Posted on 11/14/2007 10:32:26 PM PST by Aristotelian
Can America rise above the divisions of the 1960s? Not yet. . . .
What fell out of 1968 was a profound division over what I would call civic vision.
One side, which took to the streets in Chicago or occupied Columbia University, concluded from Vietnam and the race riots that America, in its relations with the world and its own citizens, was flawed and required big changes. Their defining document was the March 1968 Kerner Commission report, announcing "two societies," separate and unequal. The press, incidentally, emerged from Vietnam and the riots joined to this new, permanent template. That, too, has never stopped.
The other side was, well, insulted. It thought America was fundamentally good, though always able to improve. The Voting Rights Act passed in 1964 on a bipartisan vote, opposed mainly by southern Democrats. This side's standard-bearer called the U.S. "a shining city upon a hill." But after 1968, no Democratic presidential candidate would ever speak those words. Nor will Mr. Obama ever repeat Mr. Sarkozy's explicit repudiation of that era.
If it's Hillary versus Rudy, McCain or even the placid Mitt Romney, we will be in those streets again. Besides, her candidacy comes with Jumpin' Jack Flash himself, Bill Clinton. Would it be a good thing if the country's politics said bye-bye baby to the children of 1968? Probably. But it won't happen this time.
(Excerpt) Read more at opinionjournal.com ...
Nonsense. This is when the press, and the left began openly displaying it's communist agenda. It has been openly engaged in this previously hidden effort of trying to defeat God given freedom and the constitutional republic of the United States of America ever since.
Yes, that is a very big error. So big that it destroys this writer's credibility.
Right. Wishful thinking.
I like that we are finally at a point where we are able to give a critical look at the generation of the 60’s. I am noticing this to be the case also in France and Germany but not in the UK where there is still such a degree of influence from that time period, that it’s all about nostalgia minus the critical observations.
[Hillary] also dissembles about her senior thesis at Wellesley on radical community organizer Saul Alinsky. In Living History Hillary plays up her disagreements with Alinsky. She says she rejected the then-popular radical idea of revolution—even if there was one, she says she concluded in 1968, I wouldn't participate—and says she fundamentally disagreed with Alinsky that "the system" could not be changed through conventional politics. This is narrowly true, though Rodham-Clinton's thesis (I have read it) clearly sympathizes with Alinsky's radical viewpoint that the Great Society's liberal social policy didn't go far enough because it didn't redistribute power to the people. Hillary rejects Alinsky's "bottom-up" community organizing because she believes in "the role of centralized social planning in social change." She notes at the end of her thesis that many ideas considered "radical" at that time were mainstream policy in European social democracies. "Societal comparisons raise again questions about the meaning of 'radical' and even 'revolutionary' within a mass production/consumption state, particularly the United States." This is the Hillary of the health care fiasco of 1993, in which she brazenly declared that she couldn't be responsible for all the undercapitalized small businesses that could not afford health insurance for their employees.
http://www.claremont.org/publications/crb/id.799/article_detail.asp
From the link:
Mr. Henninger is deputy editor of The Wall Street Journal's editorial page.
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LoL!
Kerner Commission - that would be Major General Otto Kerner, Democrat, U.S. Attorney, 1947-1954, judge, Cook County, 1954-1960, Governor, Illinois, 1961-1968, resigned to be named federal judge, U.S. Court of Appeals, Seventh Circuit, 1968-1974.
Otto Kerner, Democrat, convicted of 17 counts of bribery, perjury, conspiracy, income-tax evasion, etc. Served several months in federal prison. Oh, he got caught because the owner of several racing tracks in Illinois put down the bribes (a large number of shares in the race tracks) to Kerner as an ordinary business expense. Of course, in Cook County, it was.
LOL!
BRAVO!
You’ve figured us out!
Though...I’m not one of “those” Boomers.
There are those of us who have visited the lessons of the Greatest Generation.
We will not only survive, but we will leave our families better situatated.
In the U.S., I’d say the influence of the ‘60s can be seen most dramatically in the liberalism of suburbia. These households ought to be voting Republican, if their self-interest were the determining factor. Yet they are solidly Democratic. Why? Education, for one. These mostly baby boomers were products of the universities of the ‘60s and ‘70s. They are so ideological and so emotionally disposed to liberalism that they vote for candidates who actually harm their best interests, be they financial or, in the case of their children, educational.They vote their self-interest. Middle class suburbanites have never been as pressured as they are now, debt, medical costs, job insecurity.
Probably?
Hardly a decisive position.
There's so much mush in this editorial my boots are stuck.
Probably?
Hardly a decisive position.
There's so much mush in this editorial my boots are stuck.
Yes, that is a very big error. So big that it destroys this writer's credibility.
The WSJ and Daniel Henninger screwed this up for sure.
The Stupid Party has been beaten about the head with this for the past ten years but they're still not listening.
I caught it too, but do not buy your claim. Certainly the attempted murder of Wallace in 1972 changed the political landscape like the events of 1968. So I think his point still stands. Wallace was never a national candidate or figure after he was shot.
I am glad I was not born in 1968. It seemed like a horrible time for America. lol.
“On Nov. 4, having absorbed all this, the people of the United States voted.”
Here is another error...
The 1968 election was on November 5.
“They vote their self-interest. Middle class suburbanites have never been as pressured as they are now, debt, medical costs, job insecurity.
Conservatism used to offer security, if you were a middle class republican you could expect to have to have the same job your entire life, 2.5 children, your brick rancher, and collect a pension.
Modern Conservatism(better termed neo-liberalism) doesn’t offer that promise of security any more. Your job? Going to China. Your pension? bye bye social security. The educated middle class knows this so they vote overwhelmingly democratic. Democrats may never fulfill their promises, but they at least maintain the appearance of looking out for the needs of the middle class.
Conservatism is at a cross-roads, today’s youth doesn’t care about wedge issues like abortion and gay marriage and without those issues modern conservatism has no core.
Personally I hope conservatism goes back to the paleo-con ideology, fiscal responsibility, a framework where people can expect some job stability to raise their family or even (horror of horrors!) middle class incomes that can support a one earner family.
Until conservatives can offer reasonable solutions to middle class insecurity they’re going to lose the suburbs.”
Bing.
It actually was a fascinating time. Events transpired that had not been witnessed in modern times. Riots, demonstrations, new styles of music and dress, the sexual revolution, a very bloody war, assassinations, intense politics, radicalism, drugs, youth taking the country by storm. It was wild.
They were wild, irresponsible, dishonest, dope addicted, tasteless, depraved, treasonous, lawless, judicially left and constitutionally revisionist, wrought with self-worship, American-hating, destructive, immoral and reprobate. They have left a path of destruction in their wake.
The fact that the horrible ideas and worldview of the far left of the sixties has been adopted by so many social liberals on Free Republic is shameful.
Which suburbs are you talking about? The suburbs around Chicago are heavily Republican politically speaking. My two libs sisters who live and work in the western suburbs continually complain about being surrounded by Republicans. In fact Hillary Clinton was a Goldwater girl in her teens.
There are quite a few flaws in this article and the one that caught my attention is the author’s statement that middle class suburbanites vote Democratic...That was a shock...
Did a Google and found this article which makes more sense about the middle class—they tend to vote more Republican as their income increases, and that goes for Hispanics too, but not for Blacks (African Americans)who still tend to vote Democratic regardless of their income...
For more on this read this (from 2005)
Middle-Class Blues
The Dems are missing a key constituency.By Gary Andres
http://www.nationalreview.com/comment/andres200506130738.asp
The middle class may have absorbed some of the more liberal social doctrines of the left, but they are still basing their votes on financial issues- especially personal financial issues.In this sense there has not been a radical sea change from the 60’s, but a continuation of that trend as spelled out so clearly in such writings as “Political Man” by Seymour Martin Lipset, and other political studies of that very tumultous era...
“one side...took to the streets in Chicago or occupied Columbia University,”
This statement distorts what happened. Events in Chicago and at Columbia University were not done by what could be characterized as “one side” and these events were not spontaneous, as the term “took to the streets” suggests. Rather, these events were orchestrated by very small groups who figured out how to radicalize naive bystanders.
For more on the voting patterns between rich and poor, here is an excellent article showing the states in red and blue by income levels...illustrates that the poorest states vote Democratic while the richest states vote Republican...
December 21, 2006
Voting patterns by state among the poor, middle class, and rich
http://www.stat.columbia.edu/~cook/movabletype/archives/2006/12/what_if_only_th_1.html
The sane report has an article dated Nov 14, 2007, a long read, on the effects of income on voting and points out some potential strategies for Dems and Reps..here is the URL
http://www.stat.columbia.edu/~cook/movabletype/mlm/
November 14, 2007
Should the Democrats move to the left on economic policy?
Right. I look at my life, during that time (at university), as mob inspired temporary insanity. I think most of us who truly “grew up”, and became productive adults, view the era similarly.
Part of the problem was that it was “fashionable” to be civilly disobedient. Also, students behaving badly, in many cases egged on by lib professors, got lots of attention. I don’t know whether it was because there were so many of us, or that it suited the media’s purposes to give us so much attention. We were just KIDS! What the hell did we know? Not very damn much—but we had everyones’ attention—particularly the media. It was insane. Our antics had the gravitas of “national opinion”!
If students today were to behave similarly, my response would be to tell them to go back home, to Mom, and do a lot of growing up. Then MAYBE people would listen—maybe.
Wallace shooter living in Cumberland, official says
Bremer was released from prison Friday after serving 35 years for assassination attempt
By Greg Garland
Sun reporter
November 14, 2007
Arthur H. Bremer, who shot and paralyzed former Alabama Gov. George Wallace in 1972, is living in Cumberland as he makes the transition to life on the outside after 35 years behind bars, an Allegany County official said today. "He is in Cumberland; it's really not a big deal," said Allegany County Administrator Vance Ishler.
Bremer was released from a state prison in Hagerstown in the predawn hours Friday to avoid media attention. Prison system officials declined to say where he would be living but had previously indicated they would try to place him in a rural area of Maryland.....
Middle class suburbanites have never had it so good, compared to their parents.I don't necessarily disagree. Although I'd argue that most of the problems have to do with a culture of consumption opposed to willful irresponsibility. More to the point, do you honestly expect the people you describe to vote republican?
Their debt is self-inflicted - it doesn't seem to stop them from buying plasma tv's, paying for swim lessons, or eating out several times a month.
Medical costs are overblown - I'm a self-employed suburbanite with lousy insurance by some standards, but miles better than what my parents had.
Job insecurity is a fact of American life - my father switched careers three times in his adult life, to provide for his family. My C.S. degree became problematic in the early 90's, so I quit coding, went back to school, and now do something completely different.
In short, middle class suburbanites need to shut up, and grow up. And yes, my family of 4 lives COMFORTABLY in a small three-bedroom house in the suburbs, on 1 income, by doing without stuff that seems "essential" to our neighbors. Economic life has never been better for most suburbanites.
Suburban whining and sense of entitlement, OTOH, are at an all-time high.
There were the self-interested, self-indulgent part that enjoyed the fruits of a wealthy period in our country's history and coincidently "found religion" from the pro-enemy left that justified their avoidance of duty/risk in the Vietnam War.
There were the opposing segments that comprised Nixon's "Silent Majority" that continued their lives normally and clicked their tongues at the excesses of the punks in the street but did nothing material beyond living their own lives.
Then there were the 2 million or so service members that joined in response to their country's call and lost something for it - for more than 58,000, it was their lives and all the promise that they would have brought, for more than 250,000 it was parts of their bodies, and for them and all the rest it was the loss of the sense that the rest of country cared about anything at all.
Do you think things have changed any? We have the same leftist/Democrat segment opposing anything at all remotely connected to morality or American success, we have the same "conservative"/Republican segment that complains but really doesn't get out there and work very hard - life is still too comfortable - and we have the very few volunteers taking the load for everyone else to fight the hard wars that keep the murderous slimes at bay.
How has anything changed?
Well, his national political career died in any case.
My son was born in 1968, in an Army hospital in West Berlin. I was an Air Force wife.
Once, when my son was in high school, one of his friends told me he wished he had been born in my generation, so that “he could have something to believe in.” I told him the truth: it was a TERRIBLE time, and that most people were NOT at Woodstock or demonstrating based on “noble causes.” I spent most of my 20’s being angry or afraid. I do not have fond memories of those years, and whenever I hear people wax nostalgic about them I immediately cross the person off my list of serious people.
The point is academic. Wallace did survive, and the shooter, Arthur Bremer, was just released to a half-way house (for twenty more years). He also managed to get himself elected Governor of Alabama again, in a wheelchair. Though, ironically, he never stood in any more doorways trying to prevent integration. At the time of the shooting he was on his way toward coming in second in the Maryland Primary as he sought the 1972 Democrat nomination. He died a Republican, and a friend of Edward Kennedy, who's brother was assassinated in 1968, perhaps a more influential moment in time, coming as it did just weeks after the assassination of Dr. King.
Life magazine called 1968 "the incredible year," but few remember it rounded out not with the election of Richard Nixon but Apollo 8, the first trip to the moon and back, half a year before the first Lunar Landing. In the wake of Apollo 11, few remember the profound effect of that crew reciting from Genesis in the Christmas season. "The sixties" probably ended then. The country has never seen a more violent year since.
I totally agree with you, I was repulsed by the collective idiotcy of my peers and the Lefty/anarchist “leaders” during my time in college, early 70’s!
Definitely a mob inspired temporary insanity.
“It was wild.”
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The best description I’ve ever heard of 1968 is that it was the year in which America lived a decade.
I had been giving Obama a bit of a break, due to his youth and inexperience, not anymore.
They say we are all still stuck in 1968. Only the liberals cling to this time period, and they still haven't grown up at all.
“... few remember the profound effect of that crew reciting from Genesis in the Christmas season.”
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I do, and “profound” barely describes the effect those words, spoken from another world, had and still have on me. I started welling up just reading your post.
Abbie Hoffman didn’t “die”. The America-hating bum committed suicide.
Alabama Gov. George Wallace got 13.5%. Four years later, George Wallace was shot dead while running for president. 1968 lasted a long time.
Wallace was not killed in 72. He was wounded and paralyzed. This just goes to show the immense ignorance of reporters and journalists - whatever political stripe. This is a simple check. It's simple recent history. Especially since Wallace's shooter was just released from a Maryland prison. That was in the news and yet this guy thinks Wallace was killed in 72. And where's the editor? That's at least two people that got it wrong. I'm sorry, but his whole analysis is invalid if he can't get this simple fact straight.
I am tired and bored with this fiscal responsibility crap. Conservatism and the Republican Party need to return to its original roots - Freedom! People need something bigger than themselves to believe in.
Students prattled about the evils of "the establishment" - put up to it, and put on - ALL RISE! -by the real establishment.Nationwide TV! What did those students know? KNOW? - they didn't even suspect anything!
We were living outside of Washington, DC and moved to Staunton, Virginia in the summer of 67. Probably the best thing for me. A year after we left, DC erupted. Staunton was boring but isolated, for the most part. I remember the television coverage. I have always listened to the news. The public school system was not the hellhole it is today. Teachers did not try to indoctrinate you - for the most part. I remember one short story in an English class that discussed destroying the United States flag, trying to equate it just a piece of cloth. When Kent State happened, I did not fell sorry for those who were shot. And stil don't. Leave It To Beaver, Dick Van Dyke, and Andy Griffith were eventually shoved aside for All In The Family, Maude, and Good Times.
I guess what was so disheartening about the 60's was that those in positionss of power were members of what is now called the Greatest Generation. They beat back the Nazi and Nippon hordes and yet caved in to the hippies and malcontents in America. The second bad thing about the 60's is that those people are still with us today, still trying to make our lives miserable.
That statement really did it for me; I've never forgotten it. In particular, I've never forgotten the tone with which it was uttered; it has to be heard to really be appreciated. Josef Stalin might have used the same tone when handing down his orders on state policy toward kulaks in 1932.
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