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The economy in the Gilded Age reached new heights and new lows [Dollar symbol on rollercoaster]

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some people got incredibly rich so that was nice for them but that didn't mean

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that the economy as a whole didn't have a bad case of booms and busts well [Man explodes]

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things were pretty Bumi and busty in the political world too there were ups like

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record voter turnout but major Downers like one corruption scandal after [People cuing to vote]

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another well civil war superstar ulysses s grant was the first president of the

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Gilded Age after Johnson was impeached grant wrote a massive wave of popularity [Grant surfboarding]

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to the White House but once he got there he put lots of his buddies in positions

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of power and then sitting shot dirtier than a frat house on a mud-wrestling

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night there's no doubt that the administration of ulysses s grant puts [ulysses sitting in office]

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the s in scandal all the scandals even had fun names like the whiskey ring the

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indian ring the credit mobile or scandal and black friday 1869 well of course

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methias grants administration was it wasn't as messy as garfield no not the

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big orange lasagna loving cat we're talking about President Garfield that

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guy a lot of people don't really know who he is this is probably because he

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was only president for about two hundred days before he was shot well of course [White House appears]

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Gilded Age politics weren't only crazy in DC things were all messed up on the

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local level two in many urban areas in the eastern US local politicians were [Politician appears in urban street]

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all about thug life local politicians were basically gang members or at least

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in gangs people who had influence and power in the political scene were called

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bosses their favorite thing to do with cell government jobs and services to the

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highest bidders what are they get in return both yeah well that seems an [Man given stack of cash]

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awful lot like it well not at all like the way democracy is supposed to work

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but on the other hand it was one of the ways people dealt with a government that

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just wasn't doing its job the feds were all playing candy crush or something [Feds playing computer games]

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anyway bosses in their political machines may have been about as corrupt

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as it gets but all their dirty dealing did provide

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essential services for folks like putting out fires and fixing roads you [Firefighters appear and construction workers fixing roads]

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know government stuff man it's a real measure of how bad things were that

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we're pointing out that one kind of corruption was trying to make up for

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another kind of corruption and look that was considered good you know instead of

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one bad apple toiling a bunch looks like a bad apple trying to save the bag of [Apple staring at other apples]

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rancid applesauce

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