Monday, November 06, 2006

Tomorrow Always Knows


From where I sit, it is now 4:50 AM. The polls in New York state open in exactly twenty-five hours and ten minutes. Everything is set to go. The suspense is palpable. The future of this once-great nation depends on a victory for the minority party tomorrow night. The decision made by the electorate on Tuesday, November 7th, 2006, will be felt by the great-great grandchildren who will never even know our names. I've got my fingers crossed and my hands folded. I'd love a couple of good stiff drinks right now but it's way too early in the morning for that - even for me!

I never thought I would live to see the day when I would be a shill for the Democratic Party (Note to the Republican National Committee: it's pronounced, "Democratic party" not "Democrat party" you fucking idiots!) I left the Dems in 2000 when I became disgusted with their obvious right-ward shift. At the time, I naively bought into Ralph Nader's line that the two parties were nothing more than "Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dumb". Six years of a murderous, half-witted little piece of shit like George W. Bush and a GOP-controlled Congress calling the shots have changed my mind forever. While the Democrats leave a lot to be desired (a whole heck of a lot) they are, for the time being anyway, our best hope. I pray that it's only a slump they've been in and that they will finally wake up and remember that they are, in fact, the party of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. That we have to continually remind them of this has been the most frustrating thing of all and is the reason I left the party to begin with. It would do them well to realize that we already have a right of center party in this country - decidedly so. The only reason their natural constituency has stayed away from the polls in droves in recent years is because they haven't had the motivation to vote. My advice to the Democrats? Motivate the buggers!

Where will this all end? In forty hours we should have an answer. Tomorrow night at 9:00 eastern time, we'll know whether or not America is set on a course where it will be able to heal itself. For twenty-six years the right-wing has waged unrelenting war against the poor and the middle class. If you would like to see for yourself where they want to take America back to, read the book, "The Jungle", by Upton Sinclair, the man Teddy Roosevelt was referring to when he coined the term, "Muckraker". Written in 1905, it exposed the deplorable working conditions of Chicago's meat packing district. During that period, working men and women had virtually no rights what-so-ever. As far as the ruling class was concerned, they were a disposable commodity to be exploited as ruthlessly as cattle. When Sinclair died on November 25, 1968, over thirty years worth of legislation set into motion by the New Deal which guaranteed worker's rights had made his famous book all but obsolete and by the late sixties it was pretty much forgotten. I think it is telling that in recent years "The Jungle" has had somewhat of a resurgence.

It was because of the farsightedness of FDR and the very gifted people who comprised his administration that the middle class really came into being. It is now on the edge of extinction and the results of tomorrow's election will either mean its death knell or its possible resuscitation. The decision is ours to make.

Pray for peace.

Tom Degan
Goshen, NY
tomdegan@frontiernet.net

14 Comments:

At 10:45 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

It is going to be a long and nervous 40 hours, and I am sure that not all of the election results will be confirmed on Wednesday. There will be some states in which the Republicans will still be working their dirty deeds to swing the election in their direction.

The mention of Sinclair's novel The Jungle is a good analogy for the way things are heading in this country. For those of you who may not have read it, get a copy, although I will guarantee it will be the most depressing thing you ever read in your life. It happened before, it can happen again.

 
At 10:54 AM, Blogger Tom Degan said...

Hi Charles.
You hit the nail right on the head! I only read the jungle for the first time late last winter. You're right. I was THE most depressing book I ever read, as well - but also very instructive. It really drove home for me what might happen if the rights of workers are totally destroyed in America. When I finished it, I kept thinking to myself, this is where they want to bring us bact to! That's why we have to win tomorrow -not just one house - but both houses. We're in trouble otherwise.
Tom

 
At 12:14 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Dear Tom, Every time I read a column of yours I think "This guy could be my son." Well, actually not, because I never had a son, but one daughter I did have & she is not particularly politically inclined...she attributes her disinterest to having been dragged to political events & strike lines from the time she was born. She insists her first words were "Power to the People"...

Ah well, we paremts do our best; at least some of us do...

You, Sir, are an inspiration to me as well as to many many others, judging by the mail I see that you get. I pray that today's election will prove that the majority of us are not brain-dead, as the rest of the world may rightly consider us to be. BUT I am, as are we all, aware of the chicanery the Republicans are capable of doing and that terrifies me.

Why is Rove still giggling? Why does Bush appear nonchalant? (As opposed to "brain dead" that is..._)

Why oh why is Rumsfeld still holding his office???? What the hell are they up to THIS time? (I need to run a spell check on this but am not sure how to do that. Do forgive misspellings if there are some...)

Please God, Let justice at long last reign in this land.

Many of us still pray for peace.

 
At 1:42 AM, Blogger sumo said...

Power to the PEOPLE with fist raised!

 
At 7:57 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

The problem today is not getting people to vote but getting an accurate count. I am very pessimistic of the outcome or today's results and even more pessimistic of the direction the country will go after the results are in. As Tiny Tim said" God bless us all

 
At 8:50 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Dear Sumo, I understand your sentiment but please not fists raised, that is too much like the fascist states. Hooray for power for the people

 
At 7:58 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

WOW!! Life is good again! We took the House at least and maybe the Senate. OZ (populary called Kansas) elected a WOMAN to replace dummy Jim Ryan, one of the few people who could make Bush look smart. Boyda is a smart lady she worked in the phamaceutical industry so she is set to make some changes in the drug business.

 
At 8:39 AM, Blogger Tom Degan said...

Dear Wilma,
Wee, life is not quite good yet. Remember these hideous bastards will still be calling the shots between now and January 1st. Watch the damage they do between now and then. Of this there can be no doubt: THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION IS AS DEAD AS A DOOR NAIL!!
Hooray!
Tom Degan

 
At 9:46 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Dear Tom, Right you are but there is light at the end of OUR tunnel and AFTER January it will no longer be a Republican train. Even KANSAS dumped their Republican albatrosses so maybe with his legacy in mind and the obvious repudiation of his policies he will be forced to cool it a bit.Missouri dumped untalented Talent so for the first time in at least 12 years I can be proud to say I am a native Missourian. Looks like Montana and Virginia will have a Democratic Senator when the dust settled. Maybe once more I can be proud to be an American

 
At 5:33 PM, Blogger sumo said...

Tom! I'm waiting on your victory post!!!

 
At 10:27 PM, Blogger Tom Degan said...

Dear Sumo,
I'm working on it even as we speak. Truth be told, I'm positively giddy!!!
Hope all is well with you - with all of you! Aren't you just a tad prouder to be an American tonight?
Love,
Tom Degan

 
At 11:36 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Dear Tom, I am once again proud to be an American and have my faith restored in the democratic process and have never been more happy to be wrong. In spite of all the lies, dirty tricks and crooked voting machines at last justice prevailed. I am not only giddy but euphoric, tickled pink, on top of the world and just plain relieved. Just now Yahoo! said Montana and Virginia are ours giving us 51 seats so Cheney's tiebreaker doesn't count. Also there are 2 independents but I don't expect Lieberman to vote against the hand that fed him very often. Also the Democrats can claim another first, the first woman speaker of the house. Keep an eye on Stoney's rage, I checked it while ago and he said he is tracking the American ships I had been hearing tidbits about traversing the Straits of Hormuz and Persian Gulf probably to nuke Iran if Bush can think up a lie. Maybe November 7 will nip that little dream in the bud. With such an overwhelming repudiation of the Republican agenda at all levels even tweedle dummy will get the message. Speaking of Dummies, Dummy Rummy is toast.

 
At 2:01 AM, Blogger sumo said...

The left blogsphere is soooo alive with happiness it's scary. I said in many other comments that it was nice to be a proud American again. I don't think too many of us were really expecting this. Christmas came early!

 
At 5:00 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Thanks for talking about Lewis's book "The Jungle" Also we need a new poem for 2007 like Ginsberg's "Howl" that sparked a huge movement in the 1960s to ignite a fire in vox populi now

Rick Lippin
"Blake"

 

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