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I grew up in the south well within the expected blast zone of a major military base. I remember the duck and cover drills, and our grade school was a designated fallout shelter. I am considered a Vietnam era veteran even though it was mostly over when I enlisted. The Mayaguez was captured while I was in boot camp, and I volunteered for west coast/westpac duty, but was sent elsewhere. That little misunderstanding was over within weeks anyway.

You are correct that many of the Boomer-aged people have been conservative all along. I count myself among those.

Irving Krystol, who supposedly coined the term "neocon", admitted in a recent article that the neo-conservative movement started when less extreme liberals became disillusioned with some their more extreme comrades. These are the Boomer elitists who wear the Republican label and dominate the RNC and Republican organizations at the state and county levels. They despise conservatives but will tolerate them long enough to get their votes. Their beliefs are slightly to the right of the Democrats but far from being conservative.

GW Bush has done a fine job in the war on terror, and I much prefer him to any of the other possibilities. I disagree with him on the immigration and unfair trade issues.

My point about the Republican party was that there is little to gain from party cheerleading when the party itself is slipping so far into liberal territory. Third parties are no help, but there will be room for another major party once the Democrat machine is utterly defeated. The neo-cons are going to keep a death-grip on the RNC and they will continue moving left.

It is not too early to start encouraging younger conservatives to prepare to counteract those moves, either by exerting more influence in the Republican party or by looking ahead toward a better alternative.

"GW Bush has done a fine job in the war on terror, and I much prefer him to any of the other possibilities. I disagree with him on the immigration and unfair trade issues.

My point about the Republican party was that there is little to gain from party cheerleading when the party itself is slipping so far into liberal territory . . . (etc. to the end of your post)"

We firmly agree on these items. I still think it unfair and incorrect to blame the entire baby boomer generation for all of the ills of America today. Our parent's generation had the "Great" Depression and created the SS boondoggle (for government). FDR adopted Keynesian economics and initiated deficit spending. LBJ developed the "Great Society" that left us with Medicare, the War on Poverty and Bi-Lingual Education.

Life is what it is. Many younger folks blame the baby boomers for everything wrong with America today. I'll concede that, overall, liberalism made a large foothold in our political structure, but we also tried to fight back with the likes of Goldwater, Nixon and Reagan. I would also recommend that GEN X- and Y-ers pay close attention to the journey taken by David Horowitz to understand what we were up against. In the 60s, there were two wars going on; one in Vietnam, and a civil war here at home being waged by college radicals. Not all of us bought into the SDS, SLA, Black Panthers, etc.

With respect to our selfishness, it is due in large part to the participation of baby boomers that civil rights were advanced to the extent that they are. We did what we did and, IMO, we owe few people any apologies.

If Gen X-ers are supposed to be the salvation of America, how come we had 8 years of Bill Clinton? If Gen Y-ers are the solution to us selfish baby boomers, why is Howard Dean such a prominent presidential candidate for the Dems?

Each generation makes its own share of mistakes and has its own crosses to bear. I'm not convinced that we did such a bad job.