think it's genetic, and I think they'll be with us forever. Hopefully under a rock, or in prison, but...

[cliffordu]

16. Yep - From your lips to God's ear.

I think I would have liked your pop.

[Jeffersons Ghost]

17. we need more Nasa funding...

and less war in Iraq, which breeds terrorism

[LiberalAndProud]

25. bridges or bombs,

choices ...

[ClayZ]

18. BRAVO! Great Post! Thank you!

"So it is now about time for the chickens to come home to roost. We are watching the death of the insane movement - it is still gasping and choking for air, and idiots like Limbaugh still spew, but soon we may hear the death-rattle in the throat of the beast."

K and R

[calimary]

19. So have I.

I hope your words find their way to God's Ear. I am yearning for the day they finally get their comeuppance. A whole slew of them ought to be in jail for a LONG time. They are responsible for a world of hurt.

[PCIntern]

21. Incalculable damage...

it was Pol Pot without the genocide...utterly and totally disruptive of the system which had, at one time, allowed this country to flourish.

[Binka]

22. I Remember That Election So Clear I Was Just 21 And It Was My First Vote

I had eloped that March with an F-14 pilot from Miramar CA (really DUMB ASS move) and we were watching the Tee-Vee at one of the fighter jocks homes. There was a lot of whooping it up and carrying it on. Me I went into the bathroom and cried. I had cast my first vote for Carter and I knew Ronnie was gonna kill our American dream. Sitting on the toilet and sobbing at 21, please make it OK now. My heart has been broken for years over this.

Thanks so much for this post. You are a peach PC.

[grantcart]

23. I was working in a refugee camp in Thailand and was stunned

I remember when I was in jr high and going to a Lincoln day dinner in 1967 and say Reagan gave a very thin stump speech and thought it was a joke then.

[quantass]

24. Fascinating writeup...wish there was more.

[Hekate]

26. From your lips to God's ear. A toast to your Dad--and you.

:toast:

Hekate

[Waiting For Everyman]

27. Ain't it the truth!

It took WAAAAAAYY too long.

[Beregond2]

28. My brother was always my father's favorite.

When he voted for Reagan, it broke Dad's heart. Not that he ever said anything to my brother; he wasn't that way. But I know he wondered where he had gone wrong. I wish he could see this day, but he died of cancer fifteen years ago. But at least he didn't have to know about Dubya.

[PCIntern]

30. Funny you should post this...

I'm up early 'cause I'm so concerned about America...

Your post got me thinking about the Thanksgiving dinner in 1983, with the political season coming up, my father casually remarked at the dinner table that he could understand if I would vote for Reagan, inasmuch as tax breaks, etc. He was making an academic point, neither a recommendation nor a desire to see me do so, but just weighing the options and the reasoning.

My mother's entire body lifted out of the chair and she got so mad, I thought we were going to have a big problem, but she wound up calming down after he explained it to her. It was like a cat seeing a mouse run right in front of it. She and I had a laugh over it for years.

[NJCher]

29. the clever ending

Trust me, PCIntern, Pops is standing next to you and enjoying the chickens coming home to roost after 28 years.

I think he would be most amused at the clever ending to the story. The headline of its death could be "Unrestrained Capitalism Leads to Corporate Welfare!"

Loved this post and laughed out loud at the part about sitting shiva for 50 years over AS's loss.



Cher

[TexasProgressive]

31. My Father

Great post, PCIntern.

I was born in 1960, the son of two journalists in a small college town. Jesus, what a great time and place to be born.

My father was the most passionate man I have ever known. Passionate about journalism, sports, economics and politics.

He was uncomprimising in his devotion to civil rights.

After all these years, I am living with him once again. He is in the final stages of Alzheimer's, and he is sadly unaware of what is going on in the political world.

I wish he was aware of what is happening. I would love to get his opinion.

[Joe Chi Minh]

75. Tell him, anyway. You never know what people can grasp in these conditions.

[Joe Chi Minh]

76. Accidental repetition.

[mrsadm]

32. LOVED your post and all the replies...

Thank you so much for putting it so well. Amazing the responses too, seeing how emotional people are about this. It's been inside me for years, too. As a long-time union supporter, I remember when Reagan fired the air traffic controllers. He and Thatcher teamed up to destroy the labor movement. Ever since then, unions have become weaker and weaker.

The hardest thing for me was the 2nd election of Bush; I just could not believe people would vote for such a stupid idiot. I hope and pray Obama wins. And yes, I am really enjoying the financial meltdown as the stockbrokers have to sell their yachts for food.

[OakCliffDem]

33. Kicked and Recommended

[Misskittycat]

34. My parents sat shiva for years over Adlai, too.

[BklynChick]

35. I remember that election well... it was my first. I thought the world was going to end when he won.

[BumRushDaShow]

36. Oh I do hope this is the beginning of the end of the nightmare. n/t

[WillyT]

37. Yep... I Was In College At The Time...

And my English professor looked at me the day after the election of Reagan and asked, "How are you feeling this morning?"

I replied, "Devastated." He replied back, "Me too."

Time to bury these fuckers.

Great post PCIntern!

K & R !!!

:kick:

[liberal N proud]

39. I had just graduated - Spent 3 years with no job

I remember sending over 500 job applications out in my career field and got nothing out of them but a few letters returned that they were not hiring.

I worked a job here and there, day at a time and just managed to get by and pay rent when I could. I had a landlady who understood and was very accommodating.

[trthnd4jstc]

38. I sure Hope that You are Right. Peace my Friend. n/t

[Name removed]

40. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[undergroundpanther]

155. I want these high functioning psychopaths

gone.Gone GONE! FOREVER!!!
I want every abusive greedy,manipulative,evil hearted,fucking psychopath authoritarian piece of shit GONE.Every Last One.
I HATE them.

[Just-plain-Kathy]

42. What a moving post.

You got me thinking about my dad, not that I don't think of him about a hundred times a day; but the man loved politics. He could have talked about politics 24/7, but I always wanted to talk about something else, -anything else.

It took September 11th and the obvious lie which brought us into Iraq to turn me into a person just like he was.

He was a great man, a great democrat, he never missed an election. As a matter of fact, the last time he ever left the house (on his own) was on election day. He lost his balance on his way home from voting, and he was never the same again.

[rucognizant]

66. Interesting..........

So many on this thread had parents tuned into politics. I wonder if the Republicans can tell the same story?

[Joe Chi Minh]

79. They live it and breathe it from the womb. And they remain bereft of

of empathy all their lives. I don't mean all of the old brigade - there used to be decent, if misguided souls, among them. Ike, for instance is a very good example.

[Stump]

43. Amen. K&R

What an inspiring post to start my day. :yourock:

[RoccoR5955]

44. K&R I couldn't put it better

These bastards are going to hang them selves, and they deserve every bit of it. Hopefully, this will be the end of the Great Conservative Error. They have been wanting to dismantle every program from the New Deal, since its inception. Now the tides are turning, finally, and hopefully not too late.

[zanne]

45. You just summed it up for me, too.

I've always told myself that Progressives usually don't win, that it's an uphill battle that we have to keep fighting, that if I don't see the change in my lifetime, the next generation will, etc., etc.
That's why this year is SO FRIGGIN' IMPORTANT. That's why I'm volunteering in three separate Democratic campaigns. We can't miss our chance; this is a golden opportunity for Progressives.. GOBAMA!

[GCP]

46. The whole republican house of cards is collapsing

We moved here from the UK in Oct 1980 - partly to get away from Thatcherism. Little did we know what we were walking into.
We've done OK in this country, but I sometimes wonder if we did the right thing coming here.
I just hope it goes the whole hog and doesn't get some kind of bail out this time around.

[Tangerine LaBamba]

48. I worked for Mr. Truman's Chief Of Staff/

White House counsel. Charlie Murphy had held both those jobs during the years that Mr. Truman was our President. Charlie was as Democrat as they come - one of the founders of the Democratic Club in Washington, a North Carolina boy out of Duke undergrad and law school, and he always told me that Richard Nixon was the worst President - in Constitutional terms - that we ever had.

He hated Nixon. Hated him so much he did everything he could - successfully - to keep his library off the Duke campus. And Charlie prevailed. It was not built there.

But, one day, in 1982 or 1983, after I was no longer working for him, I got a note in the mail from him. (Even though we were in the same city, he liked to write notes and letters, a very formal man.)

It said, "I'm starting to think that maybe Nixon wasn't the worst one, after all."

Charlie was right.

[loudsue]

150. Great story!

Thanks for sharing that!!

:hi:

[psychopomp]

177. Charlie Murphy hated Nixon...and didn't care for Rick James either

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wR2AeirpewE

[catrose]

49. I don't really drink

I answer 1 drink /month on the questionnaires, and on the same day, I went out with my best friend and got stinking drunk as we foretold the future, which was better than we expected: we thought the crazy old guy would punch the nuclear button and it would be all over.

[tosh]

50. What a beautiful OP and its thread

which invokes memories of fathers, mentors and close friends, of the ideals, the fears and the realities that have brought us together on DU and for this campaign.

The long-awaited new beginning is upon us!

[cabbage08]

51. K&R n/t

[psychopomp]

52. There is no expiration date on stupidity

[Joe Chi Minh]

87. Like it!

[Vinca]

53. Your father was a very wise man - wish he'd been around for Obama. nt

[olegramps]

54. Destruction of the Middle Class

The most important and far reaching change that took place in the our Republic was the creation of the Middle Class by the FDR Democrats. This was primarily brought about with the repeal of laws restricting unionization. Roosevelt standardized the 40 hour work, overtime pay, abolished child labor, increased workers ability to achieve home ownership, and greatly expanded educational opportunities and Social Security. One of the most important legislative acts was the GI bill that open up higher education to the veterans that had been the primarily restricted to the wealthy. Public universities rapidly expanded providing the best educated work force in he history of mankind. Less known is the fact that the GI bill also provided veterans who wanted to open small businesses with financial assistance.

Everyone of the improvements for the working class has been resented by the wealthy Republicans who have been determined to destroy the New Deal policies. One of the main targets was the unions. Workers bought into the bull by management that unions were bad for them and they would take good care of them. The gullible workers have been well taken care of with their jobs out-sourced, their pensions cut and their health insurance canceled and CEOs walking away with million of dollars in bonuses. The stupid workers cut their own throats.

[BeyondGeography]

55. Obama is the end of Reagan

Or maybe it's the conservaloons who are the end of Reagan. Either way, it took long enough, didn't it?

[penndragon69]

60. Not quite...

Actually G.W bushit was the end of reagan. And it did not come a minuet too soon!

[Raster]

56. My friend, I am with you!!! I watched the country being turned--by every underhanded trick and then

some--from Jimmy Carter and a commonsense approach to our country's future to "morning in America."

I volunteered on Ann Richards gubernatorial campaign in Texas and watched as the bush* family and their "associates" crammed Dumbya down our throats.

I spread the alarm any way I could about the perils of letting another bush* in the White House, especially this bush*. I lost friends. I did not care.

I have waiting 28 years for these bastards to crawl. And I for one, want to kick the shit out of them while they are down, hoping these evil bastards won't ever get up again.

Wake Up, America!:kick:We Can Do Better!

[barbtries]

57. well written post

it reminded me of a joke my son told during the 1992 campaign: if clinton, perot and bush were all on a plane and it crashed, who would survive? answer: the country.

he was 9 years old at the time. a little perspective. i like your father.

[penndragon69]

59. I voted for reagan in 1980.

I was young and stupid, having just turned 18 that year it was my very first election and like an IDIOT,
i voted a straight refugnican ticket. It made my father smile.

Well, come 84 i had wised up and started voting Democrat and Independent and i will NEVER
do something soo stupid ever again!

Long live the Progressives!

[Zambero]

71. My first vote was for Reagan in 1970

When he ran for a second term as CA governor. I was Republican because my entire family was, and voting was like rooting for the home team. Shortly thereafter, I was confronted by the self- realization that my views on individual issues did not coincide with my party of choice. Switching was not difficult, but justifying it to my family was an uphill battle. Fortunately, there have been several more defections since then.

[gademocrat7]

61. k & r

It's been a long difficult wait.

[The Backlash Cometh]

62. Speaking about Limbaugh, is it over when the drug addicted fat man sings?

[ann_american2004]

163. Hah!

[berni_mccoy]

63. Wow. NOW I feel Old. I remember the photo of Carter crying...

I'd love to see the same of some pukes.

[Inchworm]

64. A great post to wake up to!

Thanks!

:thumbsup:

[derby378]

65. Oh, just you wait...

If McCain actually manages to win, you ain't seen nothin' yet.

[keepCAblue]

117. If McCain "manages to win" ???

You mean if the rethugs manage to steal another election, don't you?

[derby378]

180. McCain's poll numbers being what they are...

...yeah, he'd have to steal the election. Either that, or rescue triplets from a burning building.

[Virginia Dare]

67. Yep, but it still sucks like hell..

Like you I graduated from college in the Reagan era, and I lived on poverty wages for quite a few years. I had just gotten to the point where things were going pretty good, and I actually considered myself pretty prosperous. I haven't done anything stupid, didn't get myself into any stupid loans or anything, but the future still looks shaky for all of us. Hopefully we'll all come out of this relatively okay. Who knows?

[Chorophyll]

68. Your father...

...sounds a lot like mine. My father would have offered similar advice, albeit peppered with the word "horseshit." :)

Love the image of your parents sitting shiva after Stevenson lost.

Anyway, from your lips (and keyboard) to God's ear indeed.

[EmeraldCityGrl]

69. Many of us are reflecting back to that moment when we were

confronted with the truth of what the future held and how truly evil
these people were.

For those that "knew," for those that persevered, the hard work
lies ahead of us. The truth has finally begun to be exposed.

[Hawkowl]

148. True

The hard work does lie ahead of us. And I don't mean just winning the election. We are going to have to be loud and proud progressives and shout down the rethuglicans. They won't go quietly. We will need to keep the dems feet to the fire and give Obama the political cover he needs to truly take us left. No fake DLC bullshit anymore.

[JHB]

70. Don't celebrate just yet. Reagan ushered in the reign of the ruthless...

...and they've been very skilled in dodging accountability so far. I'm sure you know how many times over those 28 years that scandals that should have discredited them were shunted off into the hazy mists of conspiracytheoryland.

I don't think I'll really be able to celebrate until they're crushed, buried, and we've sat a few cycles on "stake the undead" watch.

[blossomstar]

72. You've not been waiting alone.

Your father and mine would have been great friends. He told me basically the same thing and I am sorry he is not here to see his words come to pass as well. I understand your loss. I miss my dad every day even after 8 years I still want to pick up the phone and talk to him when something happens. Wonderful post, thank you so much.

[Kajsa]

80. I know what you mean, Blossomstar.

My Dad, a Democrat to the core, has been gone
for 11 years.

I still want to call him and get his opinion/advice.

:hug:

[Joe Chi Minh]

73. A wonderful, wonderful post!

[Zuiderelle]

74. I know what you mean. 1980 was the first time I could vote, and I voted for Carter.

From your lips to God's ear indeed. I just wish they hadn't assaulted and abused this country so thoroughly before they fell.

[bushisanidiot]

77. I've been pissed off since '96 which is when I converted to Democrat

President Obama and his wife and daughters sitting in the White House will be a good swift kick in the balls to the hate infested filth who spew their right wing propaganda over the air waves... THEY were the ones who put the nails in the coffin of their own party. They are very hateful, mean-spirited people and it is high time this country boots them the hell out of office.

[ekwhite]

78. I'm not one for schadenfruede...

But I am hoping that this is the end of the neocon movement. I have seen this country slowly circling the toilet ever since St. Reagan was elected to office. Perhaps the American people are finally waking up. I thought this would not happen until the majority of my generation was in their graves.

[Enthusiast]

82. I would not start the celebration just yet.

They still control the mechanism that influences dialog. Republicans are framing the discussion, suggesting that Democrats are the ones responsible for the crisis. In their world it's Barney Franks and Dodd that are the culprits.

Limbaugh? He will just lie about this like he does everything else. Read what the right wing has to say about the origin and causes of the mortgage meltdown. They are working to convince the American people that only by rejecting the administration plan and adopting their enlightened (Republican) plan will the country be saved.

[Kajsa]

83. Fantastic post, PC Intern.

I too have waited a long time to see the fall of the Partners in Crime.
( my apologies to the Rolling Stones- it just fits the Repugs,now)

They are faced with admitting that their methods, deregulation, lack of
oversight, closed door meetings, cronyism,GREED etc, got us into this mess.

They lack the maturity and integrity to do so, so they are dancing for
their lives.

Karma is catching up to them,

and it's about DAMN TIME!

:)

[PCIntern]

85. thank you...it was from the heart this time...

I'm not always trying to be class-clown here...

[mistertrickster]

84. S'iz shver tsu zayn a Lib

"It's tough to be a Lib" in Yiddish (from it's tough to be a Yid, a well-known Yiddish saying . . . )

[Ikonoklast]

86. My eighty year-old Dad is laughing

He said even if he loses his pension, health care and Social Security over it, he'd give it all up "just to see those fuckers eat sand."

[Joe Chi Minh]

93. Hee. Hee

[kmac3]

88. K & R

"So it is now about time for the chickens to come home to roost. We are watching the death of the insane movement - it is still gasping and choking for air, and idiots like Limbaugh still spew, but soon we may hear the death-rattle in the throat of the beast."

Beautifully stated . . we can only hope the last struggle for breath is of short duration. Let the crash occur, let the wealthy sink to the bottom. The middle class is tough and brave and will rebuild a better America for all. May we be better keepers of our government that this may never happen again.

[Iwillnevergiveup]

89. Excellent, excellent post

And one irony is that apparently Nancy Reagan finds Barack's message quite compelling.

[man4allcats]

91. Excellent post!

Really excellent! Many thanks! :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

[denverbill]

92. I wish what you said was true.

Unfortunately, the conservative/libertarian movement is well-funded and well-connected. That means that anyone willing to prostitute themselves and worship at the altar of free-market utopianism is guaranteed a job. A thousand liberals could try to get a job as a TV talking head, but if one is willing to regurgitate right-wing talking points, he will immediately jump to the top of the short-list of any job posted. Businesses need them for public relations shills. Anyone with an iota of marketing talent can get a job of the Heritage Foundation or the Ludwig von Misus Institute or the Club for Growth where they can spend all their days coming up with schemes to undermine anything that threatens their goals, whether by creating viral emails, or calling radio talk shows, or writing editorials or commercials.

The only thing that will ever end their power is an extremely well-educated and interested public, and we are far from having that in America.

When a single ad run by McCain ridiculing Obama as a celebrity can cause nearly half the population of the country to believe that Obama is nothing but a celebrity, when nearly half the population can be bribed into voting against their own best interests with a tiny tax cut, when nearly half the population cares only about the present and never thinks of the future, we are still in deep shit.

[Xipe Totec]

94. K&R and Kudos! (n/t)

[wryter2000]

95. I hope you're right

All I've hoped for re: politics was to live long enough to see the pendulum swing back so we can do something good for this country and its citizens. I hope that's happened now, but I'm afraid there are still too many Kool-aid intoxicated people. I realize that a certain number of Americans are loony-toons and will never come around to reality. I've always thought that figure was somewhere around or below 10%. We haven't gotten to the rest of the population yet. Bush shouldn't have the approval rating he does, and approval for the blood suckers in other parts of government is even higher.

And even if we have come 'round to rationality, I'm afraid the sanity is temporary. After Watergate, I thought such abuses would never happen again. Surely, we'd learned our lesson, I thought. 30 years later, and things have gotten much, much worse.

I hope I didn't harsh your buzz too much. :) And I hope you're right and I'm wrong.

[Missy Vixen]

96. 1980 was the first election I could vote in

I was brought up in a blue-collar home with a father who was a union member. His union (Machinists 751) is on strike right now at Boeing. My parents were unapologetic and enthusiastic Democrats.

Just like every other young person in 1980, I wasn't making a lot of money. I didn't have health insurance. When Bill Clinton was named the winner in the 1992 election, I sat in my teeny little apartment, drank a glass of cheap wine in celebration, and sobbed. Finally, FINALLY, there'd be something for millions like me.

When George W. Bush was selected for the first time, we were in London. I'll never forget sitting at the breakfast table in the hotel with one of my husband's co-workers and telling her, "This is a disaster for anyone who's not rich, white and Republican." We were up all night with the election coverage. I still can't believe what happened, and it would only get worse. The night of Al Gore's concession speech, we were visiting one of our friends in a rehab facility. He and his entire family are Republicans to the tenth power. The taunting was so intense that we finally got up and left.

The second selection? I wish I knew what to say. This has been a disaster of such magnitude, I'm not sure anyone could have foretold how bad it would get.

We're facing another election. Frankly, I'm scared. The American people have shown they'd rather vote for someone they'd like to have a beer with than someone who's smart enough to clean up the mess. I want to believe that things will get better. I want to believe it's finally sinking in to millions of people today that the bill's come due, and they're paying it, not the guys who will be laughing all the way to whatever bank is still open at the end of the day.

I want to believe there will be something standing when these sons-of-bitches finally flip over a losing hand.

Julie

[Suprk]

97. Excellent Post

I am hoping myself that it is the time the chickens coming home to roost.

[Stinky The Clown]

98. From your lips, indeed.

[YOY]

99. Don't look now but the stake isn't through the heart yet.

The educational system is still broken and churning out less than informed citizens.

The media is still referred to as "liberal" in the minds of the sheeple and still owned and controlled by those with hardly "non-partisan" interests.

Religious fundementalism still is creeping ahead in both population and is completely unwilling to understand that church and state should not be mixed.

The military industrial complex still has butloads of money and lobbyists to sway our interests to do things that are "not in our interests".

They are not dead yet. When they admit that Reaganomics don't work and stop preaching to the fundies perhaps it will be.

[CitizenLeft]

100. bless your Dad and Mom

My Mom, also no longer with me - she would love this campaign, I'm so sorry she didn't live to see it - and my aunt said a similar thing in 1980, and again in 1988, when I was panicking over the losses of Carter, (Mondale), and Dukakis. They said, "we'll live through it, just like we've lived through everything else." They're of the Depression era, lived through Jim Crow, made it safely to retirement. The wisdom of the elders. They were right. And here we are.

My aunt will be 84 years old next week. This was the first election ever where she said she was too tired to care, and too tired to vote. That surprised me, but I caught on eventually to what was going on in her mind. She was afraid to hope that Obama was the real thing. That was difficult for some African-Americans, especially the older folks. But as time went on, she started to believe. He won her over. Now she's become pretty passionate, and follows the election every day, all day. She's voting absentee.

Bless all the older generation who have voted their hearts over the decades, and have waited patiently to see their efforts come to fruition. Not to be corny, but somebody did say this recently, I heard: "Our time is now, our time has come!"

GOBAMA! :)

[janet118]

101. Reagan was the turning point . . .

I remember someone describing the economic effects of the Reagan administration as comparable to inheriting a nice car, in good shape and running condition, that needed some body work and a tune-up. Reagan let his rich friends steal all the engine parts they wanted and just kept the outside of the car looking shiny. By the time he left office all we had was a good looking car that didn't run.

[ailsagirl]

140. I think the country started its downward spiral when JFK was murdered

Nothing was the same after that.

[tekisui]

102. Great post, thanks, knr!

[SeaLyons]

103. You make me cry.....

"From my lips to God's ear."

:cry:

Beautiful post. We are going to win this one. I'm sure of it.

[scytherius]

104. You and me both!

I was merely middle aged when I started waiting. hehehehe

[Albert_Camus]

105. I was 16 years old.....

.....when Reagan won and even at 16, I was firmly set in my political views, probably due to my parents, who loved Carter, and before that Kennedy.

But I remember that feeling in my stomache of the country being taken over by evil. That's what it felt like to me. The closest I can describe is it felt like in "A Wrinkle in Time" when the kids are shown their home planet from afar and see it enveloped in a dark grey cloud of evil.

Our planet has been enveloped ever since.....but the dark clouds can be lifted soon........

[kenichol]

106. They aren't crawling yet...

They aren't crawling yet, but their knees are getting weak. Hope the Dems don't join them.

[femrap]

109. Great post...

Half my life spent under this Excess Greed Phase. Maybe Marx was right...Capitalism contains the seeds of its demise.

I'm beginning to see, however, that we are becoming more Communist than China...with all of the mergers.

And I don't like that Dem Frank loves Paulsen. It seems as if the Dems were just late to the trough.

Maybe our nation will go 'local' and we'll have mom & pop businesses again??? If the dollar collapses, everything imported can triple in cost.

[taddles]

110. Finaly!

The RepublicHUNS at the gates have dwindled in power enough so that the rest of us can rise up and throttle the bastards and drown them in the bathtubs they reserved for drowning the government in. Time to toss the crowd of lying cronies, pandering whining incompetents and thieves over the walls into the moat.

How do you stop a RepublicHUN from drowning in the sea of economic garbage they created? You step on their heads and push them under until the bubbles stop rising to the surface.

[Hutzpa]

111. Amen!!

next stop media matters, oh...we going there alright
they need to pay for all these BS they have fed us for
the past 30+ years...

[Fovea]

112. I worked in a public hospital ER

and for what I have seen happen to the state of healthcare and availability in the US, these bastards need to crawl...
into the shallow graves I would bury them alive in.

And even after that, my karma could only improve by ridding the world of these free market social darwinists.

[Maestro]

113. Great post!

I didn't become very aware of politics until the late 80s, but I heard grumblings about Ronnie Raygun from my very conservative parents. Then I became much more aware of repuke hypocrisy and such the nineties up to present day. It is sweet watching the implosion, but it is too bad so many had to suffer.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

115. There will com e a time when conspiracy theories become the truth

they are hiding behind 28 years of classified information that covers their wrong doings

[undergroundpanther]

154. I hope every last bit of what is and was hidden

is revealed.From what the military did/does to children,to their crooked evil bullshit overseas,to how they screwed the citizens out of their very happiness. I want to see every last wrongdoing exposed,every thing invented/discovered that could have helped us get released to us,every single person who has a mystery gaping in their lives as to what happened to them,be it wondering about them self, a loved one or a Friend or relative who was somehow used and threatened into silence about it,and WHY it happened/was done all must be is revealed all the who's where's why's WITHOUT ANYTHING redacted.I want names places and poisons all told all revealed ,and I do mean every fucking secret they have.

[NewJeffCT]

118. In regards to Adlai Stevenson

There is a great quote attributed to him - a woman came up to him and complimented him and finished by saying, "and I'm sure you have the vote of everything thinking person."

Stevenson's reply was, "That's not enough, ma'am, I'm going to need a majority!"

[iandhr]

119. I sure hope so

Your dad sounds like my Grandparents. My Grandfather is still alive and he is 96. My Grandmother died in 1996, I think about her a lot she was most loyal Democrat a New Dealer. She would have been horrified and i thank god that she did not have to see the years of Bush


For the past 8 years I have seen my beloved America in a downward spiral. I remember sitting on the couch in 2000 and watch as we swept this current man into office. It was well before I was old enough to vote but I knew that this country would face dire consequences from the Bush policies. I voted a straight Democratic line in 2006 midterms. I was not around for Regan but we have been suffering under Regan-ism for the past 28 years. No more this is the first presidential election that I am able to vote and it will be cast with pride for Barack Obama. America can make it


But these mother##ers are good at escaping responsibility for there actions. I try not to get to cocky in the past we Democrats have been known to snap defeat from the jaws of victory. And if any you were West Wing fans put it this way I am like Toby Ziegler in my few that everything that can go wrong will go wrong. I am also from New York am a Yankee fan and Jewish like Toby.

[Ishoutandscream2]

121. Kick and fucking recommended! Damn fine post!!!

You absolutely nailed it.

[Danascot]

122. I'll celebrate the end of the

Reagan/Bush/Neocon era when I'm sure it's good and dead, but what do we do after the party? They have left the social, economic, environmental, political and cultural landscape in ruins, like something out of a post-apocalyptic movie. As much as I support and admire Obama, I'm not optimistic that anyone can salvage America from the disaster the republicans have left behind.

I don't care about myself. I've had a good life and I'll either survive or I won't. But I have children and I want a life for them and all our children that is more than a constant struggle to even scrape by.

I'm very depressed about the future. Can anyone offer some hope?

[Rambis]

123. God rest him and well stated!

:toast:

[ckimmy57]

124. My father-in-law (God rest his soul)

always said if a repuke is in the white house there'll be depression/recession. They get the poor working little man on a half a loaf of bread and want to keep him there. Let's hope to those chickens start squawking soon. Great post!!!!!:toast:

[defendandprotect]

125. They still have a pipeline into the Treasury via the FED --

Here are some interesting comments on what's going on from another poster --

Why help bail them out in any way?

The whole purpose of the bailout is to save the asses of the private bankers who own the Federal Reserve. The Federal Reserve is neither "Federal," because it's not a government agency but a private for-profit business, nor "Reserve," because it has no money in it.

The Federal Reserve uses us citizens as collateral for producing money out of thin air and then charges us interest on it. If all the banks collapse, so will the Federal Reserve and its grip on our lives. The Federal Reserve has created this crisis. If it sinks, there will be no debtors left on our mortgages -- we'll own our homes free and clear. And that is definitely NOT what the big financial players want. Also, we'll make our own local currencies and economies -- and the rise of this kind of activity during the Depression is what alarmed the big financial players the most and spurred The New Deal.

Now the Treasury Department has sold most of WaMu, including my home loan, at a bargain-basement price to Chase. Why at bargain basement price? Did WaMu's collapse cause my mortgage's balance to decrease, my interest rate to be lowered or my monthly payments to decrease? And why to Chase? Was WaMu in debt to Chase? Shouldn't the assets like mine have gone into the receivership of those to whom WaMu was in debt? Shouldn't I have been given a chance to buy my loan at a bargain-basement price?

The system is set up to keep the vast majority always in debt to a very small minority. This is what builds electronic wealth for this minority.

In the end, however, the whole ship is going down. It doesn't matter whether the bailout happens or not. This empire is imploding, as all empires do eventually. With this implosion will come our reduced pressure on the planet, a curtailment of population growth, and an opportunity like never before for us to manifest localized economies based upon the real wealth of our natural resources, not funny money.

[freeradicalm]

128. Thank you for stating...

This so eloquently....My first years as an apprentice electrician were tainted by the union-busting efforts that went on during that period, and save for the Clinton years, pretty much my career and life has been not what it could have been. I also have been waiting for this to happen for a long time, and I feel no need for ANY civility to anyone who has supported these bastards and sho no humility and are now also being hurt losing their houses, their precious "portfolios" by their downfall. These nation will be rebuilt for those with real skills and not by those who produce red tape and bullshit, I am proud to be one who will help see to that. By the way feel free to pm, me, I need some dental work and would be proud to pay a like-minded individual for a change.

[defendandprotect]

129. We're bailing them out --- ????

[Richd506]

130. My mom

foresaw a time like this many years ago. It seems like karma might finally be catching up. But the cost might have been too great. The coorperations have done so much damage and yet only now is the media beginning to buckle over the issue.

[katty]

131. I've waited 28+--and this is indeed, sweet revenge!!

[JEB]

133. My son is 28 years old this November.

And he believes in the possibility of a better world and a better way of governing the USA. Young people are the great hope of America.

[Uncle Joe]

134. Thanks for sharing PCIntern.

Kicked and recommended.

[scarface2004]

136. reagan said 'government is not the solution..

government is the problem'! he must be working overtime in hell now!!

[midnight]

137. It has been a long horrible twenty-eight years.

Here in Wisconsin attorney general Van Hollen is sueing "The State of Wisconsin's Gov. Advisory Board" for not agreeing to keep voters who come under question via a flawed computer system data base from voting. It is flawed in the eyes of the GAB because the computer systems standards in one data system may have a middle initial of the voter in one and not in the other data base. These two data bases used have found four of six judges on the Government Advisory Board suspicious of commiting voter fraud. Their names along with thousads of other voter names are being flagged. The two voter groups that are of concern are the dead and the felons. And some how four of our six judges are being considered to be in either group? These beasts have found, from a remote site how to, knock off Dems before we even vote.

[aquart]

138. Still waiting. I ain't seeing the crawl.

I see arrogant assumptions of unrepentent entitlement, but I don't see crawling.

[drmeow]

142. I had the same exact reaction to Raygun

I was only 17 when he was elected and didn't know enough of economics until the next year when I was a senior in HS but I said to my boyfriend that year that his policies were going to cause another Great Depression.

[October]

143. Great post. Eloquent.

I'm sorry for the loss of your parents.

I think I'll share your father's words of wisdom with my family. Thanks for sharing.

We must be neighbors - SW Pennsylvania? -- when you mentioned going to the Jersey Shore on weekends, it clicked. LOL!

From your lips to God's ear is right...

[October]

144. Great post. Eloquent.

I'm sorry for the loss of your parents.

I think I'll share your father's words of wisdom with my family. Thanks for sharing.

We must be neighbors - SW Pennsylvania? -- when you mentioned going to the Jersey Shore on weekends, it clicked. LOL!

From your lips to God's ear is right...

[libnnc]

145. The only time I ever saw my great grandmother cry

When Carter lost to Reagan.

She barely survived the Depression--it killed her husband. They lost two small-town businesses; a mercantile and a boarding house. She was left with nothing after he died in '32 and had to survive with the help of her grown children. She lived off of the money that her son (my grandfather) made working on the CCC.

She kept three pictures: Jesus, my grandfather (her only son), and FDR.

She did NOT want me to live through what she had lived through. Well into her nineties, she told me that if Reagan was elected we would all be doomed eventually. To her, he represented something much more sinister. Nixon was a crook for sure but the "Reagan Revolution" scared the hell out of her.

Now I fully understand why. I miss my "Nonnie" so much.

[ezdidit]

146. Sell off the State of Alaska to pay our bills...?

We are bankrupt. We need a Chapter 11 timeout. We must hold an asset sale. I understand Palin knows some people who SHE DESCRIBES as "Arctic Arabs" who might be interested in buying.

Or, now that Congress has passed a law permitting the sale of offshore drilling rights, we might sell Florida off to some genuine oil sheiks. (...of course I don't know how burkhas will go over on Miami Beach - but why even ask?)

It's the inevitable - the ultimate - The BushCheney Plan for the Dissolution of the U.S.A. -- for corporate profit! Bailout my ass! It's a swindle, and they want to use your tax dollars to pay for it@!!!

What a bunch of jerks!!! They think we will fall for it!???

[lapislzi]

147. Are you my long lost twin?

My mother never got over Adlai Stevenson. He was the gold standard of what a public servant should be, although she grudgingly gave props to Kennedy.

Yes, from your lips.

[MarinCoUSA]

149. 1980- Like is was yesterday.

Thanks for the post. I can remember like is was yesterday.

I've had in my mind's eye ever since, a Wall Street Journal article about a union official complaining that he his members were voting for Reagan because Reagan was going guys to balance the budget, cut taxes and increase military spending. The guy was dumbfounded. Can't do it, wont happen.

And Sweet Jesus was this guy ever right. And this Big Lie has been the sustaining Repuke Big Lie ever since.
EVER FUCKING SINCE. EVER!!!!!!!!

Into the dustbin of history with you Reagan and all your fascist repukilcan kind. THE REPUKLICAN PARTY MUST DIE.

[bobd0]

151. K&R PCIntern -- From your lips to God's ear.

I've always held the belief that the longer you delay the consequences of your actions the greater those consequences become, and based on that these bastards are going to face some dire consequences indeed. I hope we don't have to face them as well.

[ellie]

153. That was a great post!

My dad was the same way. I miss him (he died 10 years ago).

[EC]

156. Same here

I had 2 more years of college, of course I eventually had to quit, just couldn't do it with a toddler and 2 jobs. One of the first things Reagan did was cut Pell Grants there went my hope...so when Clinton got in I did go back to school, but my life had already been so impacted by Reagan that I'll never regain what was lost...so I sincerely hope this will be the end of trickle down repub economics and cruel intentions....I've waited a long time...


By the way, going to college was put off to begin with since Nixon years. Carter was my first chance...


On Edit: After reading the rest of the posts I have to add, my degree would have been Fine Arts also, I did give up on that completely (still paint and enter contests and shows, but don't expect to ever enter it as a living) my degree ended up in Interior Design during Clinton years....Oh, I found I hated dragging sample books around and didn't like the clientele of the profession, so I went back to secretarial jobs in small offices - I fit in and love the freedom of forgetting about work when I get home....

[Karl_Bonner_1982]

157. For the FIRST TIME IN MY LIFETIME...

..it looks like the conservative legacy is over. I wonder what a solid progressive-led system will feel like, because I've never experienced it yet.

[stlsaxman]

160. beautiful story! thank you!!

[debunkthelies]

161. K&R

Well done, I too have waited a very long time, since Reagan was Gov. of California, and I saw the writing on the wall.

[workinclasszero]

162. I feel the weariness of your soul

The right wing fanatics have destroyed much that was good in America. I caution all to not let down your guard till the viper is finally slain this coming January. Theres lots of work to do until then.

[niyad]

165. that night, as I sat, horrified, watching the results, I looked at a bottle of wine I had purchased

earlier that day. my former looked at me and said, "there isn't enough alcohol in the world. . ."

all I can say is, it's a god thing I cannot drink as much as these last 28 years have required.

[redqueen]

166. Amen.

:)

[mokawanis]

167. My son was 13 when the chimp took office

and he's pissed as hell. He can't wait to vote for the first time in a presidential election.

[Tutonic]

169. Yes!!! Let them be forced to crawl through the streets until their

hands and knees are bloodied!

[Dinger]

170. Me To PCIntern, Me Too

Your mention of your father made me appreciate that I am still blessed to have my mom and dad to discuss the events of the day. Each day with them is a gift. Thank you for your post.

:grouphug:

[Dinger]

171. Happy And Proud ATo Give You The 200th Rec!

:)

[PlanetBev]

172. PC, your great post truly brings back some memories

Seems like yesterday.

I couldn't sleep for days after Reagan was elected. Watching all the ensuing right wing glee was torture. I turned thirty two weeks later. On December 8th, John Lennon was killed. Later that month I joined the newly formed People for the American Way and the California Pro-Choice Coalition.

Hard to believe that so many years have gone by, so fast.

[demokatgurrl]

173. I love this post because I, too, have been thinking

of my parents during these past few elections. My mother, especially, would have been so appalled by Bushco, and would have been excited by Obama. She watched every minute of Watergate hearings, and it so disillusioned her that she missed the next Presidential election. She re-entered the fray to vote for Bill Clinton.

I'll take them in with me to the voting booth.

Thanks for the post.

[Sparkly]

174. For years, I've thought: "What the hell is it going to take?!?"

I guess this is what it had to come to.

If not, I don't know how this country will survive.

[lynettebro440]

175. Been right there with you PCIntern

I too have been waiting patiently, going to work everyday and just praying that these douche bags would get discovered. I had an opportunity to see first hand the corruption in the bush sr administration. Since then I have known things I wished I hadn't learned, and that was 20 some years ago. I'm sorry it has taken till my 50's for this to happen, but sure the hell enjoying the melt down day by day. It has taken way toooooo long to get here.

[JDPriestly]

176. We should not sacrifice our futures to rescue their folly.

The entire financial system is crumbling out from under us, so they claim. I don't really believe them after all the lies of the past 8 years, but if they are telling the truth, we should not despair. As one who has started over several times during my life, I know that this is not the end. We can rebuild -- something better than we now have.

Remember, we are the most wasteful nation on earth. We could feed another America just on the food that is wasted in American restaurants and homes. Yet in our own midst, people are hungry. The middle and upper classes in America have shamelessly ignored the suffering of the poor in our country.

The misery is now spreading to the middle class. Many, many Americans are homeless. Many, many are jobless. Millions of Americans have been deprived of the opportunity to achieve their potential. No matter what we do, we cannot save our economy. It's just ruined.

So, what do we do? We have to devise a new game plan, bring entirely new ideas to the table, ideas that save the economic freedom that made our country so prosperous, that give each American who is willing to contribute to our economy a financial stake in its success and that allow hard work, creativity and good ideas to reap financial rewards.

That was the dream of our Founding Fathers. At this time of panic, we should not lose that dream. More than ever, we need to pursue it in a rational way that doesn't enslave the people who cannot work hard, who are not creative and who do not have many good ideas.

Why should we protect the weak among us? Because we are human beings who have the spiritual capacity to empathize with our fellow humans. And because we are all created equal and have the same right to dignity.

For me these principles are a matter of religious belief, a part of my spiritual heritage and experience. But they are also a practical guide as I think about the challenges that face Americans today.

If this sub-prime mortgage crisis teaches us anything, it is that the economic chain of which every transaction from my purchase of a postage stamp to the purchases of trillions of dollars in derivatives is a part is no stronger than its weakest link.

The Bush administration and the major financial institutions have been running our economy without heed to these guidelines. That is what has gone wrong. We as Democrats have better solutions to offer. We can rebuild a better America. We can unite Americans behind a rational program that is guided by the spiritual truths on which our nation was founded. Yes, we can.

[PCIntern]

178. I want to thank everyone for their wonderful replies and

reminiscences. Iam deeply indebted to each of you for your responses and reccomendations.

This is an historic evening and we can only hope that it goes well for us, and the MSM perceives it as such. The latter is a more formidable errand than the former.

[me b zola]

179. I could hear your voice as I read your words

Powerful message, powerful story-telling. This should be developed, whether by you working this into a short-story, a movie short, or screenplay.

Powerful. Thank you for taking the time to share. :thumbsup:

[PCIntern]

182. I am already in the process...

Someday, I'll be announcing something here...I promise it will be the first place.

Thanks for the sentiments...

PC

[kitkat65]

181. I'll never forget being in my high school's library when they announced

the assassination attempt on Reagan. A low rumble of cheering burst throughout the building from a school that held over four thousand school kids.

Not the most civilized reaction, but we knew the score and knew Reagan was no friend to the average American.

[MrMickeysMom]

183. That reminded me of the last real conversation before my mom died in 07

She said, "I weep for my country... I hoped I could live long enough to see him out of the white house".

I told her that I'd hold the faith.

Let's roll out the carpet and see it through for them to the ultimate perp walk.

[PCIntern]

184. The last conversation with my Mom before her stroke

on Rosh Hashanah 3 years ago almost to the day, was about KO, and how I know someone who works with him whom I've treated since she was a little kid. i never had another talk with her again...she stroked that night and died on yom Kippur, just a few days later.

Sad. Holidays are hard.

[MrMickeysMom]

186. Indeed, it's hard...

BUT (why does everybody have a big but?) I have moments where I do know she's here. Maybe it's a phenomena that I need to know this. Regardless, I choose to believe it.

[cartach]

187. Any message to God's ear

must include a request that they be thoroughly stomped on as they crawl away. Your father's "just desserts" must also include punishment wherever possible, otherwise the message is limited to lip service.

[happygoluckytoyou]

188. MCCAIN.... resembling REAGAN during the "where are my jellybeans" years