Sons of Yale: How Blue and Red Emerged From Old Blue

NY Times (Week in Review) ^ | March 21, 2004 | JOHN TIERNEY

[Pharmboy]

A few comments:
1) Tierney is perhaps the ONLY Times reporter who likely votes Republican. His columns in the past (in the metro section) have a conservatism that runs through them. At the least, he is no liberal.
2) In the print edition, the pictures ran next to each other with the Bush shot on the left. The caption was continuous. However, in the electronic edition, they split the photos and LEFT OUT the caption under the Kerry shot ("John Kerry, here with Hubert Humphrey, joined a fraternity coveted by old-money families") , only printing the blurb that is seen here under the Bush photo. I typed in the caption under the Kerry shot copying it from the print edition.
3) At any rate, a bit unusual for the Times to publish--esp. on Sunday.

[Pharmboy]

*ping*

[jocon307]

Interesting read. It is VERY strange how many of these people are Yale grads. And as for WFB vs. JFK as orators, at least Buckley actually has firmly held opinions and tells you what they are, unlike M. Nuance.

[Molly Pitcher]

Thanks for the extra background on the author, and for the thread.

My husband and I, rough contemporaries of Bush and Kerry, college-aged during those War and demonstration years, conservative always, have struggled ever since with the gulf that exists between us and many of our contemporaries.

It seems to be profound and unbridgable.

It is one reason why, other differences put aside, the President will always have our support.

We're on the same side of that gulf.

[COUNTrecount]

Mr. Bush, class of '68, was the president of DKE, a fraternity popular with jocks; Mr. Kerry, two years older, was in the Fence Club, the fraternity of choice for old-money families from New England.

FENCE Club ? Even then he was sitting on it. Amazing.

[Lil'freeper]

...he was someone you saw and immediately thought could be president someday. That was not what you thought of George Bush.'

Yalies need to get out more. America is much bigger than their little campus.

[zebra 2]

Bill Buckley a good speaker??? I attended a meeting in Tallahassee a few years ago in which Buckley was the featured speaker. Everyone in the audience was straining to make out a word or two here and there. Buckley is, as he himself might say, a writer of lucid and cogent prose. But a public speaker he ain't. He mumbles.

[Pharmboy]

You are most welcome.

As a contemporary of yours--and especially living in the northeast--I have the same problem with many of my friends. I must admit though, my closest friends are conservatives.

But that is why FR is so great--it lets all of us know that there are legions of like-minded individuals across the country. We must all stay strong in the face of socialist/liberal/democrat idiocy.

[sgtbono2002]

Kerry belonged to the Young Democrats club and to the Young Republicans club, even then he couldnt make up his mind.

[NYC GOP Chick]

You *buy* the print edition?! Ewww!

Anyway, thanks for the ping -- interesting article. :)

[dennisw]

Reality is that John Kerry is a lazy bum who has done little in DC while Senator. I think he's spent most of his time having fun, socializing and chasing women before Teresa.

[Pharmboy]

I must admit that I buy it...but not the 8 lbs. of forest. I get it delivered to my laptop each week as an exact duplicate of the print edition in a pdf-like file.

I travel a fair amount and the weightless electrons in my 'puter holding the (occasional) unbiased articles and features provide some good reads. Also, just as one other FR poster who reports on the Today show with perky Katy, SOMEONE has to watch these guys... ;-)

[Pharmboy]

Reality is that John Kerry is a lazy bum who has done little in DC while Senator. I think he's spent most of his time having fun, socializing and chasing women before Teresa.

You inadvertently left out the adjective "rich" between "chasing" and "women."

[NYC GOP Chick]

Yikes! It's a rough job, but I suppose that someone has to do it...

Anyway, do you remember a long time ago (maybe 15+ years ago) when some guy used to run tiny ads on the very bottom of the front page of the Slimes, bitching about his apt. building being "held hostage" by one cable TV company, which was preventing competitors from coming into the building?

[normy]

I was doing a job for a lady here in Dallas who had a picture of herself and Dick Cheney. We began to talk politicas and she told me a story.

She attended a small fundraiser for a reading program with her husband in Dallas. When they arrived at the house Barbra Bush answered the door and invited them inside. There were only about thirty people there and one of them happened to be GWB.

As they were all chatting some one told of how they were at a governors meeting with Jeb. There were governors from all the states and Jeb yelled over to Jesse Ventura, " Hey Jesse, I got a brother in Texas who can kick your ass!". The group at the party laughed and W stood up and began to do his best Arnold pose down.

Sounds like a pretty cool regular guy to me.

[Drango]

... the best speakers he'd ever worked with.

Well something has changed then. Kerry makes AlGore look like a polished, relaxed, dynamic orator.

[King Prout]

Students marched against the war, turned in their draft cards and staged a huge demonstration when Lady Bird Johnson spoke to the Political Union. They packed the auditorium for a debate between Mr. Coffin and William F. Buckley Jr. But Mr. Bush avoided the furor his last two years. He was skeptical of Northeastern liberalism but not yet an outspoken conservative.

I was born in 1970, so I cannot say I know this for a fact, but I have been informed by plenty of folks alive and involved at the time that the wave of campus protest ended rather suddenly (something to do with Nixon curtailing the draft? If so, this puts a whole 'nother spin on late '60's campus "activism"). I am also informed that most "protesters" saw the unrest as nothing more than a chance to get out of classes (especially tests) and to pick up naive swooning little co-eds.

Anyone have any first-hand input on this period?

[Pharmboy]

Yes...I certainly do. It was Liberty Cable, if I'm not mistaken. They stopped those little bottom of the page ads, though.

[Pharmboy]

I graduated college in '67, then attended grad school after that. No, the protests--for the most part--were sincere. Plenty of hatred for both the dems and pubbies to go around. Kent State ("Four Dead in Ohio") and the Chicago riots were turning points. Google it.

[Ukiapah Heep]

Right you are on the social history. Radical gals were easy pickings in the '60's and '70's.