VOTE, BABY, VOTE!

FDR VOTING,1936

"We must especially be aware of that small group of selfish men who would clip the wings of the American Eagle in order to feather their own nests."

Franklin Delano Roosevelt
(Speaking words of wisdom)

 

To paraphrase John Lennon:

Will you remember? Remember?

THE SIXTH OF NOVEMBER!

Vote.

 

Vote with all of your heart and soul. Vote with all of the energy you possess. Vote for the future of your children. Vote for the well being of the great grandchildren who might never even know your name. Vote as if your life depends on it - because it probably does. Am I exaggerating when I bring your great grandkids into the equation? Not at all.

 

Think about it: On Tuesday, November 8, 1932 the American people went to the polls to cast their ballots for president. The candidates from the two major political parties were Democrat Franklin D. Roosevelt and Republican Herbert Hoover. We all know the result of that election eighty-six years ago this week - or at least those of us who bother to learn our history know. Had Hoover won the day in 1932, this country would be an entirely different place in 2018. Had Hoover won the day all those years ago, the world would be a different place in 2018. Because of FDR, Hitler and the Nazis were ground up into mincemeat thirteen years after the election of 1932. Because of FDR our parents and grandparents are no longer driven into extreme poverty and despair when they are no longer able to work. Social Security is the most successful government program in the history of the world. As I write these words, a certain party is scheming to eliminate that very program. Guess which one?

We find ourselves in a situation today that no one could have dreamed of as recent as four years ago. American democracy is in serious danger of going the way of the Ford Edsel and the 8-Track Tape player. Unlike those products, I have a feeling that Americans will be quite nostalgic for their democratic institutions when they are gone. Call that a lucky guess on my part. In the last forty years, the Republican Party has been slowly but surely creeping toward the extreme fringes of political speech and philosophy. The pace of that movement has been at such a glacial snail's-pace that people who don't bother to pay attention to important current events (which is most Americans) were unable to notice the transformation. That someone like me could feel a sense of teary-eyed nostalgia for the likes of Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan is telling. As much as I despised the Gipper and the Trickster, I'd give anything to have either one of them back in power. That's how weird things have become.

With or without the approval of Congress, in the next two years Donald Trump is going to do much harm to the United States. It is my belief that Vladimir Putin's dream was to completely destabilize this country, and that Trump was (and is) his willing agent of that destabilization. We cannot allow this unhinged maniac to have unchecked reign over our government. That is what he is seeking and that is what most Republicans will grant him if the voters of this country allows that disgusting party to retain both houses of congress tomorrow. Count on it.

Finally a little message to the young people of America: I don't blame you for not taking me or any of your elders seriously. When we came of age forty years ago, our parents handed us the most economically prosperous and stable democracy in the history of humanity. And what is our generation handing over to you kids? A dysfunctional shithole. Maybe I'm being overly optimistic here, but I don't believe that it's too late to change the future in your favor. Tomorrow is the most important, consequential Election Day since that long ago November 1932. The youngest person who voted on that day would today be 107 years old. Voter turnout in that year was massive among all demographics - the youth in particular. Their participation in democracy still reverberates all these decades later. Do you appreciate the fact that Granny receives a monthly Social Security check? You can thank the long-dead voters of 1932 for that!  The youngest person voting tomorrow was born in the year 2000. If you're between the ages of eighteen and twenty-one, you need to understand that your future is in jeopardy. Vote - and get out the vote!

It's later than you think, kids.

Tom Degan
Goshen, NY