TAMPA, Florida. As carpenters worked feverishly last night to prepare the Tampa Bay Times Forum for the 2012 Republican Convention set to begin next week, a curious group of men clad only in Brooks Brothers Bermuda shorts gathered around a box of 20 Mule Team Borax, the laundry booster and multi-purpose cleaner, chanting “Bring back Dutch, Bring back Dutch.”
20 Mule Team Borax
While event coordinators ignored them, the political reporter for “Nick at Nite” recognized the brand and the connection immediately. “Ronald ‘Dutch’ Reagan was host of ‘Death Valley Days’ in the mid-1960s,” said Len Orthwine, “and 20 Mule Team Borax was the sponsor!”
“Use 20 Mule Team Borax to wash out your teenager’s filthy mouth!”
The men cast furtive glances at passersby before launching into the love theme from “Bedtime for Bonzo,” and at that point riot police moved in with nightsticks to break up the ritual. “Move along, now,” said Patrick Harrigan, a twenty-year veteran of the Tampa Police Department who shook his head and said “I thought I’d seen it all, but that’s a new one on me.”
The clandestine group is a “cargo cult” seeking to recall Ronald Reagan from the spirit world in the same way that South Pacific islanders try to recreate material goods brought to their islands by magical incantations and mimetic ceremonies that include the construction of non-working airplanes and landing strips.
Cargo cult members celebrate Reagan cabinet officials.
“Cargo cults are formed by primitive peoples in response to the shock they receive when they see the wealth that western civilization can produce,” says Claude Levy-Friel of the University of Ontario-Toronto. “Republicans in the 80′s thought they’d never regain the White House after Watergate, so they consider the departed Ronald Reagan to be an all-powerful deity.”
“I was hoping for that guy Pawlenty, but I guess he was too bland.”
Since Reagan left office in 1989, Republicans have been searching for a candidate who could attract members of their rival tribe, the Democratic Party, in much the same way that Reagan attracted the votes of “Reagan Democrats” to help him win even traditionally liberal states such as Massachusetts.
Republicans for the Return of Ronald Reagan
“We pray for the return of Ronald Reagan because we don’t think Governor Romney is such a leader,” said Oswald Toomey of Truth-or-Consequences, New Mexico. “The hair’s similar, but it doesn’t have that Grecian Formula sheen we’re looking for.”
Since Reagan left office in 1989, Republicans have been searching for a candidate who could attract members of their rival tribe, the Democratic Party,
Very funny! Henceforth I will trust GNN for all my news.
And it’s quite true the GOP would resurrect Ronald Reagan if they could. That happens to be the premise of my book “The Newts”, wherein a Tea Partier named “Ed the Electrician” travels to Hades in search of a Founding Father and ends up trying to bring Reagan back to life.
The Newts: A Political Satire of Mythic Proportions
But . . . Ron’s in heaven!