The not-so-great generation
Most days I'm ashamed at how my generation, born in the '40s and '50s, handled the world once we ruled it. Our parents left it to us in halfway decent shape, but we weren't up to looking after it. Of course, before they let go of the steering wheel they drove us into the Reagan "revolution," and that was quite a handicap to deal with. But still, for all the singing and shouting we did about how we were going to save the world, we could have, and should have, done better than making it a whole lot worse.
To add insult to injury, we won't own up to our failures and bow out. Right now we geezers continue to clutch the wheel, refusing to let even the spritely young 55-year-olds drive, much less people in their actual primes.
Nowhere is this sad reality more apparent than in American politics. Today, and probably for the rest of this year if not beyond, we'll be hearing about how the President, Joe Biden, is 81 years old and not too sharp mentally. And he's all that's standing between this helpless world and another disastrous term of Orange Caligula, at 77 years old far less coherent than Joe, distracted by the fallout of his own many criminal misdeeds and showing the health effects of a life lived badly.
This is the best we can do. Either way the kids get a senile guy, and the one way they also get to be part of the New Soviet Union, answering to a deranged dictator wannabe.
And it's not just the White House. Look at the Senate, full of old coots in toupees and botoxed to the max. Do you really think most of them have all their faculties? Ron Wyden. Patty Murray. Mitch McConnell. Schumer. Romney. Bernie. Manchin. Collins. All over 70. Grassley's pushing 90.
At least our own Earl the Pearl Blumenauer is sensible enough to be packing it in on the House side, a little late at 74 years of age.
When I talk to younger people these days, I apologize a lot. But I also tell them to get ready, because soon the boomers will be gone, and the next group will finally, finally, get a chance to undo some of our worst mistakes. Perhaps this next federal election will be the last time we oldies get to inflict our shortcomings on them.
Sadly, I wouldn't blame them if they're glad to see us go.
Amen.
ReplyDeleteOld Joe has forgotten more than the Orangeella ever knew.
ReplyDeleteTruth!
DeleteIt’s healthy to occasionally look in the mirror. Sometimes it leads to changes
ReplyDeleteShould have mentioned that the change shouldn’t be a spin
DeleteDon’t forget Diane Feinstein. She literally died in office while senile.
ReplyDeleteI thought of her, but left her out because she is now "retired."
DeleteToo bad a few more don’t retire!
ReplyDeleteI was born in 1952 and I thought our generation was going to save the world. When I look back, I think the turning point was the election of 1974, in which the Watergate scandal led to a huge turnover in Congress in the 1974 election.
ReplyDeletePrior to that, the House appropriations committee was run by Southern Democrats. They were racist assholes but they were also fiscal conservatives who kept the government from spending too much. The new members of Congress in 1975 swept away seniority rules and made committee chairs dependent on popularity instead. Members got popular by spending more money so the result was a waste to spend as much as possible.
The results are sadly visible today: we spend billions on obsolete or unwanted technologies (e.g., light rail, five-story housing projects) when things like buses and single-family homes are both better and less expensive. So what if we have airplanes that go 500 mph -- let's build a 200-mph high-speed rail!
I don't feel ashamed of my role in this but I am disappointed that people who I helped elect to office couldn't resist spending money we don't have on things we don't need.
Obama ushered in the real racist assholes
DeleteI was born in '85, graduated HS in '03 just in time to ship off to my generation's war while it was still fresh, while we were still optimistic about "liberating" that place or whatever. I come home and after a few years I'm enthusiastic to get into business, politics, local organizations.
ReplyDeleteAt every opportunity, literally every opportunity, there was a Boomer standing in the way. In local politics I'd be at best a second class citizen, only given a seat at the table if I was willing to be the patsy of some Boomer. This really turned me and many in my generation against civil institutions and traditional community groups. You don't have to look further than veteran groups like the American Legion and VFW, my generation is still a fraction of the membership compared to Boomers, and these groups are quickly fading. Go to any church you'll find few men in my age demographic. But it's not like all Boomers are all bad, plenty were good mentors, friends, etc.
Boomers will surely go down as the most despised generation in American history. You can be assured of that, because my generation will write the history books. No joke, they've probably destroyed this country with the reckless systems put into place, like our terrible financial system, public pension programs, being so tolerant of political corruption, and going to war with half of the world sure did make us a lot of enemies who ain't going away. I'm nearly 40, work in IT making $100k, and can't afford a home in my home town, even with a VA loan.
You're a good one Jack, you're not one of the bad Boomers.
I am SO sick of Boomer Bashing. At least we VOTE, unlike 40% of Millenials and Gen Zers in 2016. Thanks for giving us Trump, by the way. Also, Biden, McConnell etc are NOT Boomers, they are older. And there are plenty of low income Boomers who never made a lot of money and never owned a house. In my 68 years on the Planet, I marched for Civil Rights, women's rights, against the Vietnam war etc etc etc.
DeleteYou people can never stop talking about where you were in November 1963. It's been a real problem for over forty years now. You've earned every dismissive comment you've received.
DeleteYeah, guess what - just because you did good things 50 years ago doesn't mean you get to sit on your hands now.
DeleteStop being part of the problem while claiming that you were part of the solution 50 years ago. That does nobody any good at all, other than trying to elevate your own self-esteem through self-righteousness. Marching for civil rights in the 1960s changes absolutely nothing about a Dorito-tinted proto-fascist coup-plotting rapist running for President, and having ~50% of your generation voting for that.
Don't talk to me about the past. Talk to me about what you plan on doing about RIGHT NOW.
Every president in our nation's history has graduated high school before 1965 except one. My generation (Generation X) passed on the chance to grab the wheel in 2007 when our apparatchiks chose to support Hillary instead of one of our own. I'll never forget Erik Sten signing on the dotted line for her weeks after it was obvious where the 2008 primary was headed. Obviously he wasn't alone, but it was over for us when the moment that went down.
ReplyDeleteThe trouble is, there's only the VERY useless Mayor Pete behind us. Sigh.
The forces that control the "American experiment" are not the politicians- that might be why they stay so long, they are just told what to say and do. We can and we should flush the toilet and put these clowns out to pasture. However, younger order takers are just going to be as bad. Until we root out the money changers and their protectors, nothing will change. The Federal Reserve (mostly controlled by the Rothschilds) has managed to make the dollar worth a few pennies compared to when they first started in 1913. And now we are paying a TRILLION dollars in interest to these same folks. Good times.
ReplyDelete