My Prophetic Utterance: Clinton and Obama
I have no special, magical, God-given, or otherwise extraordinary prophecies to share here, but I did have a sudden “Aha!” insight that I, for lack of any other other venue, will share with you. Feel free to steal this one, share it, claim it as your own. It’s important enough, I think, that others think about it, too.
Two glittering generalities- assumptions which I think have some basis in demographic reality:
1. The great bulk of Obama supporters are young people. Sen. Casey, in endorsing Obama yesterday, was frank about the influence of his children on his decision to make that endorsement. The same is true in my house, and -I’m guessing- millions of households in the U.S. Our local precinct chair is a young woman of- 18? 19?. I know that because I nominated her for the job and she won unanimously!
Young people, children of Baby Boomers, may have a lot of cultural baggage we older people (I’m 58 ) have difficulty understanding. What they DO NOT have in them is the jaded bitterness that grew from assassinations in the 60s, the Vietnam War’s endlessness (although they’re beginning to taste something equally foul), and the deep sarcasm toward government that has grown in us both as a reaction to realities, and as an emotional protective mechanism.
2. Clinton supporters- the bulk of them- are not young. They are peers of Hillary and Bill. They are largely rural and small town (look at the county breakdowns in primary voting). And- many of them- are part of the system of “what’s in it for me?” They are easily influenced (apparently in New Hampshire) by the slightest display of emotion. Many of them bought into the contrived “3 a.m.” fear nonsense; in fact, fear of something ‘too different’ is characteristic of many my age. We’ve been through so many cultural revolutions that we are afraid of many more intense ones. We like some change, but only if it doesn’t affect our worked-for status and inherited place in the general scheme of American society.
(Yes, those are gross generalizations. But they’re not mere imaginings on my part either!)
Now, if Clinton is somehow able, despite the numbers at this point, to get herself nominated; if she and Bill (who is not only the coattails on which she hangs, but a mirror of her own thinking on virtually every issue, including lust for center stage), are able to pull off some behind-the-scenes, Roberts Rules of Order, Bosnia-flavored lie in order to win the nomination, then we will have in America a whole new generation of bitter young, someday very bitter older, people.
Theirs will be a bitterness that I don’t think our country can weather. There are too many horrifying alternatives available to the bitterly disaffected now that had only begun to surface when we BBs began to see the world through mud-colored glasses. From methamphetamines to binge beer, from “Screw it, why bother?” to “grab it all now, because it really is going down the drain”, we will see a cultural change in a whole demographic upon which the future of the country depends, become an even more bent and befouled mirror of our own.
I hate that I foresee that. I don’t want it to happen. But I’ve seen, as so many have over the last forty years, how 2 + 2 really does add up to 4.
The Hebrew prophets weren’t looking into crystal balls when they made their prophecies. They were looking around at what was happening and making certain logical conclusions that nobody wanted to hear. And they were right.
I think I will be, too. Which is why we cannot let it happen.
I agree with your analysis, and have had this same fear myself, that the Boomer generation (my own as well) will refuse to allow the new order to be born, and disaffect and disillusion the youth. What are the chances that this truly can be curtailed, in your opinion?
There is an appeal to unselfishness and community inherent in Obama’s message that has reminded many of our age what we hoped at one time, could be. If it is not given a chance to really be experienced- this time- then I am very, very worried.
I don’t have a good answer, in terms of helping derail the old politics. I personally will feel a deflation of hope so deep, if we are not successful, that I won’t bother voting in the presidential election. Because, if it is between Clinton and McCain, it really won’t matter- flip a coin; things will go on either way exactly as they have been. The lobbyists will remain in control, Bill will grandstand everywhere (imagine the private, enriching deals he would be a part of!), and idealism will take- I think- a final and fatal hit.
If it is McCain vs. Obama and Obama does lose the general election, I will at least know, as I believe young people will, too, that hope is alive, and can be built upon. At least, I hope so. I will be able to hope for hope, again.
Nicely said.
I do feel on the precipice of such a moment. The good and lucky thing about the “older generation” that you’re talking about is that some really honorable things happened in the fifties and early sixties (space race, civil rights, gi bills), so that, once the sh*t hit the fan (vietnam, watergate, mlk/rfk), there was a foundation of patriotic memory upon which the bitterness and anger was then built.
Because of this, I think where we are now is much worse. We have not done any of the things that need to be done. We have not caught Bin Laden, we have not addressed the environment (we only just admitted global warming!), or Africa, or our oil dependence. We have not put our great will behind solutions. And these are things that must be done. So while I agree that the bitterness and selfishness of the eighties has set us on this paris hilton path, the BB generation are also the children of civil rights, and that’s memory informs them in important ways–to have witnessed the last, best story of America we have.
I worry that soon we will have generations of Americans who can’t point to anything great about this country that they didn’t read about in a history book. (I was born into Watergate, so that leaves me with…?)
In other words, while many BB’s still hold this reservoir of hope within them–this memory of occasional justice and prosperity–I’m not sure that, in thirty years, people will still have that, and then, what does any of this stuff matter? I mean, given how easily we recently gave up Habeas corpus, a right man had fought thousands of years for, well, it’s only downhill from here.
Unless we get people excited again, and believing in the brilliance of the Constitution. That it is worth arguing over, and exciting them about a government of the people, and the possibilities of goodness and justice we can all be participant in.
Well, you can see that happening here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9IldaegAB0
I teach kids a little older than this. They care about each other in a way I don’t remember when I was in school. I really believe that they will change the world, if we let them.
Joshua, so well said. And instructive to me as well.
I bet those who have made at least a genetic contribution to such thinking as yours, are very proud..
Every vote is of equal weight. I don’t care if young people or the elderly will be bitter or not. Life is always like this. We can’t make everyone happy.