Save the GOP

Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels, touted as a possible savior of the GOP, took a gamble that paid off when he delivered a recent commencement address at Butler University (Indianapolis) that took a critical look at his own generation of baby boomers, according to Byron York.

“All our lives, it’s been about us,” said the 60-year-old Daniels, who told the graduating seniors that his free-spending “Me Generation” who wore T-shirts saying “If it feels good, do it,” will also “leave you with a staggering pile of bills to pay. . . Good luck cleaning up after us.”

Apparently, the governor’s words not only resonated with the grads, but with other “self-loathing boomers.”...

Excerpt from his speech:

Even though the whole notion of a “generation” must be discounted as the loosest of concepts, within limits it is possible to spot the defining characteristics of an age and the human beings who create it. Along with most of your faculty and parents, I belong to the most discussed, debated and analyzed generation of all time, the so-called Baby Boomers. By the accepted definition, the youngest of us is now forty-five, so the record is pretty much on the books, and the time for verdicts can begin.

Which leads me to congratulate you in advance. As a generation, you are off to an excellent start. You have taken the first savvy step on the road to distinction, which is to follow a weak act. I wish I could claim otherwise, but we Baby Boomers are likely to be remembered by history for our numbers, and little else, at least little else that is admirable.

We Boomers were the children that the Second World War was fought for. Parents who had endured both war and the Great Depression devoted themselves sacrificially to ensuring us a better life than they had. We were pampered in ways no children in human history would recognize. With minor exceptions, we have lived in blissfully fortunate times. The numbers of us who perished in plagues, in famine, or in combat were tiny in comparison to previous generations of Americans, to say nothing of humanity elsewhere.

All our lives, it’s been all about us. We were the “Me Generation.” We wore t-shirts that said “If it feels good, do it.” The year of my high school commencement, a hit song featured the immortal lyric “Sha-la-la-la-la-la, live for today.” As a group, we have been self-centered, selfabsorbed, self-indulgent, and all too often just plain selfish. Our current Baby Boomer President has written two eloquent, erudite books, both about….himself.

As a generation, we did tend to live for today. We have spent more and saved less than any previous Americans. Year after year, regardless which party we picked to lead the country, we ran up deficits that have multiplied the debt you and your children will be paying off your entire working lives. Far more burdensome to you mathematically, we voted ourselves increasing levels of Social Security pensions and Medicare health care benefits, but never summoned the political maturity to put those programs on anything resembling a sound actuarial footing.

In sum, our parents scrimped and saved to provide us a better living standard than theirs; we borrowed and splurged and will leave you a staggering pile of bills to pay. It’s been a blast; good luck cleaning up after us.

Sorry, the Republican Party doesn’t need a Saviour, just conservatives who aren’t afraid to speak up for conservatism among the Democrat-lites in our party and among Reagan Democrats who are starting to realize what a mistake they’ve made in 0bama. It is going to take conservatism to turn things around, and people are going to want things turned around. Most Americans aren’t ready to give up progress and the good life America has offered them for the Third World alternative the 0 administration is offering.

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