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Liberalism’s Robin Hood And His Baby Boomer Generation Of Merry Men
OpinionEditorials.com ^ | 5-08-2005 | Lee P Butler

Posted on 05/08/2005 7:35:09 PM PDT by leepbutler

Liberal Democrats love to portray themselves as the ‘modern day Robin Hood’, where the fictitious protagonist ‘robbed’ from the rich and gave to the poor, who were really just the followers of his crusade, but that’s not to say they weren’t needy, simply that they were his chosen minions.

Modern day liberalism is a self-aggrandized bizarro Robin Hood who robs everyday working American families through taxation to secure that collected revenue for the government to be disseminated to the masses at their discretion.

In honor of reality, that’s more akin to Jesse James and his train robbing brethren than the original Robin Hood. Robin Hood and his band of merry men, robbed the tyrannical government; the ‘rich’, that suppressed its people in virtual slavery; the ‘poor’, of the riches it had confiscated from them.

Modern day Robin Hoodistic liberals haven’t seen a tax increase they don’t like in their incessant desire to accumulate as much government wealth as they can possibly amass to be disseminated to the masses as they see fit. That oppressive collection of tax revenue creates the very governmental environment that Robin Hood was fighting against.

New York Times liberal columnist; adding the qualifier ‘liberal’ was simply for posterity, Nicholas D. Kristof wrote in a recent column, “As a baby boomer myself, I can be blunt: We boomers won’t be remembered as the ‘Greatest Generation’. Rather, we’ll be scorned as the ‘Greediest Generation’.”

Let the record show that the baby boomer generation is the heart of the ‘liberal movement’ that has worked to unravel the very moral fiber that has held this country together since it was founded so many generations ago.

Kristof was referring to the socioeconomic destruction that our children and grand children will be burdened with only a few short years down the road that will be generated through the current high administrative costs of entitlement programs such as Medicare, Social Security, the prescription drug benefit, and the liberal push for universal government healthcare that the baby boomer generation is so enamored with.

“We boomers are also preying on children in a more insidious way,” Kristof points out. “We’re running up their debts, both by creating new entitlement programs and by running budget deficits today.” He continues later referring to a study commissioned by the Treasury Department, “The study found that we face a present value ‘fiscal gap’ - the excess of expected payments over expected revenue - of $51 trillion. That’s 11 times our official national debt and also greater than our total net worth, meaning that in some sense we’re bankrupt.”

Bankrupt? Every time the President even breathes the word bankrupt, not to mention him saying that Social Security is facing a ‘crisis’, media elitists go apoplectic. Yet, here’s Kristof telling his liberal ‘boys in Robin’s hood’ brethren that their entitlements are bankrupting our children’s’ future.

It’s still amazing how liberal Democrats and the media don’t see the mendacity in claiming that there is no ‘crisis’ in Social Security when just a few short years ago Clinton and his merry men were criss-crossing the nation talking about the ‘crisis’ that existed in Social Security.

Even Al ‘Friar Tuck’ Gore campaigned on the issue of the Social Security ‘crisis’ by proposing a ‘lock box’ for the collected revenue. That idea scared millions of Americans who cringed at the thought of their money going into a ‘locked box’ where ‘Friar Tuck’ held the key and his buddy Robin could more easily raid its contents for his minions.

Media elitists have endlessly denigrated President Bush as he has toured the nation spreading his aspiration of empowering everyday working Americans with the ability to have a key to their own Social Security savings ‘lock box’ that would be personal accounts. But since ‘Friar Tuck’ wouldn’t hold the key, Democrats continue to fight the idea.

Plus, they are against the private accounts because adding that benefit to Social Security would indelibly tie reform of the program to President Bush and his legacy and Democrats will extinguish their political futures to prevent that from happening.

Look at what liberal elitist E. J. Dionne wrote about the President, “Bush’s ‘plan’ is still not a plan, just a few ideas.” No joke! Maybe Mr. Dionne could explain why then his media counterparts keep creating news stories for themselves by using data from polls they generate by asking Americans if they support the President’s ‘plan to privatize Social Security’?

President Bush has even relented and agreed to a stipulation of most liberal agendas where the ‘rich’ pays for benefits provided to the ‘poor’ through ‘indexing’ the future payouts going to the more affluent contributors to the program.

Supporters say the proposal would eliminate 70% of future deficits facing the program while at the same time making the system even more of a welfare program.

Those two facts should make Democrats happier than actually being in Sherwood Forest, but instead they are incensed, even outraged! How could that hog tying, brush clearing, pick-up truck drivin’ Texan turn their own liberalism against them spawning dissention among the ranks!

Mr. Dionne attacked some of his fellow Democrats who might see an opportunity to compromise on the issue saying, “Democrats who go along become enablers of a game being played with a stacked deck.” Yeah, but you brought the cards and made up the rules. Check mate!

Remember, in Sherwood Forest the greedy government was the enemy and Robin Hood and his merry men fought to end its oppressive intrusion into their lives and burdening taxation. In modern day America, we may need Jesse James to rob the train carrying liberal Robin Hood and his spoils back to his haven in Washington D.C. just to save us.

But watch out for ‘Friar Tuck’, he’s crazy man!


TOPICS: Your Opinion/Questions
KEYWORDS: genx; liberalism; robinhood
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To: Jewelsetter

More accurately, he took BACK from evil, corrupt government (king) what BELONGED to the people, whom the KING had robbed!

He was simply turning the tables on the king and his minions.


21 posted on 05/09/2005 7:58:52 AM PDT by the OlLine Rebel (Common sense is an uncommon virtue.)
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To: Clemenza

Actually, isn't it mostly the "GG's" *parents* who put in F!%#$%!ing DR and all his communist ideas? Social Security? NRA? PWA? Withholding (so you don't notice how much the King is taking from you)? Largely, the "GG" was not voting age when FDR started all his tyrannical tricks.

Altho, I likewise disagree w/the "Greatest Generation" moniker, regardless. The real GG largely lived ca. 1730-1800.


22 posted on 05/09/2005 8:05:04 AM PDT by the OlLine Rebel (Common sense is an uncommon virtue.)
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To: leepbutler
Modern day Robin Hoodistic liberals haven’t seen a tax increase they don’t like....

Sorry, Lee ... but when I see this cliche I stop reading: I know probably I won't be seeing anything original after it.

23 posted on 05/09/2005 8:08:14 AM PDT by r9etb
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To: Kozak

Makes perfect sense to me. I tend to think their saving grace, though, is the fact that they DID NOT trash America and its history while setting up these programs. It was their children who sought to 'tear down' the heroes, and replace them with Marxist models. The WWII generation may have made some doosies of mistakes where largesse is concerned, but they didn't tell their grandkids that America was an awful entity that deserved to be overthrown.


24 posted on 05/09/2005 8:40:37 AM PDT by Alkhin (Some people are so heavenly minded they are no earthly good.)
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To: Alkhin
that they DID NOT trash America and its history while setting up these programs. It was their children who sought to 'tear down' the heroes, and replace them with Marxist models.

The generation between the GG & the boomers need to take their share of the blame. Boomers were sheep, rather than leaders in everything you are talking about. Their elders marketed to them heavily, because of the size of their age group. The worst of the GG, plus the worst of the generation after went into teaching, entertainment & journalism.

they didn't tell their grandkids that America was an awful entity that deserved to be overthrown.

Wrong! Boomers didn't come up with any of that, make it up out of whole cloth. It is what many of us were taught. Many of us overcame our earlier indoctrination, while many didn't. Can you say all of your peers are pure or are there koolaide drinkers among those of your age group too?

25 posted on 05/09/2005 1:40:28 PM PDT by GoLightly
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To: GoLightly
My point wasnt to point to the GenReagan generation and say we are pure. My point was to say that we grew up listenign to the Boomers trash everything that we were learning to be admirable about America...at least we learned that there was something admirable by listening to the parents of the Boomers. I will always associate Ronald Reagan with that generation that stood up for America in WWII, and as such gave America a renewed sense of purpose. I grew up in an era where heroes were systematically being 'taken down' to a so-called 'realism' and replaced with Marxist ideals. I dont know that the WWII generation came home and ever said "we learned of something better, let's implement it." But then, as I said : I can agree with the earlier assertion that it was generations before the Boomers that got the ball rolling, but if I really wanted to, I could take it all the way back to the battle betweent he Federalists and the Anti-Federalists. Still, it seems to me that the Boomers are the first generation to fall and foment for the idea that America had nothing good to offer the world. Where they got this idea, I dont know...but I know I am a generation that is coming out of that morass knowing better. That's all I really wanted to say.

And just so I can make myself clear : I don't seek to generalize all those born between 1945 and 1964. I am fully aware that a good portion of them fought in Vietnam and as such I dont see them as part of the Left-wing portion of the Boomers. I also do not point fingers at those Boomers who voted for Reagan (I was not old enough to vote until 1985 and I voted for Bush 41 in 1988), and have generally been making an effort to turn things around and refute all the Leftist lies. The accusations I make are those who are still clinging to the 60s mentality that theirs is the Holy Time and the only thing worthwhile accomplishing is the same perfidy they performed in the 60s...am I making sense? What makes these people worse is they have managed to gin up a whole new generation of people who are indeed blindly following what they say because they dont even have the historical ccntext of the 70s as part of their experience.

26 posted on 05/09/2005 2:04:23 PM PDT by Alkhin (Some people are so heavenly minded they are no earthly good.)
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To: Alkhin
My point wasnt to point to the GenReagan generation and say we are pure.

Glad to hear that you recognize that.

My point was to say that we grew up listening to the Boomers trash everything that we were learning to be admirable about America...

As did I. I heard the boomers parroting what was being taught to them. I watched the rise of the worst from previous generations. After McCarthy was destroyed, there was little to stop them. Check the birth dates of the leaders of all of the 60's movements. Calculate voting ages, to find out when boomers were given any voice in government. Remember to consider who votes in the greatest percentages. It isn't young voters & that was true, even in the 60's & 70's.

at least we learned that there was something admirable by listening to the parents of the Boomers.

I'm sure you were also taught to blame all of the bad on boomers. I'm trying to get you to see beyond what you were taught. Boomers were not in charge of the media, the schools or the government, but they've been given the blame, because the worst of the boomers were given a voice & were pandered to, by those who actually were in power.

I will always associate Ronald Reagan with that generation that stood up for America in WWII, and as such gave America a renewed sense of purpose.

Why not Carter? or Nixon? or Johnson? or Kennedy?

I grew up in an era where heroes were systematically being 'taken down' to a so-called 'realism' and replaced with Marxist ideals.

So was I.

I dont know that the WWII generation came home and ever said "we learned of something better, let's implement it."

I'm talking about those who didn't "come home", though there were some of those. Mostly, the ones that didn't leave in the first place were busy while their peers were "over there".

But then, as I said : I can agree with the earlier assertion that it was generations before the Boomers that got the ball rolling, but if I really wanted to, I could take it all the way back to the battle betweent he Federalists and the Anti-Federalists.

True.

Still, it seems to me that the Boomers are the first generation to fall and foment for the idea that America had nothing good to offer the world.

Make sure to check those birth dates, as I told you to do earlier.

Where they got this idea, I dont know...but I know I am a generation that is coming out of that morass knowing better. That's all I really wanted to say.

Blame Carter on the boomers & boomers can't even take full credit for him. Remember, people do not vote in large percentages until they are older, late 20's, early 30's. Thank God we didn't give that loser a second term. Meanwhile, name all of the great early leaders from among your peer group. Show me those who demonstrate your generation's great ability of climbing out of that morass.

And just so I can make myself clear : I don't seek to generalize all those born between 1945 and 1964. I am fully aware that a good portion of them fought in Vietnam and as such I dont see them as part of the Left-wing portion of the Boomers. I also do not point fingers at those Boomers who voted for Reagan (I was not old enough to vote until 1985 and I voted for Bush 41 in 1988), and have generally been making an effort to turn things around and refute all the Leftist lies.

My first vote went to Carter. I was 19 & hadn't overcome the effects of the koolaide yet.

The accusations I make are those who are still clinging to the 60s mentality that theirs is the Holy Time and the only thing worthwhile accomplishing is the same perfidy they performed in the 60s...am I making sense?

Yes, you are making sense. I understand what you've learned, while I lived it & can see that some of what you've learned is total garbage.

What makes these people worse is they have managed to gin up a whole new generation of people who are indeed blindly following what they say because they dont even have the historical ccntext of the 70s as part of their experience.

I agree. You're buying a false version of the 60's for the same reason. You lack historical context for the era. I'm trying to give you some.

27 posted on 05/09/2005 3:13:55 PM PDT by GoLightly
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To: leepbutler
“We boomers are also preying on children in a more insidious way,” Kristof points out. “We’re running up their debts, both by creating new entitlement programs and by running budget deficits today.”

Well, at least one boomer admits it.

28 posted on 05/09/2005 3:18:34 PM PDT by k2blader (Immorality bites.)
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To: GoLightly
Why not Carter? or Nixon? or Johnson? or Kennedy?

Carter : I remember him. One word : malaise. Sorry, but the befuddlement of SALT I and SALT II was ridiculous. I will never remember Carter for anything uplifting. In his administration, the Bicentennial was a blip, and hardly his doing.

Nixon : I was a baby then. Parents scarcely let me watch the evening news, much less tell me who Nixon was. By the time I got any idea of what was going on in the country, Ford was running for re-election. That's as far back as I can remember. If my parents talked about him, I don't remember what was said. All I knew was that he had been caught doing something and decided to leave office.

Johnson - Ugh. The impression I got of LBJ is that all his talk of a Great Society was a facade. I don't think he's much admired in any quarters of the American populace. The more I learn about him, the less I think he had done anything to inspire Americans. And this coming from a former student of the college he attended (SWTSU - San Marcos)

Kennedy : I wasnt even a glimmer in my daddy's eye (such as it was). I am only learning about Kennedy through history, and from what I understand, he was the last President before Reagan to inspire people about their country.

29 posted on 05/09/2005 3:25:48 PM PDT by Alkhin (Some people are so heavenly minded they are no earthly good.)
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To: Alkhin
Carter : I remember him. One word : malaise. Sorry, but the befuddlement of SALT I and SALT II was ridiculous. I will never remember Carter for anything uplifting. In his administration, the Bicentennial was a blip, and hardly his doing.

I have one word for him too, Iran. The economy that he made worse was given to him by the next guy on our list...

Nixon : I was a baby then. Parents scarcely let me watch the evening news, much less tell me who Nixon was. By the time I got any idea of what was going on in the country, Ford was running for re-election. That's as far back as I can remember. If my parents talked about him, I don't remember what was said. All I knew was that he had been caught doing something and decided to leave office.

I voted for Carter because of him. Big media was reaching the height of it's power. More than anyone or anything else, the media took down Nixon. Tip O'Neill also had a lot of power, the kind that Newt tried to match, but failed to do because of the media. Congress pandered to the blue hairs, because they were the most powerful voting block. Grannys were getting forced to eat dog food & we needed to take Social Security from a supplement to more of a full livable income for our needy seniors. Boomer income was starting to help fill government coffers & they weren't going to be eligible to collect for years down the road. Spend that money now & let them worry about it in the future.

Price controls were the answer to a sickening economy while he was in office. Suppliers responded by changing the sizes of containers, which is why a one pound can of coffee is no longer a pound. Nickle candybars got reduced in size & the price went up to a dime. Gum went from 5 sticks in a pack for a nickle, to 7 for a dime. (I was a kid & candy prices were important to me then. LOL)

Johnson - Ugh. The impression I got of LBJ is that all his talk of a Great Society was a facade. I don't think he's much admired in any quarters of the American populace. The more I learn about him, the less I think he had done anything to inspire Americans. And this coming from a former student of the college he attended (SWTSU - San Marcos)

He set the wheels in motion for our coming train wreck. Mr. Guns & Butter showed all politicians the way to the yellow brick road.

Kennedy : I wasnt even a glimmer in my daddy's eye (such as it was). I am only learning about Kennedy through history, and from what I understand, he was the last President before Reagan to inspire people about their country.

They raised Kennedy to near sainthood after his death. I bought it, cuz I was a kid. My Mom, who has rarely found a lefty she doesn't like, got me to take a more realistic view towards him. Her dislike of the Kennedy's was personal, cuz Bobby had gone after her uncle. Without the cheating by the Daley machine in Chicago, he would not have been President.

30 posted on 05/09/2005 4:33:51 PM PDT by GoLightly
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To: GoLightly
Without the cheating by the Daley machine in Chicago, he would not have been President.

I remember learning about the Daley stuff here on FR!! Thank God for FR/JimRob! Correct me if I am wrong, but wasn't Kennedy the one who actually set the Vietnam wheels in motion and LBJ just took it to its (illogical) Lefty end? It's not that I don't think some form of protest should have been put up for the mismanagement. Its the radicalism that was spawned.

I have been reading a lot of what David Horowitz has written, and I am deeply grateful he has gone through the effort to shine a brighter spotlight of that era.

I think, to tell you the truth, I just get tired of hearing how great the 60s were, and the automatic assumption that I am going to agree with them. I was too young to get the full appreciation for it, but I *am* old enough to remember the awful dregs of it after Vietnam. It is an unforgiveable thing in my mind that so many who were in the military were punished by the louts that ran around in their horrible horrible lifestyle by spitting on them and calling them names. Any group of people who do that automatically get lumped into a bad group in my eyes.

31 posted on 05/09/2005 6:15:03 PM PDT by Alkhin ("Ah-ah," admonished Pippin. "Head, blade, dead." ~ Peregrin Took, The Falcon)
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To: Alkhin
Correct me if I am wrong, but wasn't Kennedy the one who actually set the Vietnam wheels in motion and LBJ just took it to its (illogical) Lefty end?

No, not really. The treaty we sent guys over to help keep was signed by Truman or Eisenhower. Hard to believe that there used to be a time when national defense came without all of the partisan rancor that was spawned in the 60's. Kennedy may have been the one to offically send in people to help & to train the South Vietnamese, but the policy that caused him to do it was set in motion before he took office. I think the first American death there was in '54, but it's been awhile since I read up on the details.

It's not that I don't think some form of protest should have been put up for the mismanagement. Its the radicalism that was spawned.

I agree.

32 posted on 05/09/2005 8:07:35 PM PDT by GoLightly
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