Did The Baby Boomers Screw Up American Politics?
The always independent Citizen Smash doesn’t mince words when he takes a look at the contributions or lack of thereof by baby boomers:
IF YOU’RE A BABY BOOMER, stand by. I’m about to p-p-put you down.You may be the most insufferable, self-centered, and irresponsible generation in American history. Oh, one-on-one, some of you are tolerable. But as a group, I can’t stand you. You seem to be generationally incapable of moving beyond the past, dealing with the present, or planning for the future.
At this moment, your generation dominates American politics. And just look at the mess you’ve made of it! As a nation we have become so divided, so tribalistic about our affiliations, that it is now almost impossible to have an intelligent discussion about any issue of substance. And it’s all your fault.
READ THE WHOLE THING because he details how baby boomers have influenced policies and the country’s political tone. And be SURE to read his post’s ending.
We are sure, in turn, that readers will have lots of comments on his post in our comments section. Smash wrote an additional comment HERE.
FOOTNOTE: We’ve noted before that Smash was one of the people who encouraged TMV to do this blog. The first blogad TMV ran was on his site and he helped set it up for us. Despite people who categorize him, if you read his blog regularly he is not easy to pigeonhole, is highly independent and doesn’t write in “blogspeak.” After about a year TMV learned that Smash lived close to The Moderate Condo. And he met Smash twice. Or, rather, three times: last night he had dinner with Smash at an Indian restaurant..
This post would have appeared here anyway since we regularly check his site. FOOTNOTE II: TMV is a baby boomer…and he agrees with Smash (although for self-preservation purposes he doesn’t agree totally with the last line…).
25 Responses to “Did The Baby Boomers Screw Up American Politics?”
And don’t forget the greatest accomplishment of the boomer generation, teaching the next generation that blame game psychobabble diatribes passes as reasoned debate. I urge the gen Xers to protest what the boomers have done to screw up their lives by refusing to use their greatest invention, the internet.
A great post, and easily expandable into a book, or condendensed into a simple phrase – The Me Generation.
I’m with grognard.
Rants and paeans about this, that, or the other generation are tiresome and silly. Sweeping generalizations don’t work any better based on when someone was born than on their gender, race, ethnicity, etc.
People mostly do what they gotta do in the time they’re given to do it in.
Boomers=the most selfish generation.
Its pretty bad when a lot of people hope a whole generation would just hurry up and die.
As in “we cant begin to solve these problems untill the boomers die, then we can start having reasonable conversation.” This includes such things as legalization, alternate energy, etc.
Boomers apparntly didnt learn a damn thing from Vietnam. Because here we are in the middle of Vietnam v 2.1 in the big sandbox.
And boomers are the ones with war envy. Their parents had the “Great War” and were the greatest generation.
Boomers just can’t stand this and want a great war of their very own. Thus the hyperbole about GWOT and how this is WW3, blah blah blah.
Just dont ask em to make any sacrifices though.
Without judging the boomers as people, a more serious question is on the horizon: How much effort and treasure will our society be willing to burn to extend the lives of octogenarian+ boomers? Is a revolt against this burden imminent?
I’m a boomer, you’re a boomer – isn’t Smash a boomer too? Or is he too young?
Nope. Gen X here.
I’m 50, my husband is 53..are we boomers?
Not all Boomers want a great war (the husband had the “pleasure” of being in that little war in SE Asia) …not all Boomers are as Snark described…some of us have worked, for three decades, for a sane energy policy (not that anyone would listen).
Some of are very concerned about our children’s futures…hence we live very simply.
It’s easy to pass the blame onto the previous generation, and in some cases deservedly. How are we Gen-X’s to ensure we aren’t going to be just as selfish (or perceived to be) as the baby-boomers are now?
What are Gen-Xs doing to heal the divisiveness in our culture? I read SMASH every week and there are times he seems as “divided” and “tribalistic” about issues as the baby-boomer he’s decrying.
First, yeah, I’m a ‘boomer’ (1950). Our generation is in charge? Cheney? Rumsfeld? These guys are our presidents FATHER’S advisors.
So let’s look at their generation. The so-called ‘greatest generation’ helped us out of the Depression and two world wars, then decided (just like the boomers) to just USE IT ALL UP. Who cares that their legacy, and ours is *a mountain of debt and a degraded planet* ? Reagan showed the GOP that you can ‘borrow’ (steal?) a few trillion dollars from your kids, pump up the economy for awhile and declare it ‘morning in America.’ The two GOP administrations since then have borrowed even more. This is NOT typical of any other than these three administrations, according to the White House’s own figures. It’s the credit card Republicans; the borrow and spend Republicans.
Reagan was practically sainted when he died. Great revisionist history, because he was a traitor. That’s right, a traitor. He knowingly sold weapons to our enemy. He admitted it. That is treason. Period.
And the younger generation? Boomer’s kids? They don’t even bother to VOTE! Hey, it’s YOUR future we’re trashing. Stop us (and our parents) NOW, while there’s still some left.
Here’s a vision for how we can turn it all around. Read it, please, VOTE it! Write me if you want the full resolution poster.
http://greendreams.wordpress.com
Hi Smash! I’m 48 whichputs me near the tail end of the Baby Boom – I think my lttle brother is a Gen Xer.
I can’t lump all boomers in the same boat but I do wonder why they don’t pay more attention.
Their attitude about tax cuts during a time when so much is being spent on a war says something about either their values or their apathy (I’m not sure which)
In general they are so laid back about the lack of competence in the way this war has been fault. Why are they so easily sucked into the silly choices of “cut and run” or “stay the course” There’s a canyon between those two choices called. Competence. Fighting a war with competence.
Stories mismanagement abound, yet boomers don’t seem to care or worse make excuses. I don’t get it. for the record. I’m 70. Both my kids are boomers.
I think Rambie has it right. Maybe the Boomers started us down the path, but Daily Kos and some of its contemporaries are rideing on its back going “YEEEEE HAAA!”
capelza-
I am wrong to label all boomers as such as you clearly provide the exception.
There has however, been some serious discussion about so called “war envy”.
Personally to me, looking back on it now, the 60s was a circle jerk.
And I am with Smash in being a GenXer.
What does this even mean?
I’m one of the last of the boomers born in 1964 and this is a bit of a one sided rant.
Tired of hearing whining about Vietnam? Go tell it to the 50k plus names on the wall in DC. Sure, the GenX’ers are great, even if a third of them are still living with their parents. It’s almost like their really all Italians!
Sure, Disco sucked, but rap music? Grunge? Flannel as a fashion statement?
Greatest generation? The one that ignored racism, sexual inequality and anti-semitism? The same generation that gave us the mess that is Vietnam is more or less in charge of the government that gave us the mess that is Mesopotamia.
Instead of pointing fingers and exasperating the issue I posted a question to try and open a dialog. While you (in typical right-wing fashion) are blaming someone else for all the ills you perceive while ignoring your own contributions that created said ills.
Why don’t we open a dialog discussing how to solve the issues SMASH is talking about instead of trying to pass the blame?
Let’s try again. How do we stop the divisiveness in our culture so we can work together to solve this countries major issues?
I’m a boomer- and I have fond memories of what the 60′s and 70′s stood for–the music, protesting what so many saw as an immoral war, idealism about civil rights. But a lot of my generation has become today’s establishment. They seem to have given up on the ideals of that period, many actually engage in a backlash against what was fought for-the anti-feminist movement, the traditionalists who rail against the media elites and those who are too PC.
No generation is perfect, and I think ours started changing in the ’80′s and ’90′s(generalizing here) when people got so caught up in materialism.
Gen Xers- what will your mark on our country be? It would be interesting to see if your generation supports our current policies. Because 18 yo’s had to register with the draft board in Viet Nam, protests were more widespread, and generation-based. I don’t see the current divide that way- at all.
Thats what I see. They indulged in the culture and now seem determined to save everybody else from the hell that was free love and Rock and Roll.
They are running so fast from the past that they dont seem to be able to think rationaly anymore.
And the 60s don’t really seemed to have changed much of anything. I mean, we are still fighting over evolution in the classroom for gods sake.
Maybe they had a little “Too much LDS in the 60′s”
Hey, I was born in ’84 – beyond even this ‘Gen X’ whatnot that my brother was a part of.
While, at the same time, I haven’t really bought into much of what ‘pop-culture’ was for my age between 14-20. And, I’ve noticed this amongst a lot of my peers. We hit a bit of a dead zone, being 16 when the year 2000 hit. Besides laughing at people who stocked up on duct tape, Y2K was a fairly empty point. The economy fell apart, Bush took the White House with low expectations in my Northern Virginia town, and then 9/11 hit, which left me blinking at 17.
The last meaningful release that had any amount of popularity (scant at that) that I could relate to was 1997′s “OK Computer”.
Where does that put me? I feel like the Player To Be Named Later of generations.
And the 60s don’t really seemed to have changed much of anything. I mean, we are still fighting over evolution in the classroom for gods sake.
I agree to some extent, Snarky-but in other areas a lot has changed-not all of it for the better. There is more racial equality, but it doesn’t seem like the races get along any better. Women came out of their stereotypical roles, and now do any and everything, but most families now need both parents to work just to get by. We had the sexual revolution, and now are dealing with repression of gay rights, an aids epidemic, and poverty resulting from out-of-wedlock births.
Instead of believing as JFK did that we are here to make the world a better place, there’s just this feeling that the US wants to make sure its power is felt by the world.
Nonmaterialism has given way to great class divisions and unlimited corporate greed. Our culture feels —-empty. The late 60′s and early 70′s were a time of great creativity— but maybe I just have my rose-colored granny glasses and love beads on.
Rambie, watch out for the LDS, its potency makes LSD seem like chocolate bar.
The player to be named later generation….I do believe you just coined a phrase that rings true.
Business/politics are corrupt as hell, and have no regard for the country as whole. More or less they don;t play for team USA, they play for team ME now. Yes they have turned on the country that made them the succesful people they are in search of the last dollar on earth. And earth is exactly where they are looking now for that dollar forsaking the country that gave them so much. Greed is what drives them now, capitalism with no reins or sense of decency is the rule of the day. They are about plundering much like pirates of old they don;t use ships anymore, just a shiny new Hummer SUV. And all that money can buy a politican pretty darn easy, or create oneself into one. How else can we explain the sell off of America’s manufacturing ability to China? Greed of the me generation has turned a blind eye politically/economically to what China really is for teh sake of the momentary cashflow into select few American’s pockets. These were the same people 40-50 years ago ranting about communist China being evil, and subjugating its people only now to embrace them like a long lost friend. Traitors to the highest bidder if you ask me, willing to forget liberty, and justice at the drop of the next dollar.
This baby boomer who still believes what we stood for, Takes responsibility for own action doesn’t understand how are generation put down their beads, picked up briefcases and suits and forgot what is right and wrong (ceos who mismanaged companies) as for us being the selfish generation, disagree, we have done a grave injustice to our children by creating unemotional self centered generation X and Y who have become nothing more than little robots and have no values.