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OpEdNews Op Eds    H2'ed 9/18/08

Revolution on the Installment Plan

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Message Jayne Stahl

If you're like me, you, too, are still waiting for the revolution we were promised, back in 2000, when the Supremes stole the election, and it was "fascists night out..."   

 Back then, those fundamentalists on the Left  were certain that when we were robbed of our privacy, free speech, a dissenting media, and due process, when the credit card companies scalped us with their egregious 30% rates, when our bosses paid less in taxes than we did, people would show up in outrage.  Instead, they took to their trailers, and reality TV.

Even what's left of the Left was too busy reading Marcuse, or watching "Gunsmoke" in syndication; too many text messaging to bother with taking to the streets.     Instead of Che Guevara, we got "Sex in the City," and ruminations about revolution were replaced by striving for the perfect orgasm.

The 1960's mantra "turn on, tune in, drop out" has been transformed, by Generation I-Pod, into tune out.  Not listening has been transformed into an artform;  not paying for anything has become the first stop on the road to grace, and grace is a Ford Explorer with an endless trunk.

The good news is, we can stop waiting for something that is already here.     The revolution already happened back in 1994, the Republican revolution, and the Left has been in denial ever since.   Okay, so they bungled the spelling-- revolution became "revelation;" nevertheless a deranged bunch of apocalypse hackers have taken over leaving the rest of us in denial.    You thought only liberal fringe groups would revolt?  

McCain-Palin ticket is living proof that Gingrich, Quayle, Frist, and other evangelistas have triumphed; proof that liberals don't have a patent on the revolution; proof that, while no one was looking, not only an election was stolen, but everything that our grandparents fought for was, too.

Let's not kid ourselves:  the revolution Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rubin, and others had in mind may not come with Obama either, but with Obama will come an administration that can spell, and that will raise taxes on those who have been cannibalizing our paychecks, stock options, and IRAs, for the past two decades, not provide incentives for more gluttony.

Don't believe what he says:  "deregulation" is John McCain's middle name, and the mere mention of the words "free market" make Sarah Palin salivate more than the sight of a saturday night special.  

The Republican platform has long extolled the virtues of "free market" deregulation, and caused the trickle-down mess we find ourselves in today.     Don't let their populist agitprop fool you--just picture Palin shooting wolves from 20,000 feet, and calling for open season on deer.... that's the Kodac moment we all need to have come election day.    

Don't be deceived:  should McCain-Palin prevail in November "the land of the free" will become the home of the hunter, and the meek had better run for cover.

Karl Marx would tell you that revolution comes in stages, but even Karl Marx couldn't have predicted this one.   

Waiting for the revolution is, indeed, a bit like "Waiting for Godot;"  go-dot, go...

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Jayne Stahl Social Media Pages: Facebook page url on login Profile not filled in       Twitter page url on login Profile not filled in       Linkedin page url on login Profile not filled in       Instagram page url on login Profile not filled in

Widely published, poet, playwright, essayist, and screenwriter; member of PEN American Center, and PEN USA. Jayne Lyn Stahl is a Huffington Post blogger.
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