From a Bennington Banner editorial, 1/15/08:
http://www.benningtonbanner.com/editorials/ci_7974502
It may surprise more than a few baby boomers to learn that young
liberal Barack Obama backers — anxious for the new to replace the old
— often lump all boomers together, liberals and George W. Bush
supporters alike, for derision.
Boomers, of course, are familiar with their own history and sometimes
assume everyone else should be too.
But they do know, as some younger voters might not, what led to the
GWB presidency.
Mr. Bush and his pal ***** Cheney are, yes, part of the same generation
as the Clintons.
The difference is that the president and veep are not among those who
will ever represent the generation historically.
Call them the Darth Vaders of the '60s era.
These guys are among the 40 percent or so who never understood what
was happening in a progressive sense in the '60s and '70s, or never
cared.
Count Rush Limbaugh among their number.
He's a Darth Vader spokesman.
Their goal has always been to return this country to their version of
the good old days, before, in their view, the boomers came along and
ruined things by accepting modernity.
They would go back beyond FDR and the New Deal, if they could, as
their plans to bankrupt Social Security attest.
Their hero is Ronald Reagan, who imagined a shining city on a hill, or
some such, which never actually existed, which in reality was a world
dominated by old, rich white WASP men.
Guys Jackie Robinson fought against, guys Martin Luther King fought
against.
Guys Bobby Kennedy fought.
A liberal majority of the massive boomer generation, meanwhile,
rejected blind patriotism, questioned wars, rejected imperialism,
racism, sexism, ethnocentrism, intolerance of gays and the denigration
of Native Americans, Jews and countless other groups — and the idea of
forcing one's religion on someone else.
And conservative America did what it has always done throughout our
history — invented slicker forms of repression, or revive old ones, to
turn the tide backward.
With the Reagan Revolution, which is properly a devolution, they were
partly successful, only to have Bill Clinton set them back on their
heels after 12 years in power.
This, for those weren't paying attention, or are too young to
remember, is why the former president, and now his wife, have always
been attacked so viciously.
To certain conservatives, this is a death struggle to return America
to that idyllic bygone era that never was.
This the Clintons understand perfectly, from experience, as do many
who are close to them in age.
This also is something a number of younger, liberal Americans have yet
to grasp.
As with many other political battles throughout our history, the
stakes are real for millions of people, and the enemy, as far as
progressives are concerned, are the most powerful and domineering
elements of our society — not some warm and fuzzy, would-be
compromisers.
Something else worth understanding is that the narrow liberal majority
of baby boom voters may be all that is preventing a lurch back to the
kind of slash and burn conservatism that marked most other eras of our
history.
It's too bad, then, that the Clintons and Sen. Obama now have to fight
one another for the Democratic nomination.
They are the most natural of allies — one the future, one the past and
the present of the same political movement.
If they allow their differences to divert them from the real battle in
November, or if the losing side sits out the election, they will all
regret it.
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Harry
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