Posted on 02/19/2020 5:28:11 AM PST by Kaslin
I happened to listen the other day to then-Sen. John F. Kennedy's opening remarks in his debate with then-Vice President Richard Nixon during the 1960 presidential election cycle.
Kennedy, the Democratic Party candidate, recalled that Abraham Lincoln, in the 1860 presidential election cycle, said the great question facing the nation was whether it could exist "half-slave and half-free."
In the 1960 election, said Kennedy, the issue was "whether the world will exist half-slave or half-free."
"Whether it will move in the direction of freedom, in the direction of the road that we are taking ... will depend in great measure upon what we do here in the United States," he said.
How things change. The Democrats' candidate in 1960 headlined freedom as the issue defining his campaign. Now, 60 years later, Democrats are moving down the road to nominating a socialist, pushing freedom as an American ideal out of the picture.
It is astounding that many Democrats are ready to cast aside the core value that has defined our nation, for which so many have fought and died.
One major part of the story is our youth.
Support for the two parties is divided by age.
In 2016, a majority of those under age 44 voted for Hillary Clinton. Fifty-five percent of those ages 18-29 voted for her, compared with 37% for Donald Trump. Trump received the majority of those 45 years and above.
It is our youth that is enamored with socialism and the socialist candidate.
In a recent Pew Research Center poll, 40% of Democrats ages 18-29 expressed preference for Sen. Bernie Sanders to be their party's candidate, compared with 25% of those 30-49, 13% of those 50-64 and 10% of those 65 and over.
In a Gallup poll, 51% of those ages 18-f39 expressed a positive view of capitalism and 49% a positive view of socialism. Among those 40-54, 61% were positive about capitalism compared with 39% for socialism. And those 55 and over, 68% were positive about capitalism compared with 32% for socialism.
What's driving these young Democrats to the far left?
Niall Ferguson of Stanford University's Hoover Institution and consultant Eyck Freymann suggest, in an article in The Atlantic, "The Coming Generation War," that the capitalist America that worked for earlier generations is not working for these youth.
"They face stagnant real wages" and carry a large burden of student debt, they say.
It's a generation "to whom little has been given, and of whom much is expected," they continue.
I think it is just the opposite. It is a generation to whom much has been given and from whom little is expected.
When Kennedy ran for president in 1960, America's youth still faced a military draft. In 1960, 72% of Americans over 18 were married, compared with 50% today.
According to Pew, 78% of those ages 18-29 say it is acceptable for an unmarried couple to live together, even if they don't intend to get married.
Over the decade 2009-2019, there was a drop of 16% among those ages 23-39 who identify as Christian and an increase of 13% of those self-identifying as religiously unaffiliated.
And that age group doesn't vote. Since 1980, the percentage of eligible voters in their 20s who voted in presidential elections has averaged between 40% and 50%, compared with 65% to 75% of those over 45, Ferguson and Freymann report.
We have a generation of American youth today who have grown up in a culture of legal abortion and same-sex marriage, with little sense of responsibility to God and country.
Freedom is about personal responsibility, and these youth do not seem to be interested. They appear, rather, to be very open to the idea of turning their lives over to be run by a 78-year-old socialist.
Such values among our youth do not bode well for our future.
Meanwhile, the best near-term solution is keeping the nation under Republican control.
Good comment.
Although I was never a Lefty, my political ideas in 1980 were not well formed. I was young. Everyone around me just “knew” that Reagan was an idiot and would be a disaster. But Reagan was a great president who really turned the country around. He shaped my political views. I think President Trump is well positioned to show the Millennials that the truth is other than they currently believe. They will grow up. Most people do.
I completely agree with your assessment about education, but the larger issue stems from the vast wealth and blessings of our country. Because of our wealth we have increasing turned away from active involvement in our children's lives and decided we do not want to be bothered with raising children. If people even have children, they are immediately placed in daycare, and then thrown in school to have teachers raise their children.
Our wealth and blessing has left most with way, way too much time and resources to simply be selfish and focus completely on one's self.
This generation is pretty much anchorless. They have no idea what to believe. They have been indoctrinated by the leftist schools to hate everything Judeo-Christian. This void, borne from sloth and selfishness is just now beginning to bear rotten fruit. I don't think this gets better in the foreseeable future.
Indoctrination is one aspect of the problem. I think a much bigger factor that doesn’t get much attention is that these young American socialists have lived overly managed lives since birth. They are like house cats that have never seen the outdoors except in a traveling cage.
With Rights, Liberty and Freedom comes Responsibility and Accountability.
I can see why some people are put off by that.
Yep.
My prognostication actually terrifies me in that I’m at the tail end of the Baby Boom. Most likely I will end up having to live through some of the dystopian collectivist nightmare.
And one must keep in mind that “free” is a four letter word that begins with “F”.
Thank absentee parents and the education system. The only way America survives as we knew it is by conservatives getting teaching jobs and jobs in the media as the radical left did many years ago. The Left excecuted a plan to take the schools and media and it worked stunningly well.
In 1964 I learned that “the only good Commie is a dead Commie”. That is as true today as it was, then.
Good luck with that, they also support killing off all the old people.
“The commies want your stuff.”
Commies especially want your guns. Guns are what empower you to hold onto the rest of your stuff.
The difference is, my FRiend, that prior generations of us who perhaps dabbled in Leftism in our early 20’s learned better and moved rightward in our views as we got older. In my case getting married at 26 and having a child right away dragged me a long, long way in that direction.
The problem with the current crop is that they don’t seem to be making ANY progress in this direction. A lot of ‘em are now in their mid-30’s and still enamored of socialism. Frankly I don’t think there’s any way of bringing them back.
I see MANY "kids" who are centrists or lean left but can be saved. All you need to do is talk to them. The reality is that many of the lot on TV who yell and scream at the Orange Man are, almost by definition, in NYC or LA (because that's where the media are)...those kids, you just can't reach. They've been seduced by The Dark Side. But there are OODLES in PA, in WI, in MI (and even in Gotham and Hollywood) yearning to learn the ways of the Jedi.
Bashing Millenials from the safety of a keyboard is like telling your kid that he will never amount to anything. Negative reinforcement doesn't always work, and it MAY give us President Clinton if Dem fraud hands Bloomberg the White House and her the Veep, and he accidentally kills himself in his sleep with two head shots.
If he can do so by executive order, I truly hope that President Trump strongly eases the rules for American citizens who wish to surrender their US citizenship and become foreign citizens.
It should be as easy as getting paperwork from the IRS and state tax bureau that you have no outstanding tax debt or liens, even if a refundable deposit has to be made based on known income. And a background check to insure you have no outstanding warrants.
The two reasons for this are first, so unhappy Democrats can do what they promise, to leave the US if President Trump is reelected. Second is the wealth seizure threat of Bernie Sanders and his ilk to steal their money before they can leave.
Assuming President Trump is reelected, as well as a Republican House and Senate, this process should be quickly formalized. Mostly so that our wealthy and middle class citizens can flee if the Democrats appear to be regaining power.
I never hear a Democrat use the word “freedom”. They have no concept of it.
Free stuff comes at a cost.
I understand your sentiment. It sure seems that way at times.
But I see lots of Normal Millenials that work, have families, and pressures that we had in our 30s and 20s. I also see the absurd kids yelling at the sky on TV; as I wrote elsewhere, statistically they are drawn from Manhattan and LA. That means those snowflakes are hardly representative of America, but that's what the MSM wants you to believe...they don't put Candace Owens on the 6:30pm news for a reason.
There is a great Pew study which breaks down views of Millenials by political affiliation. What you find is that the really lost souls are (surprise) hard-left Dems as well. To be sure, kids have more "tolerant" social views - even conservative kids don't have the same sentiments towards gays as do their grandparents. I also find Millenials have more friends from all sorts of races and nationalities than most of us had as kids, and I think that tends to soften those views. etc.
But, when it comes to guns, taxes, and illegals, these kids are in lockstep with Deplorable America. I see many of them - and they put a smile on my face.
I'll find the study sometimes soon, and report back. There IS cause for hope, but they need support and tools to deal with their numb nuts peers. Thanks for listening.
Appreciate your comments.
I’m not so sure. If you look at the Trump rallies there are a LOT of young folks participating. More so in my mind then in the past.
I’ve hired and worked with about 30 youngsters straight out of college - while they aren’t all conservative, they certainly have conservatives in the majority. Granted that may be my hiring bias, but it also includes the interviews I’ve conducted (over 10 X that number).
A lot of my daughters’ friends are passive aggressively pushing back at all the ridiculous “woke” culture stuff. One of my daughters is a junior at an art school where the majority is of a progressive persuasion, but there is also an ex-seal classmate and a number of others who roll their eyes when one of the ‘woke’ in the class go off on one of their tangents.
Wasn’t it Churchill who said that if your young and not liberal then you have no heart, and if your old and not conservative then you have no brain … or some such?
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