Posted on 07/10/2004 12:48:46 PM PDT by qam1
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RUSH: Over the course of the many recent months, I have -- to the great consternation of many of you -- spoken of my optimism for the future of the country based on today's young people, and a lot of that has been based on the generation of people that's joining the military, knowing full well what they're in for. You know, if you look at a leftist anti-war protest march, you don't see very many people under 50 because they're not successfully recruiting young college students or high school students these days. They're not interested, and what you have -- we're basically in the last stages, dealing with the remnants of the 60s generation, and they've taken over the Democratic Party and they're doing everything they can to validate their youth and to not lose it, |
and so they're reliving it. Any war that comes up, whatever, we're wrong. America is guilty. America is the cause, and we're going to tear down any effort America makes to straighten out situations. It's just who these people are.
John Kerry is one of those people. Edwards may as well be one of those people. The whole Democrat establishment is basically 60s relics holding onto a forgotten past and they're trying to validate it. But if you look at the young people, look at Karina who just called and we just talked to in the last half hour, you'll find a different profile. You don't find the usual profile of angry, rebellious, anti-establishment youth that we now look at when we find 50- and 60-year-old Baby Boomers on the left, and Jim Glassman today has a column that runs in the Manchester Union Leader. Now, it's syndicated, so it will be in a number of other places, too. But this is news that the American left just will not want to hear. He says that: "The big news of the past decade in America has been largely overlooked, and you’ll find it shocking. Young people have become aggressively normal. Violence, drug use and teen sex have declined. Kids are becoming more conservative politically and socially. They want to get married and have large families. And, get this, they adore their parents.
"The Mood of American Youth Survey found that more than 80% of teen-agers report no family problems — up from about 40% a quarter-century ago. In another poll, two-thirds of daughters said they would 'give Mom an A. 'In the history of polling, we’ve never seen tweens and teens get along with their parents this well,' says William Strauss, referring to kids born since 1982. Strauss is the author, with Neil Howe, of 'Millennials Rising: The Next Great Generation.' In an article in the latest issue of City Journal, published by the Manhattan Institute, Kay S. Hymowitz writes: 'Wave away the smoke of the Jackson family circus, Paris Hilton and the antics of San Francisco, and you can see how Americans have been self-correcting from a decades-long experiment with ‘alternative values.’ Slowly, almost imperceptibly during the 1990s, the culture began a lumbering, Titanic turn away from the iceberg.' Adults are changing, but kids seem to have changed most — and they may comprise the new 'greatest generation,' as Tom Brokaw called the World War II [bunch]. 'What is emerging,' writes Hymowitz, 'is a vital, optimistic, family-centered, entrepreneurial, and, yes, morally thoughtful citizenry.'"
And Glassman says, "That’s trouble, I believe, for the Democratic Party, at least in its current anchored-to-the-’60s version. It’s possible that John Kerry will win in November because of the war in Iraq (though the smart money is on George Bush), but the long-term trend is clear. College freshmen who call themselves liberals outnumbered conservatives by about three to one in 1971; now the figures are roughly even. 'Young voters are also more supportive of President Bush than the public at large,' writes Hymowitz. The changes in politics are rooted in changes in values. Last year, the rate of teen pregnancy dropped to a record low. Better birth control is not the sole explanation; the proportion of teens who had intercourse fell from 56% in 1991 to 46% in 2001. Kids don’t want casual sex; they want families. Harris Interactive reports that 91% plan to marry and, on average, they’d like three children."
Now, this is sort at variance -- we keep hearing of this new wave of hooking up. Well, not new. It's been out there a while -- but that's what's "popular." Well, depends where you're looking. You go to a typical Manhattan night club scene, yeah, you'll find hooking up is big. But, on balance, in the majority of the country, it's not the big item. It's certainly happening, but it's not what is appealing to most. "Already, Generation X (born between 1965 and 1979) is more traditional than its parents. 'The number of married-couple families, after declining in the ’70s and ’80s,' [writes Hymowitz], 'rose 5.% in the ’90s.'
"More brides are taking their husbands’ names," not good for the feminists, "and in 2000, the number of women in the workforce with infants dropped for the first time in decades." This is because women in the workforce who have babies are staying home to raise them, much to the consternation of the feminists well. "A study by Yankelovich found that 89% of Gen Xers think modern parents let kids get away with too much," and they would know because they're kids that got away with too much. "Twice as many Gen-X mothers as Baby Boomer mothers (born 1946-1964) spent more than 12 hours a day 'attending to child-rearing and household responsibilities,' according to a new survey by Reach Advisors, and roughly half of Gen-X fathers spent three to six hours daily on such tasks, another big increase. [S]tudent marijuana use, which rose sharply in the 1990s, is on the decline, as is binge drinking. The juvenile murder rate fell 70% between 1993 and 2001; burglary is down 66%. Schools are safer, too. What’s going on here? Hymowitz [of the Manhattan Institute] offers four explanations:
1) A 'rewrite of the boomer years,' with young people reacting critically to the world of sexual experimentation and family breakup and 'earnestly knitting up their unraveled culture And, by the way, "This is exactly what I have always theorized
| would happen. At some point, cultural depravity, degradation, whatever, takes place, and you eventually find a generation of kids born that's just not going to play ball that way and they take it upon themselves to clean it up and this is apparently what's happening now. " |  |
2) The trauma of 9/11" is a factor "which has made kids more patriotic and turned them inward toward the comfort of family;
3) The information economy, which has given young people greater faith in their own chances to succeed, especially through self-reliance and entrepreneurship." You wonder why liberalism is in its last legs? You wonder why liberalism is in a sheer cacophony of panic? You want to know why they're cracking up? It's this! They know this is happening. Look at a protest march. You don't find anybody under 50. You find people with wheelchairs out there on these protest marches these days. They have to import European kids in order to protest these...whatever, the world government things. I forget what they are. The Kyoto and that sort of thing. Not in this country.
4) Immigration, which has produced what she calls a 'fervent work ethic, which can raise the bar for slacker American kids, as any higher schooler with more than three Asian students in his algebra class can attest.' Whatever the reasons, the change in young people and their parents is very, very good news — which is precisely why so much of the media is ignoring it." This is Jim Glassman today, syndicated piece. I got it out of the Manchester Union Leader.
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And the Long related verison on FreeRepublic It’s Morning After in America
Ping list for the discussion of the politics and social aspects that directly effects Generation Reagan / Generation-X (Those born from 1965-1981) including all the spending previous generations (i.e. The Baby Boomers) are doing that Gen-X and Y will end up paying for.
Freep mail me to be added or dropped. See my home page for details and previous articles.
Very good article. Thanks for posting it.
My 35 year old son is actually interested in politics, and thinks the RATS are weenies. (He never went to college, so he is still able to think for himself.)
For the record, those high-school kids who adore their parents are mostly the children of late boomer parents-- the late boomers saw the excesses of the early boomers, and mostly moderated them. Not that we didn't make mistakes-- we did-- but we weren't so ideological about them and were willing to change course when necessary.
Here's a link for your ping list as well: http://www.whiskeycreekpress.com/books/electivedecisions.shtml
"My 35 year old son is actually interested in politics, and thinks the RATS are weenies. (He never went to college, so he is still able to think for himself.)"
Yes. But he's not an unemployed factory worker. Is he? :) Here. Pass this link along. He'll love it: http://www.whiskeycreekpress.com/books/electivedecisions.shtml
The left - in anointing themselves to be "pro-choice" - will breed themselves out. A recent Freep-article posted here showed the demographic impact of lost votes (believe it first came out of the opinionJournal). Their way leads to death and subversion (in order to recruit into their dwindling numbers...).
They are the modern day version of the cult of Mithras.
I have a crushing retort to this but I can't remember what my professor told me to say at times like this.
In the meantime, please self-administer a wedgie.
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