THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Volume X, Issue # 329, December 14, 2008
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Government Committed to & Acting in Accord with Conservative Principles
Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity
A VERY DIFFERENT GENERATION
By Alan Caruba
THE NEW AMERICAN GENERATION & THE NEW PRESIDENT OF THE U.S.A.: THE MILLENNIALS & THE OBAMA
PRESIDENCY -- THE COMING OBAMA PRESIDENCY AS A GROUP OF NATIONAL LEADERS SUPPORTED BY & CATERING TO A
NEW GENERATION OF YOUNGER AMERICANS POORLY REARED, INADEQUATELY EDUCATED, & THOROUGHLY
INDOCTRINATED IN THE IDEOLOGIES & PHILOSOPHIES OF LEFTWING LIBERALISM, STATISM, SOCIALISM, POLITICAL
ENVIRONMENTALISM, GLOBALISM, & MORAL & CULTURAL RELATIVISM
FULL STORY:
They are called “Millennials,” and, with the election of Barack Hussein Obama as President of the U.S.A., they have
been dubbed “Generation O.” Born from 1980 to 2000, they are as different from their parents as previous generations
were different from theirs.
It is common that older generations frequently look at the new one as creatures from another planet. Every new
generation develops its own slang, has its own cultural heroes, and, most importantly, has been imprinted by the events
of their early years, as well as the kind of care they received from their parents.
What distinguishes the Millennials is the way technology -- as well as events -- has transformed how they interact
with each other and the world. Not only are they computer literate, but the Internet has allowed them to have friends
from around the world who are available at the touch of a keystroke.
Events, of course, are important. My generation grew up during and after World War II. It was a time of enormous
economic growth. It was a time of the U.S. ascendancy in the world, a time of being a superpower among sovereign
nation-states. We lived through the 1950s' Korean War and the birth of Rock’n Roll. By the time the 1960s arrived and I
was beginning my 20s, the Civil Rights movement erupted.
Marking that decade were assassinations and the beginning of a long war in Vietnam that ended the lives of more than
50,000 young men born barely a generation after my own. Together we witnessed the first and only resignation of a
President as the result of a criminal enterprise in the White House.
The Millennials had not yet been born. For them, the Soviet Union, with its missiles pointed at American cities, would be
ancient history by the time they turned ten years of age. Red China would be a nation with which we did an enormous
amount of trade. Europe would become the European Union. The Middle East would be a place that exported oil and
terrorism
For the Millennials, the great trial their generation would face would be terrorism. For them and older generations,
September 11, 2001, would change the entire dynamic of world affairs. The wars they know are the two invasions of Iraq,
the latter of which has become their Vietnam. Two other events imprinted themselves: the bombing of the Murrah federal
building in Oklahoma City and the murders at Columbine High School.
While growing up, the Millennials led a busy, structured life in the 1990s and this first decade of a new century. Their
parents were devoted to them and the feeling was returned. They were told they were smart and to be inclusive and
tolerant of all races, religions, and sexual orientations. They were accustomed to being team players, and they took being
connected 24/7 for granted via cell phones and the Internet. This was a generation that was thoroughly nurtured.
It was and is a generation that was deep-fried in every environmentalist notion, no matter that its science was lacking or
deliberately false. Surrounded by the benefits of technology, they have been told that much of it threatens the future of
the planet.
In a nation where two percent of the population feeds the rest of us, with plenty left over for export, they have no real
connection with the Earth they worship, knowing nothing about how crops are grown or livestock is maintained and
brought to the marketplace. Instead, they worry about “endangered” species and are fearful of fertilizers, pesticides and
herbicides, all of which help generate an abundant food supply. Foolishly, they worry that the poles are melting and the
seas are rapidly rising, neither of which is happening.
As their parents came of age in the Reagan era of the 1980s, they grew up during the feckless years of the Clinton
administration, questioning their parents about the sexual dalliance of the President, while deluged with cultural messages
that casual sex, called “hooking up,” was acceptable.
When George W. Bush became President, they would witness, not only 9/11, but the governmental debacle in the
aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and the torment of a strange “war against terror” being waged in Iraq and Afghanistan. At
home, there was no terror, but few would or could make any connection between those active conflicts and the steady
degrading of the threat al-Qa'ida represents.
It is, therefore, no surprise that the Millennials were entranced by the message of “change” offered by President-Elect
Obama, excited by the prospect of electing the first Afro-American President, and expecting, as my New Orleans friends
like to say, to let the good times roll on.
There is, therefore, considerable irony that the Millennials are a generation looking at the same disintegrating economy
their great-grandparents lived through in the 1930s and 1940s, until a world war provided full employment and the
post-war years were an explosion of innovation and growth.
It is presumed that the lessons of the past have been learned and monetary institutions will address the current problems,
but underwriting the entire economy is public trust and confidence. If that disappears, so does the economy.
Slowly, the Millennials are discovering that the politicians their parents sent to Congress were so profligate, so stupid,
and so intent on their own acquisition of wealth and power that they created the current financial crisis.
And now they are learning that those same people are returning to power! The President-elect is surrounding himself by
the Clintonians who failed to comprehend the changing global dynamics, focusing instead on Green fairytales of “energy
independence,” “global warming,” and the ill-founded belief that global institutions like the United Nations would or
could solve international conflicts.
The Millennials, now in their twenties and thirties, are saddled with debt, watching jobs disappear, and so utterly devoid
of any knowledge of their nation’s history that they know the names of the judges of American Idol, but cannot name the
three branches of the American government, nor grasp that real enemies do exist and must be defeated if America is to
endure. (The exception, of course, are those serving in our military.)
Their grandparents, the “Boomers,” are beginning to retire and will add to those who benefit from the many “entitlement”
programs that have been enacted since the days of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Harry S. Truman, and succeeding
Presidents. The Millennials' parent’s primary assets, their homes, are losing value. A university education now leaves them
emerging into the workplace with debt.
The “change” that will be thrust upon them is a cornucopia of “sacrifices” they will be required to accept in the name of
environmentalism and globalism. Sufficient energy will become scarce within a decade, and a government that is rapidly
socializing banks, investment, and insurance firms, may be forced to let a major industry, the Detroit auto manufacturers, go
bankrupt before it can be reformed.
Norman Thomas, a U.S. Socialist Party candidate for President in the 1940s, predicted:
“The American people will never knowingly adopt Socialism.
But, under the name of ‘Liberalism’, they will adopt every
fragment of the Socialist program, until, one day, America
will be a Socialist nation, without knowing how it happened.”
That day has arrived. Barack Hussein Obama is its standard-bearer.
LINKS TO RELATED TOPICS:
The American Nation & Its Common National Culture:
Political Culture, Patriotism, & American National Identity:
The Basic Values, Beliefs, & Traditions Characteristic
of American Society & Its Civic Culture
American Politics, Political Competition, & the Control of
Public Policy: Elections, Political Parties, Political Factions,
Ideologies, & Special Interest Groups
American Government & the U.S. Presidency:
Presidential Politics & National Leadership
The American Political System:
Politics & Government in the U.S.A.
Political Economy -- Philosophies, Systems, & Public Policies:
Government, the Economy, & Economic Prosperity
Political Environmentalism Versus Human Progress & Prosperity:
Policy Issues Relating to Energy, Environment,
& Natural Resources
The Earth's Natural History, Global Climate Changes,
& the Future of Human Life & Civilization on the Planet:
Science, Ideology, & Public Policy
The American Political & Cultural Left:
Liberals, Statists, Socialists, Marxists, & Other Leftists:
The Democratic Party, Academia, & the Mainstream Media
Liberalism Versus Conservatism in American Politics
-------------------------
POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY & POLITICAL IDEOLOGIES:
COMPETING SYSTEMS OF POLITICAL THOUGHT
Conservatism
Traditional Conservatism: Questions & Answers
Conservatism: Attitudes, Types, & Present Status
Constitutional Conservatism: American & British
Liberalism
Classical Liberalism: Intellectual Foundations
Classical Liberalism: Conservative Liberalism
Manchester Liberalism & Social Darwinism
Modern Social "Liberalism": Statist "Liberalism"
Radical & Totalitarian Ideologies
Radicalism, Utopianism, & Totalitarianism
Alan Caruba is a veteran business and science writer, a Public Relations Counselor, and Founder of the National Anxiety Center, a
clearinghouse for information about media-driven scare campaigns. Caruba writes a weekly commentary, "Warning Signs," posted
on the Internet website of the National Anxiety Center, which is located at
www.anxietycenter.com.
Caruba has a daily blog at http://factsnotfantasy.blogspot.com.
Caruba’s most recent book, Right Answers: Separating Fact from Fantasy, has been published by Merril Press. Books
previously authored by Caruba include A Pocket Guide to Militant Islam, The United Nations Versus the United States: The
UN's Plan to Control Planet Earth, and America: A Nation Without Borders -- A Pocket Guide to Immigration Issues.
© Alan Caruba 2008
Published with Permission of Alan Caruba
ACaruba@AOL.Com
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THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Conservative & Free-Market Analysis of Government, Politics & Public Policy, Covering Political, Legal, Constitutional, Economic,
Cultural, Military, International, Strategic, & Geopolitical Issues
Conservative Government Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity