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From: benk@inmet.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.politics
Subject: Re: Orphaned Response - (nf)
Message-ID: <1794@inmet.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 8-Nov-84 00:41:49 EST
Article-I.D.: inmet.1794
Posted: Thu Nov  8 00:41:49 1984
Date-Received: Sat, 10-Nov-84 02:42:49 EST
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#R:tjalk:-36200:inmet:7800160:177600:2981
inmet!benk    Nov  6 16:49:00 1984


	Thanks, Dick, for your observation.  Alas, most of the people in
this country ( well, at least most of the voters ) have become completely
insensitive to such remarks -- and many, I fear, really DO share the
world-view lurking behind Reagan's words.
	The U.S. in the late '70s and early '80s bears a chilling resemblence
to Germany in the late '20s and early 30's.  In both instances, a major world
power suffered, in rapid succession,
	1.) a major defeat in a war,
	2.) an economic recession, and
	3.) previously unheard of levels of inflation
the net effect of which was to totally demoralize a once proud people,
turning many essentially decent, Christian, God-fearing souls into little 
more than drooling, deranged hyenas.  In Germany, it was the Brown Shirts
who terrorized the nation; in the US we have NCPAC, and suchlike 
organizations to contend with. No, they aren't out in the streets breaking
heads ( yet ), but don't forget that violence can be ideological as
well as physical.
	If it weren't for this environment, Reagan wouldn't have been
able to get away with his gaffe so easily.  In our present conidtion,
we are a country full of vengeful people: out to reclaim military victory
against just about any 'adversary', even miliarily impotent Central
American/Caribbean nations whose combined armed forces wouln't be a match
for the Kalamazoo, Mich. Police force.  In this respect Reagan is following
in you-know-who's footsteps precisely: A.H. went after Austria and 
Czechoslovakia first *because* they were sure victories, which bought him
1.) a tremendous P.R. ( read propaganda ) advantage at home, and 
2.) more time for a military buildup.  Most historians now concede that
Nazi Geramany would have been a knockover for the armies of England and/or
France as late as the time of the Czecho invasion, if either Chamberalain
and/or Daladier ( or whoever it was that month ) had had the courage to take
action.
	I hope and pray that the contry will come to its senses without
having to have sense banged into it, as was the case with the Nixon/Agnew
'72-landslide-turned-into-impeachment-hearings debacle. Maybe Reagan is more
or less assured of a victory today. Nevertheless, if Mondale can stave off
Reagan in at least one or two states plus the District of Columbia, and the
Democrats retain control of the house and at don't blow things in the
Senate, all will not have been lost -- at lest a tinge of moral victory
will be detectable.  On the other hand, if Reagan pulls a 50-stater, and
the congress becomes solidly Republican, I'm afraid that we're in for
very grim times, even worse than those black days of 1973 and 1974.
	Its now 4:41 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 6th, election day; with just
a few hours left before I'll sit down in front of my T.V. and watch
my fellow Americans march of like a pack of lemmings for the sea. I plan
on having a bottle of Jack Daniels and a bucket of ice along with me --
the better to deaden the pain. 

	-- Bitfiled Ben