I don’t believe the Greatest Generation did very well to pass on the values, history, traditions and American Exceptionalism to their kids that they themselves significantly restored from the days of the Revolution.
The Greatest Generation pulled through the depression and volunteered to fight in WWII. They also voted for the politicians that pushed the New Deal, the source of many of our woes today.
I am making sure my kids are proud and knowledgeable Americans. My 10 year old knows the rich history of American values dating back to the Revolutionary war. She understands many of the details that spurred the Revolution and why the citizens were so upset with the King. She understands the good, bad and ugly about the civil war, war of 1812,...WWII, Cold War, Korea, Vietnam War, Gulf I, Afganistan, Gulf II, etc. My 5 year old knows who wrote our national anthem, where, when and why (He’s a work in progress).
I want my kids to love what America is supposed to stand for and where our roots and history has worked for and against us. I want them to be good Christians and successful participants and contributors to a freerer America using the talents God gave them and ethics we have instilled in them.
My hope is that they do not take for granted, as generations before them have, what individual freedom is and what it costs. We the People not voting, not following or participating in the governance of our nation is taking freedom for granted in my opinion. And that is primarily what has been are largest failing as citizens and owners of our government in the past 40 years.
The struggle is against leftist idiocy across every demographic.
I was just reminding my kids about how bad FDR was. All they hear is “how he ended the Depression” (FALSE - he extended it by 7 years) in school. I told them that I thought he was a great president too until I got older. And I could never understand as a kid why my dad hated FDR so much.
I told them I wish my dad had explained things back then. I wonder if he thought that my “innocent” mind shouldn’t be burdened with the adult world. I recall him watching a few minutes of “Hogan’s Heros” everyday as he passed through the den. Then he would shake his head with a chuckle and say “Oh those crazy guys”.
My kids? I pull up photos of the piles of bodies from the camps and videos of the Nazis shooting people in front of open trenches.
I told my kids that perhaps I have been too “real world” with them over the years. I don’t think so though - it isn’t like they mope around the house thinking about it. They do make things difficult for themselves in school sometimes for with their Conservative ideas. (Makes a father proud!).
I think the younger generations are becoming a bit more conservative - but they probably don’t have the numbers to sway things all on their own.