This 60's Era Boomer just wrote off RePUKE-pandering Obama

[Proud2BAmurkin]

That slur is one step away from "DIRTY COMMIE HIPPIE."

A 60's Era Boomer translation: pro civil rights anti-war activist.

FUCK Obama.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,309297,00.html

[NC_Nurse]

1. What slur?

Sorry, I skimmed the article - what are you referring to specifically?

[Proud2BAmurkin]

6. This quote

"There's no doubt that we represent the kind of change Senator Clinton can't deliver on. And part of it's generational," Obama told FOX News." Senator Clinton and others have been fighting some of the same fights since the '60s. It makes it very difficult for them to bring the country together to get things done. And I think that's what people hunger for."

[maximusveritas]

23. Huh? So you think Senator Clinton is a "pro civil rights anti-war activist"?

Because that's the only way you're "translation" makes any sense at all.

What Obama is referring to is the fight between McCain and Clinton over her Woodstock museum. They're busy refighting nonsense from the 60s instead of dealing with the present.

[WinkyDink]

25. I KNOW! You'd think we were in an unpopular war or something!

[maximusveritas]

28. That makes no sense either

Maybe I just need to take some drugs and I'll be able to understand you people. Just kidding. I think.

[WinkyDink]

29. 60's = anti-VietNam protests. Now we're in Iraq. Get it now? It really IS deja-vu.

Only with new and improved war-crimes and illegal spying.

[maximusveritas]

45. Ok, but that's obviously not what Obama is referring to. Senator Clinton has nothing to do with

the protests against the Iraq War.
Obama, meanwhile, has been to anti-Iraq War protests, before it even started.
So, as I said, the interpretation provided by the OP makes no sense.

[Breeze54]

138. Read his book for the other slander on Boomers!

he just keeps at it...like a moran.

[Odin2005]

32. Yep, the Boomer culture warriors don't get that the world has moved on. n/t.

[leftofthedial]

162. and he doesn't get

that he won't win without us


Age-ism is the second worst form of bigotry in America

(next to bigotry against atheists and agnostics)

[Odin2005]

31. He's right. Too many Boomers are stuck in 1968.

Like, for example, screaming about the US being an inherently racist society when 97% of people under 30 have no problem with interracial dating and a black guy has a reasonable chance to get into the White House in '08. :eyes:

[Lex]

54. Yeah, it's not an inherently racist society anymore

because of those 2 reasons.

Are you serious? Please tell me you are kidding.

[Hoof Hearted]

63. Well. Only "people under 30" really count, dontcha know.

'Course they don't vote much so................

[Hoof Hearted]

61. What the hell?

How fuckin' far do you think any candidate is going to get bashing the boomers? It's almost tragically idiotic.

Even if we assumed your made up statistics were true..... even if we gave you that...... what the hell difference would it make if "people under 30" view the issue of race as null? Those "people under 30" still have to live in the world of 18 to 108 year old voters. And what about your "people under 30" anyway? Not really the best damn voters. The boomers, on the other hand, show up. Is that the block you'd like to see your guy alienate?

[wtmusic]

69. If you take a stroll through New Orleans you'll see a casualty

of the American Inherently Racist Society. Apparently the view isn't so good from where you live. :eyes:

[BleedingHeartPatriot]

114. The Jenna Six might disagree with the assessment as well.

wtmusic, there are none so blind, etc.

Keep fighting the good fight. :-) MKJ

[Odin2005]

120. A lot of the supposed "race" stuff dealing with Katrina seems to be to be more a class issue.

Rich yuppies are more likely to vote Puke then working-class people from the lower 9th ward.

[BleedingHeartPatriot]

129. Are you truly an Obama supporter? You keep talking about the apparent lack of rascism in this

country, which "your" candidate has been clear in recognizing and addressing its ingrained existence.

:shrug: MKJ

I'm referencing a post I saw of yours in this thread, which completely misrepresented the civil rights movement.

[Swamp Rat]

136. Yeah, look at all the poor white folks:

[yardwork]

142. Thank you, Swamp Rat. I hope that everybody takes a good look.

Sometimes pictures really do say what words cannot.

[nadinbrzezinski]

155. You bringing facts to this fight?

how dare you?

:evilgrin:

GOOD JOB!

[Swamp Rat]

156. Jus' the facts, Jack!

:D

[nadinbrzezinski]

154. Scratches head

so the comments about finally cleaning up NOLA were just a figment of my imagination?

And they had nothing to do with skin color.

Okie dokie

[ronnykmarshall]

140. Fucking old goats!

Why can't they just all die?

:sarcasm:

[yardwork]

145. Hey. I resemble that remark.

:-)

[TheUniverse]

160. Did you just pull that stat out of your ass?

Something tells me the people under 30 who approve of interacial dating is much much lower...

[R_M]

100. I don't like Obama. He speaks of unity and then attacks his opponents.

:thumbsdown:

[Laura PourMeADrink]

117. Ha ! I like what Bill Maher said - " I don't want to get along with them

I want to chew them up, grind them down and snort them" something like that...

[charlie]

2. I guess Obama

read Sullivan's valentine to him in the Atlantic:

http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200712/obama

It's a sign of try-anything flailing, IF he's taking cues from Sully.

[wtmusic]

3. Obama says I'm tired of divisive politics

Actually, they're not quite divisive enough for me. I want to divide the country in two and politically castrate every Republican agenda on the table.

Barack needs to find out why Vietnam is a whole lot like Iraq and see if there's a lesson we can learn.

[Proud2BAmurkin]

4. yeah 60s era boomers were pretty divisive fighting for those civil rights and against Vietnam

we suck

[BlackVelvet04]

86. not to mention women's rights......

we really do suck terribly

;-)

[Toasterlad]

19. That's Why He Did SUCH a Good Job Uniting the Gays and the Evangelicals.

[Odin2005]

36. Let me guess, I bet you'd be perfectly fine with "forcibly re-educating" Republicans.

:eyes:

Every time I see some culture warrior on either side demonize and dehumanize the other side ("Democrats are traitors!!!" "Republicans are too evil to be called human!!!" I cringe.

[wtmusic]

43. Can you show me where I demonize/dehumanize anyone?

I didn't think so. :eyes: yourself.

[polichick]

5. You mean the bit about fighting the same battles since the 60s...

Yeah, that wasn't too bright.

I'm not in the least interested in uniting with the Republicans ~ wish he'd get off that shit.

[Proud2BAmurkin]

7. Exactly, we're way past civil rights and lie based wars being issues

ain't we?

[polichick]

9. Obama doesn't seem like a bad guy, but...

He has a tin ear for a lot of things ~ and he's very "visionary" but doesn't bother to chew on the issues much ~ plus, if you don't like his vision of uniting with criminal enablers, you're out of luck.

[NMMNG]

10. And homophobes.

:puke:

[BlackVelvet04]

8. He made a statement earlier

that "boomers need to get over themselves."

Frankly, I think he needs to get over himself. We wouldn't be fighting the same battles if his generation had fought some of them so we didn't end up right where we started out.

[polichick]

11. Really, he said that??

If so: Bite Me Obama!

[alteredstate]

50. He didn't say it.

Perhaps you should ask the OP to bite you.

[TomInTib]

12. No effing kidding.

Obama's generation dropped the damned ball.

[polichick]

13. Do you recall the name for Obama's generation??

He's technically part of the baby boom, but seems to relate better with the next "generation."

[TomInTib]

16. Yeah, "The Lost Generation" (Ford, Carter, Reagan).

Actually, I just made that up.

But when I got back to the states and came back to my senses (sort of), I wondered what the hell had happened to the passion we all had felt just a few years prior.

It went off down the road and found a new rock under which to hibernate, I suppose.

[Raejeanowl]

34. He's A Gen X-er

A slacker. And he has said more than enough (for me) on the topic of why the baby boomers need to take their perennial sibling rivalries and 60s-vintage partisan issues and get the hell out of the way, so the next generation (led by him, of course) can move forward in perfect unity. Sound familiar?

Never mind that allowing the choice of American leadership to devolve into a generational polemic can be dangerously divisive in and of itself. If you can't claim maturity, experience and wisdom, you claim fresh ideas, energy, innovation, youth. Unfortunately, Obama is callow and lacks the finesse to deliver the message of his advantages without simultaneously alienating vast chunks of his audience.

[yardwork]

146. Is he really that young? I thought that he was about my age, making him a boomer.

How old is Obama, anyway?

[Raejeanowl]

149. Yes and No

When the term was originally coined, boomers were grouped to include anyone born after WWII through 1960.

The bracket has since been expanded/redefined and is now generally held as 1946-1964.

This revised span might indeed include Obama, who was born in 1961, except for the fact that he continually rejects it and insists upon identifying himself as a Gen-Xer.

Certainly a better vantage point for his criticisms.

[yardwork]

161. Pfft. I was born in 1960 so he's a whole year older than me.

He can stop dissing me anytime. Sheesh. First he slams me for being gay and now for being a year older than he is.

[liberal hypnotist]

159. If it were not for the "boomers" and the "before boomers" Obama wouldn't be running.

How soon they forget. Thousands of students and older folks rode on the buses to fight for equality in the early and mid sixties. They actually went out their homes, with no TV or IPODs and went down south and stood against real active, bat wielding,soutern white, deeply bigoted and ignorant hate.

[Odin2005]

37. A Boomer saying Generation X dropped the ball??? Oh the projection-filled irony...

:rofl:

The GenXers and us Millennials are going to be the ones stuck cleaning up the consumerism-laden mess you Boomers made.

[BlackVelvet04]

87. Maybe if you can figure out how to add 2 and 2 without

a calculator.

:rofl:

[Raejeanowl]

107. If I May Point Out...

By the way, when did Gen Y-ers start calling themselves by the affected moniker of "Millennial?" Is this a college thing? Sounds extremely significant.

I think he means that a number of Boomers did make personal sacrifices and labor at social, humanitarian, political, legal and environmental/ecological causes that were not at all enthusiastically supported by the following generation (i.e., Gen X) when-as you so rightly pointed out-the world continued to turn and we moved on to have frequently unrelated careers and support our families. Activism by youth particularly took a turn for the dumpsters. Complacency and disaffection was the thing. The world owed them something. Ahem-that's why they were called "slackers." I didn't make that up.

The X-ers have (unlike yourself) also been adults, wage-earning adults, spending adults, voting adults, messing-up-and-dismissing-the-previous-generation adults for up to a couple of decades now. They're some of them old enough to run for President, don'tcha know? And Boomer folks, correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't recall our per capita consumption (multi-car families, McMansions, bulging storage facilities, dining out (esp. fast food), routine vanity surgery and cosmetic dentistry, electronic gizmos up the kazoo, credit-driven, debt-up-to-the-eyeballs economy) becoming terribly conspicuous until the 80s-90s. Consider consulting your professors whose undergraduate studies were completed prior to 1975.

We should all generally know what we're talking about, because WE HAVE A POINT OF REFERENCE TO MAKE THE COMPARISON.

We inherited our world from the "Greatest Generation." We were born into still somewhat austere post-war circumstances but were raised in increasing prosperity. We have children in both Gen X and Y who arguably have benefited tremendously in some respects from the "consumerism-laden mess" we Boomers kicked off in raising, feeding, housing and supporting YOU and sending YOU and your cohort to college.

Now, perhaps you grew up on a commune or farm, raised and ate your own vegetables, milk, and meat, were home-schooled, wore homespun and/or homemade clothes. Went cold, hungry, or without electric light at times, bathed or slept with multiple siblings, walked, biked, or rode horses everywhere. Were deprived of computers, video games, good shoes, cell phones, vacations, health insurance and dental care. MANY of us experienced those things; we certainly had little technology.

But if you were NOT so underprivileged, I know you will want to immediately forfeit all of your advantages back before further imperiling your ethical position by having enjoyed any of the guises and forms of economic consumption. And may I suggest growing a thicker skin where criticism of your candidate is concerned, and less angry identification with him when you think he's being dismissed?

[Odin2005]

121. "Gen-Y" is moronically unoriginal and makes us look like an extension of Gen-X

The term "Millennial" was coined by social historian William Strauss in his 1991 book Generations to refer to people born in and after 1982 and has been increasingly used because the term "Gen-Y" is just plain stupid. Howard Dean even used the term "Millennial Generation" at YearlyKos a few months ago.

[Raejeanowl]

153. That's A Personal Opinion

Having asked the question of several younger persons in my household and one of the generation in question, drawing blank stares all around, I decided to Google that.

It seems that Posterity Jury isn't quite with you, just yet.

Try "Millennial Generation" and watch where the Wikipedia link takes you. Read it if you have time while you're there.

[AngryAmish]

124. Boomers have gone from blaming their parents to blaming their children

(Someone posted this a few months back and it hits the nail on the head)

[BleedingHeartPatriot]

130. I am in exact opposition to your generalization.

My parents grew up during the Depression, my father served in the Korean War, my mother broke the poltical glass ceiling by being the first woman to serve on the City Council.

My daughter is smart, much smarter than I was at her age, an honor student who is self sufficiently working her way through college 2000 miles from home.

Nothing but pride and admiration from this boomer for both generations.

MKJ

[MuseRider]

14. YES! You nailed it. n/t

[abq e streeter]

17. very well-put, B.V.04

I'm becoming less impressed with Obama all the time. I think he's bright and has his heart in the right place for the most part, so I think he's got the ability to evolve and grow, but he sure ain't ready for primetime yet.

[ljm2002]

18. "We wouldn't be fighting the same battles...

... if his generation had fought some of them so we didn't end up right where we started out."

That about sums it up.

I'm sorry to say it, but Obama is just weak. He is obviously highly intelligent, but he too has no concept what the struggles of the people have been about over the last 40 years. Just when we are seeing the Republican party begin their slow-motion implosion, just when we might have a chance of doing what is necessary and CRUSHING them once and for all, he wants to hold out the olive branch? And that, after the last 7 years of corruption and the horrid treatment of our own lawmakers at the hands of DeLay and his ilk. Talk about snatching defeat out of the jaws of victory.

Which, unfortunately, the Democratic party is all too good at.

[BlackVelvet04]

83. I was taking some classes at a community college....

and the kids were griping because marijuana wasn't legal. I asked them what they had tried to do about that and they looked at me like I was nuts. I explained to them that the old hippies had tried and done everything we could and that we were damn tired of fighting the same battles like the drug laws, abortion rights, women's rights, etc. and that it's time they got off their lazy asses and did some of the fighting. The same goes for most that came after us boomers.

People do truly forget just what the boomers have contributed.

[maximusveritas]

22. Bullshit. He never said that.

Don't bother trying to find a source because you won't find one.

And the fact of the matter is that we aren't "right where we started out". That's just ridiculous. Great strides have been made. And we need to keep going instead of re-fighting old battles and talking about the past.

[wtmusic]

40. What he did say was largely dismissive

That watching the last 3 elections was like "watching the psychodrama of the baby boom generation — a tale rooted in old grudges and revenge plots hatched on a handful of college campuses long ago — played out on the national stage."

Fuck that. Maybe BO hasn't noticed but we're still fighting Eisenhower's military-industrial complex, whether he comes along for the ride or not.

[maximusveritas]

51. Interesting how everyone inserts their own ideas of what Obama is talking about

I think it says more about them and their biases than it does about Obama.

[wtmusic]

60. Interesting how defenders never provide their interpretation

I'd love to know how you'd steer his words to come up with something constructive.

[maximusveritas]

66. I already provided my interpretation

Obama's talking about things like the fight between Hillary and McCain over the Woodstock memorial. He's talking about the Swiftboating of John Kerry.

Instead of talking about the issues that matter, we've been fighting over events from the 60s that hold little relevance today. Obama has talked quite a bit about not spending our time looking backwards and this is just another way of saying the same thing.

[wtmusic]

73. How are those issues "revenge plots hatched on a handful of college campuses

long ago"? Hmm?

[maximusveritas]

94. Think about it. What do you think drives people like Rove, the neocons, and the Swiftboaters?

It all has to do with what Obama's talking about: "revenge plots hatched on a handful of college campuses".
They want to refight the battles they lost in the 60s and 70s. They want to get revenge. People like the Clintons allow them to that. It's not really their fault most of the time. But Obama gives us the opportunity to move beyond all that if we want.

[BlackVelvet04]

79. Not according to this.................

THE time has come, Senator Barack Obama says, for the baby boomers to get over themselves.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/21/weekinreview/21broder.html

[maximusveritas]

98. No, as noted below, that was the author's words, not Obama's

If it was Obama's words, he would have put it in quotation marks like so: "direct quote". That's something I learned to look for early on. Never believe what an article tells you someone said unless they provide the direct quote or you can get it elsewhere.

[BlackVelvet04]

88. We're not having to fight for abortion laws again?

We're not still fighting to get the drug laws changed? We don't have blatant acts of racism still happening?

[Sparkly]

27. I think that was a paraphrase, not a direct quote.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/21/weekinreview/21broder.html

:shrug:

[alteredstate]

46. Please correct your post

unless you can provide a link that proves Obama uttered these words.

[BlackVelvet04]

80. Here ya go..............

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/21/weekinreview/21broder.html

[Alcibiades]

78. Obama is a Boomer

Born in 1961. The baby boom didn't end until 1964.

So I doubt he said that.

[BlackVelvet04]

85. Here ya go......

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/21/weekinreview/21broder.html

[Alcibiades]

95. The' get over themselves" line was just a hook

intended by the author to get you to read the article. It worked, but I hope most people don't think, as you apparently do, that Obama actually said that.

As for the substance of the charges, there is something there. I really chafe when discussing Iraq with my dad, a boomer, who quickly makes it all about his own anger at "Hanoi Jane" and his feeling that (much like some in Germany after WWI) the troops are in danger of being stabbed in the back by leftist politicos who want to cut and run, denying them the orgasm of victory.

Which brings me to another question--why is it everyone assumes Obama is only critical of the "hippies" in the boomer generation? My dad voted for George Wallace, for pete's sake. Anybody remember the so-called "silent majority?" It certainly wasn't the entire boomer generation that fought for civil rights, feminism, peace and all the rest.

Not that I'm voting for Obama anyway.

[BlackVelvet04]

97. yes, I read the article and

he said it without saying those exact words.

[cuke]

15. Sounds like a repuke

campaigning against the dirty hippies

[earthlover]

20. Not a smart move on Obama's part.

I agree that it is divisive as well. I am disappointed in Obama.

There has to be a better way of saying what he must have been trying to say. Hard to fathom him writing off an entire generation! Boggles mind.

[Gold Metal Flake]

21. The 60's? We are still fighting the same battles from the THIRTIES!

In fact, we have returned to the fights from the 1770's.

[Bluebear]

24. Maybe he can have an "Embrace Today's Generation!" tour.

The MC can prattle on for a half hour on how the baby boomers are obsolete and that the fights of the 1960's are passe.

[Lex]

55. How about "No Hippies, No Queers!"

That should make the conservatives warm up to him.

[Bluebear]

76. that's right, it's important to "embrace all views"

:sarcasm:

[Hawkowl]

91. Snort!

Milk coming out of my nose! I knew there was another reason I didn't like Obama. Not to mention, I knew of him 15 years ago, and his head was so swollen he could barely walk back then.

[Bluebear]

96. Did you know Woodstock was a big problem of the 60's?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=2231450&mesg_id=2233150

[Raejeanowl]

151. It Was For Mr. Yasgur, Maybe? n/t

[yardwork]

147. That seems to be where he's headed - into Republican land.

Is Obama the new Lieberman?

[WinkyDink]

26. Boomer here. IMHO, Obama is NOT RFK Re-dux. He's not Ready for Prime-Time.

There IS NO "UNITING" MY kind of Democrat with ANY REPUBLICAN. SORRY.
(Unless the Republican changes his or her tune, fast.)

[Odin2005]

30. I find it annoying when the Boomers scream bloody murder...

...whenever a Gen-Xer dares to say that Boomers aren't the Crown of Creation...

[cuke]

33. Read what Obama said

" Senator Clinton and others have been fighting some of the same fights since the '60s. It makes it very difficult for them to bring the country together to get things done."

Obama seems to think that those fighting for justice are making it more difficult to achieve it. IOW, he's saying the boomers are in the way of progress. That's a bit more than saying "Boomers aren't the Crown of Creation"

[Odin2005]

38. I was taliing about the knee-jerk coments by Boomers in general...

...whenever someone criticizes them, I wasn't just spicifically referring to what Obama said.

[cuke]

41. I've never heard of such knee jerk comments

I'm surprised you (or anyone else) thinks this is a widespread problem with boomers

[KAZ]

39. Cuke, you've had some really good posts, but this ..

...retro stuff is best left alone. It's a means of distraction. A way of dividing. The old divisional things are loosing their luster. Gingrich dragged this out in '94, and they're running it up the flag pole again.

[cuke]

44. Yes, it is a way of dividing us

So why is Obama, the Uniter, engaging in this sort of stuff. Dividing us is what the republicans do. It's not repukes running this up a flagpole; It's Obama

[KAZ]

58. Just my opinion, but Barack is not dividing all that much.

Just curious. How would you play this if you were him? He has "rock star" potential, but racism is still rampant in this country.

[wtmusic]

72. Take a look at this thread. nt

[cuke]

102. I would have thrown the homophobes under the bus

[progressivebydesign]

42. I find it annoying when a rabid supporter of a candidate....

is willing to throw everyone else under a bus if their candidate says some really hurtful and ridiculous things about an entire generation that made it possible for a black man to be taken seriously as a presidential candidate.

[Proud2BAmurkin]

49. excellently said

:yourock:

[maximusveritas]

52. "really hurtful and ridiculous things" - Care to point any of these things?

I've yet to see him anyone provide a direct quote of him saying anything that even resembles "really hurtful and ridiculous things about an entire generation".

I've seen a bunch of people try to misread his words and make more of it than is there, but he's really said nothing other than that we need to move on and not continue to fight the same fights of the 60s. That says nothing about that generation and doesn't disparage the things they accomplished. It just states that we're living in the present and need to start worrying about current problems (Iraq, global warming, health care) instead of old ones (Vietnam, Woodstock)

[Bluebear]

81. WOODSTOCK!?!?!?!?!!

:rofl:

[maximusveritas]

90. I'm putting you on my Ignore list

You're obviously not willing to discuss anything in a serious manner. I'll just advise you to wait a moment longer before mocking others and consider the possibility of your own ignorance.

[Bluebear]

93. Great, ignore me! WOODSTOCK! A "problem" of the 60's?

:rofl:

Not campus unrest, not racial tension and riots, but Woodstock! :)

[yardwork]

144. Um, it really is a bit laughable to refer to Woodstock as one of the "problems" of the 60s

As another poster has said, there were some rock concerts that went badly wrong, notably Altamont, but to single out Woodstock as one of your two examples of the problems of the 60s, alongside Vietnam, betrays a certain....shall we say, charming naivete about the event in question.

[FredScuttle]

99. Good thing you mentioned Woodstock

because Altamont went so smoothly. :eyes:

Didn't Al Queda get it's start under the speaker towers at Woodstock?

[cuke]

103. Sure

" Senator Clinton and others have been fighting some of the same fights since the '60s. It makes it very difficult for them to bring the country together to get things done."

So people like Rep Lewis, Conyers, and the others who fought for civil rights are making it "very difficult" to "bring the country together". Do you really think people like John Lewis and Conyers are an obstacle to solving the problems that face us? Obama does

[Lex]

56. That's pure strawman bullshit.

nt

[Hoof Hearted]

82. And of course it *IS* . . . . .all. about. you.

rrrrrrriiiiiiiiggghhhht.

[Odin2005]

119. Well, the Boomers seem to think it's all about THEM. n/t.

[yardwork]

143. I find it annoying when people ignore their chosen candidate's flaws.

Nobody is perfect. Stop pretending that your candidate walks on water.

[KAZ]

35. Where's your profile? Fuck Obama? Fuck you. My profile

is there, and always has been. You "fuck" a Dem candidate, then put YOUR FUCKING PROFILE up.

[Proud2BAmurkin]

47. What do you want to know about me

?

[progressivebydesign]

48. I just don't think Obama has the insight to be president...

He's far too much a surface guy... He says some great things, he says some really bad things, he is embarrassed regularly by people who work for him, and he seems to relish the rock star thing far too much... AND.. he's spent WAAAAAY too much time trashing the other democrats, instead of the republicans. I won't support a candidate that focuses their aggression on other democrats and ultimately hurting the eventual nominee.

[wtmusic]

64. "far too much a surface guy"

IMO sums it up. Say whatever it "takes" to get elected. This was obviously a positioning statement to attempt to distance himself from other candidates -- and he ended up distancing himself from half the Democratic electorate.

Disaster.

[cgrindley]

53. Good, because quite frankly, boomers are the source of pretty much

all of the world's problems. Step aside. Make room for the next generation to try to unscrew up all the crap your generation foisted on the earth.

[Lex]

57. As soon as the next generation bothers to vote

they'll be set.

[Alcibiades]

89. That's a canard

Young people don't vote. It's been true ever since they got that right, yes, thanks in part to the efforts of the "baby boom" generation.

I'm a generation X guy, 39, balding with a beer gut. Generation X isn't a "youth" generation anymore. I vote, and so do most folks in my cohort, at a rate comparable to boomers when they were our age. The rate at which boomers vote will (if current patterns continue) always be higher than that of younger generations, simply because rates of voter participation have tended to be higher in older groups, eventually declining in extreme old age as physical and mental problems prevent more and more people from voting.

We saw a big slide in youth (18-24) voting between 1972 and 1976. We saw an even bigger slide between 1992 and 1996. We do know that the same things that drive other folks to vote also drive younger voters.

Anyway, this has been overemphasized. It's as if the young were the only group that votes at a rate lower than the general population. That's simply not the case.

[wtmusic]

59. Crap like the civil rights movement, feminism, abortion rights?

I'll take all the blame. :rofl:

[cgrindley]

67. Crap like Bush, WTO, Iraq I and II...

downsizing, rightsizing, outsourcing, the death of unions, global warming, the impending financial collapse... need I go on?

I hate to break it to you, but Roe v. Wade wasn't decided by your generation (you realize that one of the judges was born in the 19th century and the youngest was born in 1924), nor was Vietnam ended through your protests, nor did the Civil Rights movement have anything to do with you... Rosa Parks was born in 1913. Dr King was born in 1929. Malcolm X in 1925. And so on... these men and women were NOT boomers.

your generation did almost nothing that wasn't entirely self-centered.

[wtmusic]

71. Your sense of entitlement brings a tear to my eye

but only because it's sort of pathetic...

Please explain to me what it was that did end Vietnam? That set the stage for Roe v Wade? How many hundreds of thousands that fought for civil rights in the sixties were born after 1945?

Oops, I keep forgetting the enormous contributions of GenX. Nevermind. :rofl:

[KAZ]

74. Wish I could recommend a reply. Quite depressing.

[cgrindley]

111. Having a world that isn't actually headed towards mass extinction

is not entitlement. And as far as my generation goes... we know we suck. You guys should take a lesson from us and lay off the whole 1960's changed the world bullshit. It didn't. You merely stopped showering, got high, and had lousy sex. It wasn't as profound as you like to think, and we're all sick and tired of you taking credit for the shit that your parent's generation did.

[Odin2005]

75. Exactly! The Boomers have a habit of stealing the accomplishments of older generations.

It's as if the Korean War Generation never existed and the WW2 Generation were nothing but evil "pigs" :banghead:

[wtmusic]

77. Fine. Tell me what you've accomplished in your remarkable tenure

here on Earth. :popcorn:

[cuke]

104. Really?

I bet you cant post one example of a boomer taking credit for WWII and the Korean War.

[Odin2005]

122. The civil rights movement.

That was mainly a WW2 Generation and a Korean War Generation thing. Indeed, when the Boomers took control of the movement it degenerated into identity politics BS like the Black Panthers and the Nation of Islam.

[BleedingHeartPatriot]

128. There is no way you could provide tangible documented support for that statement. It's a poorly

formed opinion, nothing more. MKJ

[cuke]

134. One of the stupidest things I've read this week

Odin seems to think the SNCC was made up of WWII vets

[cuke]

105. Boomers are responsible for WTO, Iraq I and II?

Since when?

[Raejeanowl]

108. And None Of Them Did It Alone

But before we go too far afield, let's break it to YOU that union-busting, the proliferation of the automobile, DDT, the depletion of the ozone layer, the extinction of dozens of species, the stock market collapse, the Depression, the rise of the Mafia, gang warfare, voter frauds, the Dust Bowl, poverty in Appalachia, prison labor, sexism, lynchings, segregation, child labor, the Great Depression and two World Wars also occurred under prior watches...need I go on?

Most of those were taking place during the lifetimes or while on the watch of the elder statesmen you cited. So...let us place blame consistently by your methodology, and punitively vacate all accomplishments, as well.

Addressing your examples, the Supreme Court did not shape the dialog, or create the force of social change that informed their Roe v. Wade decision. The civil rights movement did not rest on only four or five prominently named sets of shoulders. And the extraction of troops from Vietnam and Cambodia did not occur out the goodness of Richard Nixon's itsy-bitsy bituminous heart, because he got this great, spontaneous idea one day.

How participation and support by the post-war generation (i.e., the Baby Boomers) in any of these movements was lacking in your view, I cannot imagine, unless you are that grotesquely ill-informed or desperate for the negative attention. Perhaps because you've learned from experience that it would have been far easier to sit home in one's fat armchair and attempt to throw rocks across the chasm of one's own ignorance, just so you can hear them echoing noisily when they hit the bottom and then brag about the "impact" you are having.

Most reprehensible of all is your broad-brush assertion that happens to include sixty thousand dead American troops in Vietnam and the hundreds of thousands more who came back with parts of their bodies, minds and souls missing.

So you believe they, too, were "self-centered?"

[Name removed]

135. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Raejeanowl]

137. That Is Petulant and Absurd, But I'll Consider The Source n/t

[KAZ]

65. Eww, we see the soft underbelly of CGrindley. Give the Boomers

a break. That "Gen" did a shit load. How about you?

[cgrindley]

68. No they didn't

global warming and a ruined economy are their lasting gifts to the world.

At least my generation hasn't fucked up the world forever.

[KAZ]

70. Then what is your generation doing about it?

I understand where you're coming from, but my brother had his head bashed in Chicago '68. What are you doing?

I know it's hard.

[cgrindley]

109. We are sanctimoniously and impotently complaining

which just happens to be what Generation X is best at. At least we know we suck. You guys are deluded.

[Bluebear]

84. never mind

no hope here

[cgrindley]

110. Sniff. Poor Kurt. (nt)

[Breeze54]

139. You're a joke

and a bad one at that.

[Tactical Progressive]

62. We're "hungry for leadership", Obama. That's why you aren't even a consideration

for the nomination by most of us.

Your generic rhetoric of 'new ideas' and 'new politics' and 'working together' and my personal favorite - 'hungry for leadership' - started out bland and has worn thin from there. Plus, to me anyway, as with seemingly the op and others on this thread, some of it is kind of insulting.

First off, you don't seem like much of a leader to me. At all. But you're young, so fine. Just stop posing.

And don't you think that just maybe, we've tried to 'work together'? We've been trying to work with these pricks for twenty years, and they keep getting nastier and more dishonest all the time. We are now so far past trying to compromise with these unreasonable, lying, cheating, election-stealing traitors, that we've finally come to the terminal realization that these people are virulently against everything decent people hold dear, and they always will be.

So your whole kumbayah attitude is pretty insulting, like you don't even understand where we are politically. Your politics appear to be what's stuck in 1994, making your 'Hillary is the politics of the past' and you're 'the politics of the future' talk ring like a bad memory.

Your politics actually strike me as generationally inexperienced, glib and self-impressed, whether we're talking about leadership, new politics, new ideas or working together.

[BlackVelvet04]

92. Good job.......

So your whole kumbayah attitude is pretty insulting, like you don't even understand where we are politically.

:rofl:

[Raejeanowl]

101. Spot-On Target-Thank You! n/t

[mark414]

106. not everything is about you

grow up

[Connie_Corleone]

112. There is no slur in the article.

So no one can have a criticism of the baby boom generation without being told to go fuck ourselves or fuck off??

Obama is a baby boomer by the way.

[Raejeanowl]

152. He Repudiates That

And therein lies part of his credibility problem.

[polichick]

113. Here's what I want to know...

Which generation felt it necessary to live in those suburban big ass houses in the 90s ~ I've always thought those mushrooming neighborhoods of 3000+ sq. ft. houses were the perfect symbol of what had gone wrong in the U.S.

(Hint: it wasn't the boomers.)

[Connie_Corleone]

115. Upper middle-class people?

Moving into expensive homes is not a generational thing.

[polichick]

132. What's stiking is not the expense...

...but the gigantic size of these homes ~ it's definitely a statement about something, just not sure what.

[BleedingHeartPatriot]

116. It started with the Gen Xers coming of age in the 80's, from hippies to Reagan yuppies wearing Izod

shirts.

It was as if the civil rights movement, the women's movement, the anti war movement, the environmental movement had never occurred.

I was living in a one bedroom rented apt with very little discretionary income seeing kids 10-15 years my junior buying up cars, houses and so forth, all on credit and eschewing any values beyond conspicuous consumption.

Money had become the only thing that mattered. I feel sort of quaint that I drive an old car, have moved back to an apt, although that was a downsize from a house after our daughter went to college and save money to buy things with cash instead of credit.

I work with Gen Xers who have huge mortgages, with seconds, and who can't ever consider working fewer hours or changing jobs to less pay but less stress.


Lawyers in Love, indeed.
MKJ

[Connie_Corleone]

125. Complaining about the younger generation is nothing new.

The Greatest generation complained about the baby boomers. The baby boomers complain about the generation X. Us, gen Xers complain about the Y generation or whatever they're called.

First the baby boomers complained about us gen Xers being slackers, not wanting to work. Now they complain that we work too much and spend too much money. I think that's called growing up.

Make up your minds.

[BleedingHeartPatriot]

127. See my post below. And, btw, my daughter's generation is amazing.

Smart, cynical, but not too much, wired and connected in ways of which we never dreamed. MKJ

[polichick]

133. That's how I feel about my kids' generation. nt

[polichick]

131. Yep, you got it!

In my area there was a huge boom of mega-houses in the late 90s to early 2000s purchased by gen-X couples pulling in mega-salaries, mostly from pharmaceutical companies (the very ones that were bleeding those on fixed incomes dry). Both husband and wife were working long hours and traveling a lot, but for some reason felt that they needed enormous homes located at least 45 min. from their offices.

Fortunately the appeal seems to be lessening and building big-ass houses has slowed here.

[Raejeanowl]

150. You've Got THAT Right! n/t

[PVnRT]

118. Wow. Apparently us non-Boomers are worthless pieces of shit.

At least, according to the Baby Boomers here. Since Obama has them pissed, I think he just went up in my book.

Oh, Boomers? Not all of you fought for civil rights and feminism and stopping Vietnam. In fact, most of you didn't. Feel free to quit trotting that out at every opportunity to prove how much better you are than the rest of us.

[BleedingHeartPatriot]

126. I'm a former living off the land hippie, is all.

I have friends and family of all generations, and I really am known as the "Hippie chick" to most, hopefully with more affection than not, but you never know.

I honestly have a hard time understanding the joys of accumulating stuff and I drive some people who know me crazy, because I don't update my technological, transportation or other devices and items in my life as quickly as others. I will eke out that last bit of use from about everything I have, rather than give money to yet another corporate entity, but it seems I'm pretty much to the extreme.

The generations who followed the boomers were at more of a disadvantage than we were, because by then, the powers that be had perfected the co-opting of young people's passions to buying and consuming rather than to gaining knowledge and understanding. In spite of that, there are millions of gen Xers contributing to the betterment of all of us.

And, this internet thing is a marvel of freeing up the marketplace of ideas, and it's gen Xers and following generations who are maxing out its potential for good for all of us.

We have our shining stars, but our generation produced some dregs of humanity, definitely. It's that way with each generation, and I look to the younger generation to learn from us that which is valuable and shrug off the rest and make their own way to making things better.

Peace. :hippie:

MKJ

and, on edit, and I'm a military veteran to boot. A mixed bag, like most people. :-)

[AngryAmish]

123. To be fair, baby boomers are dirty

[shoopnyc]

141. Good for you...eom

[Skip Intro]

148. DAMN!!! I can't Rec - thread's too old. But I can kick!

:kick:

[timtom]

157. "Tax cuts"????

Impeachment is subverted by the Democratic leadership, the Constitution is being dismantled, and hundreds of thousands are dead or maimed or wounded in Iraq/Afghanistan and Iran nuclear option os ON the table....

And this guy talks about TAX CUTS????

Hold me back, folks.

[Skidmore]

158. Obama is absolutley right.

We Boomers switch into battle mode instantaneously. Both sides. Over everything. We keep fighting Vietnam over and over and over again. Instead of looking forward to a vision of what the nation can become, we look backward and incessantly gnash our teeth over the old fights. We need to tackle the new problems with our children and grand children in a vastly different world from the one we grew up in. Obama has the capacity to look forward, not backward with nostalgia for the "good ole Clinton years" and try to resurrect them. Part of the reason we are in the mess we are in today is because Clinton helped to launch some of this crap that passes for policy, AND, like it or not, perfected triangulation to an art. There is much to rebuild in this land. I'd rather have a forward looking leader.