The generation that came of age during the Great Depression and World War II benefited by, and therefore believed in, the power of government to save us from our own excesses and to create a world in which our most dangerous tendencies are restrained, and subjected by national and international institutions to the power of reason, debate, and peaceful resolutions of conflicts and crises. So it could be said that they moved the world in a leftward direction. On the other hand, Boomers--i.e., my generation--took all of this for granted and, in seeking an ever-increasing level of self-gratification, reached the limits of what hard work could accomplish and began to see those institutions as nothing more than consumers of their resources. So they listened to the Republican siren song of tax cuts, deregulation, and "family values." And we started moving in a rightward direction. And, with the exception of a few brief course-correction years during the Obama Administration, we've been headed that way ever since.
By most reckonings, the last members of the Boomer Generation were born in 1964, the last year in which a Democrat won a landslide victory in the presidential election. Fifty-four years ago. Since then, three more generations have come of age in this country--Gen X, Gen Y, and Millennials. In which direction are they headed?
Up until now, that hasn't been clear. And Boomers have been a big reason for that. For a long time, they have so dominated the American landscape by shear force of numbers and the intensity of their various demands that I suspect succeeding generations--their children and grandchildren--all decided to quietly give up on politics. For a very long time. During that time, we have had a succession of Boomer Presidents--Clinton, W, Obama, and Trump--pushing and putting the needs of their generation ahead of everything else (again, with the exception of a few of Obama's years).
I write today to tell you that, in case you haven't noticed, Boomers, our time is up. And, quite frankly, I couldn't be happier about it.
Yesterday's nationwide "March For Our Lives" event was much more than a response to the wave of school shootings over the past two decades since the Columbine tragedy. It was much more than a political event, and was certainly not a partisan one, given the failures of Democrats and Republicans to take serious action against gun violence. More than anything else, it was a primal scream against an entire political and economic culture that has been consciously designed to value their very existence far less than the supposed "right" of anyone to have a military-level arsenal. A scream, I might add, fully supported and endorsed by their parents and grandparents around the world. (And I suspect that Paul Krugman is right: the #MeToo movement among women fighting sexual abuse is somewhat of an allied movement, as both are directed against many of the same targets.)
So, since young people are the future of this country, and they are prepared to challenge Republican orthodoxy on an issue key to Republican campaigns in the past, what have Republicans done in responding to the rise of the MFOL movement?
Why, just what you'd except from a highly-adept, well-oiled political machine ready to respond to public opinion shifts on a moment's notice.
Sarcasm.
And not even particularly bright sarcasm at that. Here, for example, is Rick Santorum, whose 15 minutes of fame expired somewhere in the 1990s. His advice to students being mauled to death by semi-automatic fire? Learn CPR. As if that would make a difference to someone whose heart and lungs have been punctured by multiple rounds of bullets. As if everyone would have the time necessary to even do that when they were under attack.
Santorum's "advice," sadly, is not an outlier. Over the past several weeks since the shootings in Parkland, Florida, I have spend a good deal of time on social media looking at and gauging the conservative response to the accumulation of gun tragedies that can no longer be brushed aside with empty wishes of "thoughts and prayers." I have been hoping against hope that a majority, even a plurality, would finally wake up and accept the reality that facts overwhelming confirm: sensible gun restrictions save lives, even in locations with a reputation for violence like New York.
And instead of promises to help provide safety, the first duty of any level of government, and admittedly with a tiny handful of exceptions, young people are being told that the thoughts and prayers of children don't matter at all. Only the thoughts and prayers of adults matter, especially if they are part of the Republican establishment, in and out of government. See if you can survive the awesome power of the G-d-given Second Amendment coursing through school systems in exactly the way the Framers intended, and, IF you survive, maybe, just maybe, by then we'll listen to you. And hopefully, if you're anything like your parents, you'll have become a "sensible" Republican by then, with your own arsenal, ready, eager, and willing to let your own children become cannon fodder.
Or, to put it another way, "SHUT UP."
In fairness, it should be pointed out that this intolerance extends not only to adults, even within electoral politics. In at least one case, there's a little more than a hint that "SHUT UP" might be followed by an "OR ELSE."
That's the mindset of a party that knows it's already lost the future. That's the mindset of a party that, like its "leader" in the White House, cannot and will not think beyond the next fifteen minutes, so afraid are they of what might happen to their control of power after that. That's the mindset of a so-called "conservative revolution" that ran out of gas long ago, and has been subsisting on fumes while being in denial about the changing world surrounding it.
But it's too late.
For one thing, the "children" are not that far away from being adults. Those who survived the Sandy Hook shooting are now teenagers. The Parkland students are literally on the cusp of being able to register and vote.
And not all parents are as idiotic as most Republicans seem to be on this issue, as well as others. Indeed, many of them are surprising sensible, even in the case of those educating Donald Trump's youngest son. (That poor kid. Oy.)
Even among the "children," it seems that there is an ability to defend differences of opinion on guns, while finding common ground on solutions. Take a look.
And, when it comes to thinking about solutions, there is new ground to be broken. We can, for example, require firearms manufacturers to be strictly liable, and force them to eat the costs of the tragedies they help to create. We already do that with the manufacturer of explosives, which are every bit as much "arms" as are pistols and rifles. We can also require gun purchasers to purchase insurance each time they buy a firearm. Not only would this help to pay for the cost of the carnage, but it would also slow down the number of purchases, due to the extra cost. As conservatives themselves are fond of saying, "freedom isn't free."
So, to my fellow Boomers, I have a suggestion. Let's stop standing in the way of the future. Let's spend some of our own time and treasure giving back to the world that has given us so much. Let's think more about a legacy, and less about our leisure. Let's work with those who are walking in our footsteps, trying while we do to remember what it once felt like to care more about the future than about the present. Let's do what our parents once did: whatever it took (and takes now) to take care of our children and grandchildren. If that means "moving to the left" so be it. Moving to the left nearly a hundred years ago launched an American Century. Doing it now might yet launch another one.
*****
I'll be spending the next two weeks preparing for, and observing, Pesach, and will be back here after that. Happy Pesach, Easter, or whatever you observe, and an early spring for all of us.
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