The LuLac Edition #414, Feb. 6th, 2008

PHOTO INDEX: SENATORS OBAMA, CLINTON, McCAIN AND GOVERNOR ROMNEY.



GENERATIONS



If Super Tuesday said anything to us political types, it was that this election campaign is turning into a historical event that will be referenced long after it ends. First off, for the first time since 1928, no sitting President or Vice President is involved in the effort. It appears that two U.S. Senators will be running against each other in the fall. In our electoral history, only three Legislators have won the Presidency. Congressman James Garfield in 1880, Senator Warren Harding in 1920 and Senator John Kennedy in 1960. What is fascinating though about this election year though is that there might be a generational shift, a shift that comes before its time. My parents generation, the World War II generation controlled the Presidency from 1960 to 1992. I remember how proud my family was when the 1960 election came around. Both candidates, Kennedy and Nixon were of the same generation. In particular my family revered John Kennedy because he was the first Roman Catholic to hold office. After his death and the subsequent less than flattering revelations, JFK still stood tall. It wasn't until the defeat of George Herbert Walker Bush in 1992 that the WWII generation gave way to the baby boomers. It was a 32 year run. There was an attempted rebirth in 1996 when war hero Bob Dole won the GOP nod but that failed when Bill Clinton won re-election. For the past 16 years, two men, Clinton and Bush have been our leaders. Depending on your perspective, you might say that the two were the heroes of the baby boom generation. But this generation was jaded by Vietnam and Watergate and the once passionate activism gave way to a strange passivity toward the faults of the two administrations. The generation that espoused free love was not outraged for the most part by Bill Clinton's personal conduct in office. Even more glaring was this anti war generation that took to the streets in the 60s to denounce Vietnam and the 70s to rail against Nixon's Watergate scandal and curiously did nothing to protest a war that would send their children to certain death in a cause that was not fully explained. At least the domino theory had a certain logic to it, Iraq did not.
As the 2008 race seems to evolve, it appears the finest minds of the baby boom Democratic party, Senators Dodd and Biden recieved no traction. Bill Richardson, one of the most qualified candidates fell by the wayside as did former Senator John Edwards whose comparisions to Robert Kennedy were feeble at best. On the GOP side, the rough and ready Rudy Giuliani was foresaken as well as the polished businessman persona of Mitt Romney.
We are left with Senator Clinton who if nominated will continue the political legacy of the baby boomer. Older, wiser and a lot less idealistic, sensing that government needs a mechanic, not a messiah. This generation has seen its share of would be governmental faith healers and watched in horror as they were either killed or fell down from the throne.
Senator Obama on the other hand represents a generational shift too. His base are people born after the Civil Rights sit ins, the seperate bathrooms in bus stations, the time when women were routinely relegated to non leadership roles. Women in executive roles, racial acceptance as well as a lack of struggle has punctuated this generation's rise to business and political power. It is easy to talk about hope and inspiration when there has been little struggle and less obstacles to overcome. The question the Democrats must ask is this, are they willing to give the baby boom generation one more chance to implement changes in government or will they migrate to an untested group of leaders that talk a great game but have no practical experience looking at the governmental engine under the hood?
The Republicans on the other hand have seemed to reject the only true conservative in the race, Governor Romney. Romney was everything a GOP candidate should be. Handsome, charismatic, a captain of industry with a stellar personal family resume of faith and fidelity. Unlike Giuliani and McCain, he has had only one wife. But the GOP conservatives, now lamenting they are stuck with Senator McCain rallied around Romney too late waiting for a saviour like Ronald Reagan to appear. I have news for them, people like Reagan come around once every fifty years and the bland, lazy imitation of Fred Thompson wasn't going to cut it. Curiously, Romney the GOP baby boomer without a hint of scandal was shunned while you can be certain that if bad boy Newt Gingrich made a run, he'd be on top.
So now the GOP has McCain, 71 years old, not of the baby boom generation but not of the WWII generation either. He's more like a child of the Eisenhower years, a kid growing up on the same street with Eddie Haskell, Mary Stone and Wally Cleaver.
What generation will prevail in this election? Will it be McCain's 50s envolvement, straight talk born of conformity, will it be Clinton's experience in the social wars of the 60s and 70s that molded her generation as pragmatic leaders or will it be the sunny optimism of hope conveyed by Barak Obama's generation? Each generation paved the way for the next, the World War II generation gave the boomers the luxury to ponder the great issues of war and peace. The boomers gave the Barak troops a sense that life was an equal share of the American dream because it always seemed to be there, devoid of the messy struggles of the 60s. This generational shift, or lack thereof will continue to be one of the most interesting aspects of this election year. Not only watch the candidates but watch the people in their respective generations for a clue.