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Shall I go on??

In this regard, I recall the words attributed to Winston Churchill that if you are young and conservative you have no heart; old and Liberal you have no brain.

The crux of Churchill's statement is that the maturation of one's ideological belief structure is a learning process that involves moving from emotional-based decisions to rational/logic/experiential-based ones.

Since the Great Society electoral patterns have been marked by the younger voting generations making a difference to elect Liberals based on emotional factors, but then quickly becoming disillusioned (fact and experiential factors) and falling back on Conservatives. Xers elected Clinton, true. But then they turned around and helped usher in the 1995 Republican Congressional majority and President Bush - and now form the cohort of the resurgent Conservative movement (being born in 1964, Sarah Palin is a cusp Xer, for instance). Millenials elected Obama, and it looks like they contributed adequately to the GOP wins last year and are poised to make the difference in kicking him out in 2012 (we'll still have to see).

Since the Great Society electoral patterns have been marked by the younger voting generations making a difference to elect Liberals based on emotional factors . . . .

This argument is frequently used against boomers (although I'm not certain that is your intent here) as though to tarnish us all for this dreck piece of legislation. The problem that most younger generations don't seem to understand is that when Johnson pushed his Great Society initiative, the oldest boomers were just beginning to reach voting age. We aren't responsible for what has turned into another failed liberal agenda item, but we are often accused of being the reason for its passage.

For example, when Johnson passed the Great Society initiative, I was stll in high school, and I am among the older crop of boomers!! Therein, lies much of the problem. I understand that perception is reality and that the perception of boomers is that we, personally, did a lot of things that were already in place when we reached voting age. We weren't any more perfect than any other generation, but we're hadly responsible for all the social ills of which we are accused.

BTW, I appreciate the Churchill quote. I'm a strong admirer of the man and am grateful that I was living when he was still alive and was able to see the British be able to appreciate him as much as we did. When WWII ended, he wasn't among their most favorite people and they couldn't wait to get rid of him as PM. By the 60s, before he passed away, they came to appreciate him for the brilliant statesman that he was.