Insight/Vanity: Iraq Victory Marks the Beginning of the End for Elitist Boomers

When the 40-foot statue of Saddam Hussein was toppled in Baghdad on Wednesday, this observer saw more than a huge hunk of metal crashing to the ground. I also saw the hopes and dreams of the most pampered group of people in human history being busted to pieces.

It is my opinion that historians will look on the Iraq War Victory not only as a pivotal triumph in the ongoing war on terrorism, but as the death knell for the Elitist Baby Boomers and their sympathizers who have had such a grip on the formal and informal levers of power since the mid-60s.

Note that this vanity is NOT directed at Boomers in general. I'm a Boomer myself. The large majority of Boomers, who I will call the Silent Boomers, like the generations before and since, got educated, grew up, got jobs, had familiies, and made positive contributions to their communities.

But not the Elitist Boomers. In the 60s they burned draft cards, protested the Vietnam War, went to Woodstock (if not actually, at least vicariously), and in many cases fled to Canada. They gained the sympathy of their elitist elders in the gullible mainstream press, which saw in the Elitists a "movement that would change the world."

Starting from there, Elitist Boomers certainly did "change the world." They brought a selfishness and a flight from responsibility unmatched in human history to everything they did. After years of relentlessly misleading the rest of America about Vietnam, and with the cooperation of the spineless Johnson Administration, which refused to let our forces fight with all available tools, they caused the US for the first time in history to withdraw from a fight that was eventually lost (NOT by us, but by the remnants of the Vietnamese Army). Their motivation at bottom was not peace and love; it was all about avoiding getting in harm's way.

From the end of the War until the end of the century, EVERTYTHING Elitist Boomers did was motivated by three things: power, money, and avoidance of responsibility.

For Hillary Clinton, who worked on the Nixon-Watergate hearings that would have led to his impeachment, "getting" Dick Nixon was about defeating Republicans, not about the seriousness of a two-bit burglary and the clumsy cover-up.

While Jimmy Carter fiddled in the late 70s and Ronald Reagan (over Elitist objections) won the Cold War in the 80s, the Elitist Boomers became those infamous money-hungry Yuppies, who brought new meaning to the terms "snob" and "conspicuous consumption," biding their time until their opportunity came to take control. Those who weren't focusing on getting and being rich spent their energies engineering a bloodless coup on the college campuses, and largely succeeded.

Finally in 1992, their golden opportunity arrived. Bill and Hillary Clinton, the poster children of the Elitist Boomers, moved into the White House. Here at last was Elitists' chance to "change the world" once and for all.

Some change. Leopards don't change their spots, and the Elistist Boomers who took over Washington didn't change their personalities. It was still all about money, having and staying in power. One aide famously stated on Inauguaration Day in 1993 that "those are our jets now."

Power? The attempted takeover of the health-care system in 1993-94 was all about giving Elitist Boomers control over everyone's day-to-day medical decisions.

Money? From Whitewater before they took office to the book deals immediately after they left, it was always about money.

Flight from responsibility? The War on Terror begain in earnest in 1993 when the World Trade Center was bombed for the first time. For eight years, The Clinton Administration kicked this and every other foreign-policy can down the road, leaving a horrendous mess for the next Administration to clean up. Domestically, The Clintons, despite having plenty of opportuntiy, failed to face up to the country's most critical financial issue, the Social Security time bomb. How convenient--one more can kicked down the road.

Bottom line: Elitist Boomers, the most privileged and spoiled group in history, failed to deliver when it was their time.

Now The Silent Boomers are in control. George W. Bush, the Head Silent Boomer, is at the helm. Failing to find decent help among Elitist Boomers, he had to reach back to the pre-Boomer era to get good help in Dick Cheney, Don Rumsfeld, and Colin Powell. He primarily relied on the children of the Silent Boomers, Generations X and Y, to prosecute Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Meanwhile, the Elitist Boomers and their brainwashed kids were out on the streets and in the Democratic halls of Congress demonstrating, protesting, and obstructing. They failed, defeated by a Silent Boomer with an iron resolve.

Deep down, even the most denial-driven Elitist Boomers must know that their time is past, that their glory days are gone. They will never again have the chance that was handed to them, and fumbled, in the 90s. The next generation is by all accounts more conservative, both economically and socially. Many of their own kids are (gasp) pro-life.

All that's left for Elitist Boomers is to jeer from the sidelines, either from their desks at the increasingly irrelevant "major" newspapers and withering cable channels, or from their college classrooms, where even their students have a hard time taking them seriously.

Of course, their other major task is to do everything they can to make sure the Social Security and public-employee pension checks keep coming.

Otherwise, it's over. Normalcy has returned. America, which has survived a civil war, the end of slavery, and two world wars, is, finally, once again, in the hands of responsible leaders.

Well, this baby boom president has seen fit, like that last baby boom president, to leave our borders wide open to an epic invasion from Mexico even though we know terrorists are trying any way they can to get into America and illegal immigration has turned our country upside down.

This baby boom president has decided that the lesson of 9/11 was not enough reason to change our policy of allowing tens of thousands of Muslim immigrants from terrorist harboring nations to come pouring in here every MONTH.

This baby boom president has decided, like the last baby boom president, that our immigration laws are irrelevant, because, well, campaign contributors that peddle in illegal labor says so.

This baby boom president instead of deporting Muslims that fit the profile of those that wish to do great harm to America has decided it is politically more expedient to greatly expand the police powers of the federal government to spy on and harass ALL Americans.

This baby boom president LOVES spending OUR Taxpayer money on everything under the sun including wasting 15 billion for Aids treatment for people in Africa that don't care a whit about the causes of their plague.

This baby boom president is not content with the damage NAFTA and other one-way trade deals have done to U.S. manufactures. No, he thinks that pushing a South American NAFTA deal is smart economic policy in the middle of a Manufacturing Depression.

From what I see, Bush has many of the same deleterious Baby Boomer traits himself.

And ya know, it's says something when we wildly applaud a president merely for doing the right thing about taking the fight to terrorists world wide but I guess it is understandable given the low mark his predecessor set.

And for the record I'm a baby boomer myself and I've always thought my generation is among the worst in America's history. No, it is the worst. Generation X can only do better.

He's got a good take on the mindset of Elitist Boomer vs Silent Boomer. But I still think that the Elitist Boomers are merely dancing to the tune of another meme - a meme codified long ago and given expression in the utopianist fantasies of the 18th century French dreamers, of the communards of the 19th century - their failed colonies notwithstanding, of the blood and iron national socialists and communists of the early twentieth century, of the murderous Pan-Arabist socialists and Islamic jihadists of the late twentirth and early twenty-first centuries.

It's the meme of the immanent eschaton that I've lately come to get a glimmer of understanding through my reading of Voegelin. That meme has been the headwaters of every self-annointed god and monster, saint and devil who thought that they could remake Man in their image - no matter the purpose. Gramsci acted under its influence, although I'm sure that he wasn't conscious of it. Hegel, Schopenhauer, Bergson - same deal. It's the wellspring of the seemingly irrational hatred that those of us who aren't drunk on its possibilites can't seem to fathom.

There's a lot more to be said on this subject, but it's late and I'm far from qualified to speak more knowledgeably on this right now. More study needed, but I think I'm on to something.

It's the wellspring of the seemingly irrational hatred that those of us who aren't drunk on its possibilites can't seem to fathom.

Exactly right. This sort of utopianism is a secular religion. And like many "true believers", they cannot tolerate having their beliefs challenged. Unfortunately, the things they believe "on faith" do not correspond with reality. Only arrogance and blind faith keep them trying it over and over again.

I'd appreciate your keeping me posted as you develop your thoughts on this subject.

I'll be the first to admit that immigration is a huge issue, that W hasn't addressed it, and that he doesn't appreciate the scope of the problem. It is by far his biggest weakness.

There have been stories (one was posted here) of Iraqis caught in Texas whose mission was to try to assassinate W at his ranch (admittedly a pretty crazy plan, but no one said they were are geniuses). There have also been stories that more Iraqis and terrorists are coming over the Mexican border.

I can only hope that this news, along with the clear lack of support from Vicente Fox for Op IF, shake W out of his complacency on the issue. I'm not optimistic on this one. We may have to wait for Gen X and Gen Y to save out bacon on this one too.

On spending, I think W determined that he couldn't fight the spending battles and the war on terror at the same time. Although that war is far from over, he should be able to spend the political capital he has built up to get control of spending. We'll have to see if he has the will.

I'm not happy with the 15 bil spent on AIDS either, unless WE totally control how the money is spent, and the money is spent on the right things.

As to civil liberties, I think privacy disappeared in the mid-90s and isn't coming back anytime soon. I also think Ashcroft and the FBI are doing a lot of things behind the scenes to specifically target potential terrorists that we never hear about. It's almost a miracle that there have been no more significant domestic terrorist acts since 09-11-01.

I disagree with you on NAFTA. If it was so bad, why did unemployment drop to 30-40 year lows in the mid-late 90s? If we controlled the borders, Vicente Fox wouldn't be able to offload his awful economic problems onto us and would have to solve them internally. The economics of comparative advantage would then work how they should.

And yes, W is benfitting so greatly because of the inevitable comparisons to his predecessor.

I'm a slightly older Generation X'er and couldn't agree more! Thanks for the insightful post. The Gen X and Y is more conservative than their predecessors and that is evident in many ways. The Republican party is increasingly popular with the 35-and-under group. Even the predictable minority bloc voting behavior is starting to show it's first cracks, especially among the young. This triad of events --- 9/11/01, the waging of a real war on terrorism, the soon to be won victory in Iraq --- has the elitist boomers routed and left out in the cold. Every day I see more and more signs that their grip on our culture is slipping.

I can only hope that this news, along with the clear lack of support from Vicente Fox for Op IF, shake W out of his complacency on the issue. I'm not optimistic on this one. We may have to wait for Gen X and Gen Y to save out bacon on this one too.

Thanks for your reasoned response. For the most part I agree with you however, on the above, if it takes that long to address America's Immigration Crisis it will probably be too late to undo the damage. By that time, given the present massive flow of immigration (legal and illegal), America will no longer be a sovereign country and large regions of America's Southwest will be directly under the control of Mexico's thoroughly corrupt to the core government (some areas of CA are already there).

Also, in regards to associating NAFTA with the high employment rates during the 90s there is little doubt that the staggering technology and telecommunications boom (now bust) was by far the central factor there. This boom covered up a lot of economic problems including NAFTA.

Until George Bush starts addressing America's growing domestic problems I see little reason to be optimistic about America's future. And Time Is Running Out...Quick.

Just to be clear: I am for NO limits on LEGAL immigration by non-criminal people who WANT to be citizens of the US and are willing from Day One to go through the process.

Sure, let's be an over-populated, chaotic version of China. Who needs all this open space and forests anyway. But why stop there? We might as well make everyone in the world a U.S. Citizen. And when they come pouring in by the millions every month to redeem their citizenship papers all the sharp folks over at the INS have to do is ask them if they are a criminal...as if it would make a difference anyway.

I'm not sure how such a reckless idea could possibly ever get planted in an otherwise sound conservative mind but you should at least consider this: The Communists Rulers of the PRC (along with every enemy of America) absolutely LOVE your ideas on immigration. I mean why wage a bloody war against America, one they would surely lose, when they could flood our shores on the cheap with hundreds of millions of their agents "wanting to be citizens" and take over our country by sheer numbers.

Want to see America vanish and re-appear as The United Nations of America?....just take off all limits on immigration--like you suggest.

The list of people really willing to go through the process of citizenship, or alternatively to fake it for 5 years or so, is thankfully short.

I should have added that complete and total welfare reform (NO government handouts, PERIOD) is a prerequisite for my approach. So I'm probably dreaming anyway.

As long as immigrants are looked at as liabilites (I'm a CPA-can't help it)), as they have to be considered on balance in the current system, thanks to welflare and free health care, we need a cap, and maybe even a suspension. In my uptopia, people are looked at as assets who contribute more to the country than they take away. If that were so, we could and would handle and welcome more newcomers than currently enter legally and illegally. You have to acknowledge that pre 1960s immigrants were on balance a huge positive force, despite the misgivings of many WASPs (at least until the 1930s).

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