That could be a reasonable warning if the younger generation of voters turn out in November like they did in the Democrat primary.  

I was around, though very young of course, during the late sixties when the youngsters of that era warned each other not to trust their elders.  One can't help but believe there is at least some of the same sentiment among the youth faction of the left these days as well.
 
With this in the back of my mind I couldn't help but click onto a lefty site wherein the editor went off on a riff on how he is so glad 1968 is dead, how that generation screwed things up so badly, and how the younger voters, like him presumably, are about to make it all better by bringing Obama into office.  

to RTWT Obama and The Death of 1968 « Nah, Nope, Not Quite 

Here's a taste ...

So their rebellion was understandable. And it didn't’t hurt that there were, again, all those great drugs (where did they come from?) and the Vietnam War around to try and get the boys killed.

But this didn't’t make it any easier to take their self-celebrating indulgence, their self-righteous proselytizing, and their self-involved carelessness. We, who came after this generation, suffered at their hands.

And it has been our responsibility to clean up their mess (which we have slowly been doing for years).


Sheeesh, would you like a little cheese with that whine?  I am curious as to when in history one generation didn't leave a mess behind for the next generation to clean up.  I think that's called evolution.  Hopefully we can learn form the mistakes and make the world a better place.  And suffered at their hands, how exactly? by enduring the biggest and longest sustained economic expansion, medical advances, technological advances, social advances in the history of civilization, ending the cold war, decreasing famine, poverty, pestilence?

But this is the part that prompted me to comment:

For the last sixteen years, we have had to live with the realized culmination of the 60's cultural wars. First with the hippie proxy Clintons and now, still, endlessly, with their counter cultural opposite, the establishment frat boy Bush. It hasn't’t been pleasant. And, as a result, America has never, in my lifetime (how about yours?), been in so dire a position as it is today.

Well the ignorance of history suggested initially is on full display now.  My retort:

Frank Says:

“America has never, in my lifetime (how about yours?), been in so dire a position as it is today.”

Ah, from the mouths of babes… Either you were born sometime during the second term of Ronald Reagan or are a lousy student of contemporary history. I am older, but still only a tail-end boomer and can assure you, times, not all that long ago, have been much more, so muchly much more, dire than today. NOT. EVEN. CLOSE.

Reagan succeeded the Carter administration that saw an economic morass including double digits in unemployment, interest rates, and inflation. He proceeded to solve these problems with lower taxes, less regulation and smaller government - - precisely the opposite solutions being proposed by Senator Obama, obviously another terrible student of history.

If he wins I hope he can muster his highly self proclaimed judgment to surround himself with a group of older advisers with at least a basic grasp of these historic facts. If he doesn't’t he is neither as smart or judicious as his promoters claim.

It looks like the election will hinge on whether Obama can fool enough youngsters the first time to outnumber those of us oldsters who “won’t get fooled again.”

The last line was reference to a previous comment and the one that made me remember that old slogan from the sixties.  

While I agree that a final farewell to some of the culture of the sixties is long overdue I cannot ignore the contributions made by that generation, nor will I cede the moral superiority and /or accomplishments of the subsequent generation.  Such is the tendency of a self-absorbed youth who cherry pick history to coincide with current new world liberal orthodoxy.  I guess critical thinking kicks in later in life. 

Brings to mind the old Winston Churchill quote:

"If you're twenty and not liberal you have no heart. If you're thirty and not conservative you have no brain".

Perhaps not all is lost though.  I recently had a note from a good buddy whose young adult children have assured him McCain will wipe the floor with Obama.  My advice was not to get too confident and reminded him his children are exceptional, they really are.  The other thing is they live in Texas, where they may actually be representative of the younger voters, but I doubt that translates to the country at large.  I hope it does, but I doubt it. 

This last bit, I fear, is likely the more accurate of the youth mentality these days:

In short, that generation has failed.

Which is why I now, with the candidacy (and likely presidency) of Barrack Obama, proclaim the death of 1968.

Obama is one of us; a caring, hard-working father who seeks understanding and rational, utilitarian solutions to our country’s problems. He is a man who can put aside the differences of 1968 and take the best of both sides of that war of circularity. He is a post-hippie, born in that time, but not of it, with the capacity to see beyond the near horizon to a farther shore, to literally embody a greater destiny for our country; a place where the goodness of 1968 comes from both sides of the cultural divide.

Will this be easy? No. The torch will have to be pried out of the hands of our elders (witness Hillary Clinton’s craven campaign). But pry it we will. And when that time comes, the country, and the world, will be better off.

Of this, we can all be certain.

Well there you go then.  The Obamessiah will reign supreme and not only transcend but heal the cultural and political divide forty years in the making.  This takes wishful thinking way beyond anywhere those hallucigens of 1968 could take you.   

Only someone completely clueless about his actual public record could place Obama in the center of the political spectrum, that or rhapsodic blindness.  

And you know what kid?  You're damn right we will not give it up easily.  The stakes are just too high to give it up to hope and a prayer.  Sometimes your elders really do know better.  We are going to do what it takes to educate you and your contemporaries on the difference between style and substance.  And just like your Dad used to tell you, we're doing it for your own good.