To All The Baby Boomers Lecturing Us About Supporting Bernie Sanders

[dogknob]

Thanks for the concern trolling. It’s nice to know you care.

What we really wish, however, is that you’d cared a little more when it mattered.

We wish you would have cared more in 1979, when a relatively decent man was our President, and he lost an election to a criminal who would go on to set in motion a revolution for the rich in this country.

You were too worried about the price of gasoline to keep him in office.

Thanks.

Thank you also for failing to elect Mondale 4 years later when we really could have used the break as a nation from Reagan’s anti-poor, anti-justice, oligarchy-strengthening policies. Thanks a lot for that.

(snip)

http://www.robcotton.com/boomers/

[mmonk]

1. I'm a baby boomer.

[FreakinDJ]

76. Cocaine and the "Me Me Me Decade"

Can't say it was a really good time to be an American

As some one who refuses to wear one of these




I had an some what "Outsiders view of the country at the time

[TheBlackAdder]

82. See my reply #78 below. This must be the new meme du jour, now blaming the Baby Boomers too! nt

[Wilms]

2. It's the Yuppies, more specifically.

[Binkie The Clown]

3. I'm a boomer and I support Sanders.

If I lectured anyone, it would be the Hillary supporters. They should know better.

[Hoyt]

4. Every generation needs to go through a George McGovern style landslide.

[RiverLover]

11. Even my 50-yr-old Bush loving Obama hating sister loves Bernie. He's reaching people.

She says he's the only real person running & she's sick of the phonies & he won't be working for Big Business.

I'm stumped too. Her support makes ZERO sense. But its an emotional thing for some people.

I don't argue, I'm just loving that for the first time ever, we agree on something involving politics!

(The McGovern argument just proves you're missing/not seeing the mood of the country. People that get their news mainly from msm aren't seeing what's really going on out here.)

[Hoyt]

15. Lots of right wing dads and moms supported McGovern too. Glad you and your sister agree though.

[daleanime]

31. So you want to nominate Hillary....

to teach the young a lesson? That's kind of silly.

[Art_from_Ark]

32. Enough of this George McGovern landslide bullshit

Really, this isn't 1972, there's no longer a Vietnam War, and Nixon's been dead for more than 20 years.

[Hoyt]

45. Very similar. But, you can add Mondale, Carter (2nd), Dukakis if you like to your fantasy bull.

[Art_from_Ark]

48. Do you know anything AT ALL about those elections?

I get the feeling the only thing you know about them is that the Democrat lost, without knowing anything else.

In three of those elections, the Democrat was running against an incumbent.

In the other election (1980), Carter was doomed by the Iranian hostage situation, especially after the failed rescue attempt and the pictures of Iranian soldiers dancing around the ruins of American helicopters out in the Iranian desert.

McGovern was running against one of the most crooked American presidents of all time, a man whose henchmen burglarized Democratic National Headquarters a few months before the election, for crying out loud. And he and Kissinger co-opted McGovern's main issue by announcing an end to American involvement in the Vietnam War just a couple of weeks before the election.

In 1984, Reagan was riding high because the country had mostly recovered from his 1982-83 recession. You may also remember that that year, Mondale's running mate was a woman, so I don't think you are doing yourself any favors by bringing that election up.

And in 1988, Dukakis had even less appeal than George H. W. Bush. He was a decent man, but he couldn't connect with voters. And he didn't know how to fight back against the opposition's attacks, like those disgusting Willie Horton ads.

Really, you need to educate yourself about these elections, and realize that we are now a generation removed from even the most recent one you cited.

[Hoyt]

54. Your spin was interesting. I see no reason to believe Sanders will fare better.

His message, like those landslide losers, is appealing except when you face the reality of how he will do in the general election.

[Art_from_Ark]

55. Spin?

Geez, what a ridiculous remark. Obviously you weren't there.

And this is what doomed Carter's presidency:

[kerry-is-my-prez]

56. That's what I worry about. Love Bernie but worry he will be another McGovern.

[Art_from_Ark]

70. For crying out loud, he won't be another McGovern!

There's no Vietnam War! There's no Richard Nixon! There are no White House plumbers breaking into Democratic headquarters!

Geez!

[Warren DeMontague]

63. dont forget Hoover.

There were exactly as many years between 1928 and 1972, as between 1972 and now.

Not that im trying to make anyone feel old, or nothin'.

[Warren DeMontague]

62. Every generation needs a barack obama election to turn conventional wisdom on its ass.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

5. I'm a Boomer who voted for Carter and Mondale.

And I support Bernie Sanders. So, don't lecture me about what I should have done or should be doing now.

[farleftlib]

13. +1

Sanders and his supporters get lectured quite a bit for things beyond our control.

[hifiguy]

6. When I was a senior in college, after the election

and for the rest of the year, I sported a "Don't blame me, I voted for Mondale!" button. There were more than a few on campus at the U of MN.

This boomer gets you.

[Art_from_Ark]

34. I had one of those stickers on my car

around the time of the Iran-contra hearings.

[CentralMass]

7. You can blameTed Kennedy for taking his primary fight

To the convention when he ran against jimmy Carter in the prImary.

[John Poet]

28. Carter lead Reagan in the polls shortly after the 1980 convention,

so he made his own campaign loss, and it didn't matter what Ted had done. He had a clear chance to beat Reagan, but he lost in a landslide.

Carter lost the election during the last weekend of the GE campaign, when he "one-time-too-many" played the card "we're about to get the hostages released" again.

He'd gotten into the habit of playing that card almost every election morning during the primary campaign, and on the last weekend of the general election campaign, it was very obvious to me that he was doing it one more time.

This time nobody bought it, and there seemed a clear relation to those statements and his plummet in the polls on that last weekend.

He shouldn't have brought up the hostages again. It was poor salesmanship.

[Fumesucker]

41. The Reagan campaign was colluding with the Iranians to delay the hostage release

If that's not treason I'm not sure what is.

Interesting that you lay the entire blame on Carter.

[John Poet]

43. I'm well aware of the Reagan-Bush treason, but

Carter was responsible for his own statements during the campaign. He repeatedly asserted that 'progress was being made' on the hostage front, particularly on the mornings of Democratic primaries. When he tried it that last general election weekend, it was the "boy who cried wolf" too many times. I really believe he caused his own landslide that weekend.

Sure, getting them released might have made all the difference, but the actions of the Reagan-Bush campaign aren't the fault of Ted Kennedy either.

[Fumesucker]

44. How was Carter to know he was being sandbagged at the top by his own countrymen?

All that didn't come out till considerably later and of course by then the narrative was already set.

[John Poet]

49. That fact that he was sandbagged has little to do with my point.

When he claimed that 'progress is being made' in time for the morning news on the day of the Wisconsin primary, he wasn't yet being sandbagged... By all acocunts that didn't begin until at least August 1980 or perhaps later. That was just one instance of this, perhaps the most memorable during the primaries, since Kennedy had just won New York and Connecticut the previous week, and Carter was desperate to stop him.

It was his own choice to emphasize again that 'progress was being made' on the last weekend of the general election campaign.... having said it so many times before, and for so many months. Clearly he was wrong about that, and whether he knew it or not, the voters seemed to know it.

[Justice]

8. How do you know who people "lecturing" you voted for in 1979?

[jeff47]

17. Probability. Half of Boomers voted for Reagan. (nt)

[Empowerer]

36. Then maybe the OP should go find a Republican forum in which to post this

[jeff47]

38. And maybe Clinton surrogates should stop calling Millennials idiots. (nt)

[Empowerer]

39. I have never called a millennial-or anyone else-an idiot, so take you instructions somewhere else

[jeff47]

40. What, specifically, made you think that was directed at you?

We've got Clinton surrogates saying millennial women are going to hell.

We've got Clinton surrogates saying millennial women are just looking for boys.

We've got a massive number of Clinton surrogates lecturing millennials on what is "realistic" and how they just don't have enough "experience".

If you're not doing those, then this thread isn't about you.

[1monster]

85. The Boomers have ALWAYS been a divided generation.

Always. Half went left and half went right and some tried to straddle the middle.


This country has been divided against itself since its inception. The issue of slavery was the first major split. This country still hasn't recovered from that one.

We split majorly on Vietnam, so much so that I remember a very cynical meme making the rounds after the Kent State disaster referring to the National Guard and the protesters as "One group of draft dodgers verses another."

This country is divided and probably always will be. No one generation holds the blame. All generations hold the responsibility. There will always be major differences and there will always be those who will endevor to enhance those differences to exploit all of us to gain power.

Instead of trying to lay blame, get out there and do whatever you can do to make things better so that when a future generation blames yours for not changing things enough ...

[jeff47]

87. We are working on making things better. We are being told we can never succeed and to stop trying.

Most of the people demanding we stop "asking for ponies" are Boomers.

Each generation is responsible for what they created. Those of us not yet born or in childhood did not have the power to shape the world. This does not mean each member of our generations gets what we wanted - I'm not exactly thrilled that the older half of my generation is the core of the tea party.

And there are plenty of structural barriers we ran into - my generation's small size meant the Democratic party did not need our votes, and so did not seek to implement the policies we demanded. That lead to massive apathy among my generation, which further weakened our political power.

But my generation's failures towards our children are my generation's failures. I can not pretend they do not exist. Nor does "we meant well" make those failures disappear.

We failed to block welfare reform. We failed to block deregulation of banks. We failed to do something about climate change. We failed to push back against Reaganism and make government a force for good. We failed to protect jobs, in favor of cheap crap from overseas and "free trade".

Now a new generation has come of age. Hopefully with their help we can address the failures of my generation. And hopefully with their help, and my generation's help, we can address the failures of the Boomer generation.

But that last one is going to require people stop berating the new generation about "ponies", and start helping to fix what we have wrought.

[1monster]

88. You seem to believe that each generation starts with a clean sheet of paper

and begins writing history anew... It doesn't quite happen that way. I remember my mother complaing that her generation was being blamed for the state of the world when they felt that they had not been able to do anything for better or worse because others held all the power.

Every generation has their leaders, some good, some bad. Boomers had some great ones... several of whom were murdered for political purposes, some who were marginalized by different means.

We had Watergate.

If we lost direction and waundered aimlessly for a while or had some seduced by the dark side, how could anyone wonder why.

I don't think anyone who didn't experience the years between 1963 and 1975 can understand the damage the events of those years did to young people coming of age. I see some boomers post that Bernie is the first politician to give them hope and excitement since 1968. (I feel that way too.) And they also express the fear that comes from believing in the possibility of the dream again.

I wad a political junky as a child; my way of coping was to completely shut down politically until I registered to vote against Ronald Reagan. . .

L

[jeff47]

89. You seem to have not actually read my post.

Since the entire point was about Millennials fixing the failures of previous generations. How do those failures exist if each generation got a clean sheet of paper?

I remember my mother complaing that her generation was being blamed for the state of the world when they felt that they had not been able to do anything for better or worse because others held all the power.

It's a democracy. Her generation is to blame. Even if she specifically did not want what her generation created.

Just like my generation is to blame for our failures. Even if I did not want the policies that were passed.

And it doesn't matter what hardship you want to claim, or powerlessness you want to claim. Your generation had the power, and failed to do what was right on some things. My generation had the power, and failed to do what was right on some things.

No matter how badly we individually wanted something else, our generations as a whole created these failures.

[1monster]

91. No. All people of all ages from the beginning of two or more people banding

together are responsible, not one generation or anothere. Everyone is responsible.

[jwirr]

9. We called them raygun democrats back then. It referred to

former Democrats who were voting R.

[enough]

10. What? All the boomers I know, including myself (slightly pre-boomer),

are Bernie voters. I find this inter-generational blaming pretty dumb.

[jeff47]

18. Yes it is. Unfortunately, it appears to be the Clinton campaign's primary young voter outreach.

And a broad-brush attack like they have been making will usually meet a broad-brush response.

[Big Blue Marble]

12. Wow, just wow.

Let me get this right; you are blaming Reagan on the Baby Boomers. Do you study history? Many Baby Boomers were too young to vote in 1980. Others were still quite young. I think if you would
study the demographics of that election, you would find that yes, sadly there were many
Reagan Democrats, but they were of an older generation. They came from the Rust Belt
and had seen their economic well-being undermined by the overwhelming inflation and
rising interest rates of last decade. It was a rough time and they were ripe for being manipulated.

Your simplistic anger shows little knowledge of the times or of politics in general.

[HereSince1628]

14. As I remember it, boomers didn't think the Greatest Generation was so great, so

I'm not going to take that personal.

If you add up what's in Boomers' hearts you'll find legions of a ghost army, who remember like yesterday marches for civil rights and women's, marches and teach-ins on the 1st Earth Day, and years of marches, and frankly street and campus battles protesting the war in Vietnam.

The future belongs to the young, most of us would actually like to help them make it happen.

[jeff47]

16. Not so much.

Let me get this right; you are blaming Reagan on the Baby Boomers. Do you study history? Many Baby Boomers were too young to vote in 1980.

The baby boom years ended in 1964. That means all but the last two years were able to vote in 1980.

I think if you would study the demographics of that election, you would find that yes, sadly there were many
Reagan Democrats, but they were of an older generation.

Half of Baby Boomers voted for Reagan: http://ropercenter.cornell.edu/polls/us-elections/how-groups-voted/how-groups-voted-1980/

[bravenak]

30. Yep

[RiverLover]

20. Um, the OP is linked. Its written by a Millennial. You know, like the ones being lectured to by the

Clinton Camp, publicly?

[marions ghost]

46. Thank you

blame Reagan on the WW2 generation please.

[femmedem]

19. I'm a Sanders-supporting Boomer. And a woman.

And I loved Carter as much then as I do now--which is a lot.

We've got plenty of other reasons to fight on DU these days without dragging age into it.

[melman]

21. I'm a Gen-Xer not a Boomer

and I support Sanders, but this guy and his harangue suck.

[Tanuki]

64. So does his "poetry"

http://www.robcotton.com/category/poiesis/

[1monster]

86. OMG!! That is supposed to be poetry?!

That isn't even bad poetry. But whatever it is, it's majorly, big time, really bad.

[Carolina]

22. I'm a boomer

and ALWAYS voted for the Democratic ticket.

I could not believe that daft actor Reagan won in a landslide in 1980. I still can't fathom how his legacy is regaled by repukes.

We lost our way as a nation because of racism, sexism and corporatism. When blacks and women started making strides in the 1960s and 1970s, the backlash began. Then the corporations infiltrated EVERYTHING: education, healthcare, politics. I am cynical enough to think that racism and sexism will always be with us to some extent, but the corporate money and greed that corrodes everything must end. That's why I support Bernie.

Anyway, there has been steady decline since the 1980s. I feel for millenials, and being in academia now, I am inspired by them, especially their idealism in the face of what I see as a country swiftly going to hell in a hand-basket. My older sister and I talk daily and often thank our lucky stars that we were born when we were born, but we worry about the grandchildren's world... and the fact that we won't be able to leave them as secure as our parents left us.

[Le Taz Hot]

23. More divide-and-conquer bullshit.

Round 436.

And I haven't looked yet but my guess is a hit-and-run.

Just checked. Yep.

[Le Taz Hot]

68. Wow! Projection much?

Spend about 45 more years in politics and you'll find you can see through pretty much any political dog whistles. You see, darlin'? Ain't none of it original. It's been done. Thousands and thousands of times before.

[rug]

24. Rob just doesn't like long-haired hippies.

[hobbit709]

25. THIS 65 year old boomer supports Sanders.

But then I'm neither a 1%er nor one of their minions.

[DonCoquixote]

26. read the title

"To All The Baby Boomers Lecturing Us About Supporting Bernie Sanders"

Obviously, this does not mean the Boomer Sanders supporters

[dogknob]

50. Word

...Or in this case "words." Making it all the way to the end of the sentence tends to enhance comprehension.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

29. I'm a pre-boomer lecturing to vote for Sanders.

Always vote for principle, though you may vote alone, and you may cherish the sweetest reflection that your vote is never lost. John Quincy Adams

Note: I voted for Carter, Mondale, and McGovern.

[Empowerer]

33. I'm a baby boomer who voted for Jimmy Carter and Walter Mondale and the price of gasoline had

nothing to do with my vote.

Who are you talking to?

[dflprincess]

35. I'm a Boomer and a feminst

I support Bernie.

And I know a lot of my fellow Boomers who are doing the same. In fact one of them, who has been active in the party since 1968, told me she hasn't been this excited since she worked on Eugene McCarthy's campaign.

[southerncrone]

37. Many of us Baby Boomers opposed Raygun & all the Repuke policies.

The Raygun election was the first coup in our modern era; the second came in 2000. Hopefully, more will come to light on both of these as time goes on.

Read: "October Surprise".

the yuppies & Gen X hold much of the responsibility for keeping these R in power IMHO. It was the worship of money that landed us here.

[marble falls]

74. Bingo! Winning is everything and at any cost.

[Liberal Jesus Freak]

42. As a "boomer"...

let me just say that I recall when Reagan's approval rating was 85%. I told everyone I knew that I was a proud member of the 15%. I wasn't the only one.

[marions ghost]

47. Stop

the generational divisiveness. It's bullshit.

Liberal Boomers + Liberal Gen X + Millennials = Bernie in the White House

[southerncrone]

92. +1!!

[marions ghost]

93. thx

Sewing generational divisiveness = an old ploy in pre-election propaganda.

[RiverLover]

51. I'm just stunned by the responses. Did we all miss the Hillary Camp talking down to young

people for supporting Bernie?

And this is an article, not something written by a DUer. Its written by a Millennial in defense of the generational divide.

Its talking about Clinton supporter Boomers talking down to them. Not Bernie's boomer supporters.

[valerief]

52. I never voted for Reagan so b**w me. You're on Forever Ignored. nt

[dogknob]

53. Thank you very much. I appreciate you looking out for me. n/t

[kerry-is-my-prez]

57. What a silly thread. I'm a baby boomer and also voted for mondale (too young to vote for McGovern..

I support Bernie and Hillary - whoever the nominee ends up being. I guess I'm half guilty because I also support Hillary.

[cali]

60. Ugh. I hear enough of this from my son

[cali]

67. Lol. He would laugh in your face at your claim that I don't listen

to what he says. Boy, did you spout off in ignorance on the wrong mother and son. We are remarkably close politically and spend hours immersed in discussion. We have enormous respect for each other. He's cleverer than I am. He'd fillet you neatly.

[Le Taz Hot]

69. Holy fuck!

To cali? ROFLMO! Buy bye, my little thin-skinned one, you're cluttering up my screen.

[cali]

75. What did the troll say?

[Le Taz Hot]

77. I was responding to his first response to you that had to do

with your mothering skills. I love it when they come onto DU all Rambo-like that, don't you? And all it took was a couple of old broads. What was it? Six posts? LOL!

[Waiting For Everyman]

61. The notion that someone who wasn't there

knows more about our time than we do... is indicative of the kind of thinking produced by a person who couldn't handle one day of our lives.

[Vinca]

73. Here's a hot flash. Back then we only had one vote, too.

If a younger-than-boomer is going to carp at anyone, they might start with their own. Where are they in the midterm elections when it really counts? Without the House and Senate, a President is left high and dry. A few things can be enacted using Executive Order, but not many of the things that really count.

[TheBlackAdder]

78. Not sufficient to call Millennials lazy moochers? The new meme is Boomers responsible for Reagan?

.


I'm one of the end-Boomers, and the older generation was pissed at the US vision, not mentioning 21% car loans.


I remember much older folks complaining that Carter was not "Presidential Looking" everywhere I would go.



Also, the rise of Phyllis Schlafly's anti-ERA movement, STOP ERA, was further bolster by the inclusion of the LGBT movent into the National Women's Conference in 1977. While it was needed to occur, these topics should have been handled one at a time. Instead, Schlafly hosted a conservative meeting in Houston, TX, at the same time as the NWC's inclusive conference. News media covered it by panning pack and forth between meetings and the camera showed powerful and strong women, then 'moral christian' women, then flamboyant cross-dressers then 'moral christians', then more people in drag, then moral christians christians... it was a powerful optic that set the moral majority in place and prevented the ERA from getting ratified. That convention was the turning point of the ERA, and what ushered in Reagan and the Moral Majority!


History sucks, but that's what brought in Reagan, by spawning that Christian juggernaut called the Moral Majority. Once their infrastructure was in place, taking several years, they've screwed with politics for a decade. The news clip of the comparison is out in the Texas Archives somewhere. I can't find it on youtube, doing a quick scan, but it shows the stark contrast.



https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/pwngq

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equal_Rights_Amendment


.

[Blue_Tires]

79. Who in the FUCK is Rob Cotton

and why should I give a rat's ass about what he thinks?

[Onlooker]

80. First let's see what your generation does that compares to my generation ...

...

which brought about civil rights
which brought about women's rights
which brought about gay rights
which ended the Vietnam War

And Carter was not a relatively decent man, though he was better than Reagan. Carter was pro-nuke, anti-union (destroyed the Teamsters), had no urban policy, and was not progressive on social policy. One of the reasons Carter lost was that the left did not support him.

But, I do hope your generation manages to achieve results like liberals of the past have. My guess is you're talking about your own parents, so you should probably address them, and certainly not the baby boomers in this forum, many of whom were involved in various struggles.

[fredamae]

81. Switch it around?

Replace "To all the Baby Boomers Lecturing Us About Supporting Bernie Sanders" with
"To all the Millenials Lecturing Us (boomers) About Failing To Perfect The World Before You Were Born"
And/Or
"To all the Millenials Lecturing Us About Supporting Bernie Sanders"

This is happening at Both ends
Why not simply pool our support and Get Bernie elected instead of arguing about this stuff?

Fwiw-I am a Boomer. I had ONE Vote. I Voted For Jimmy Carter. Did it Ever occur to you that there Might have been election shenanigans then too? Carter was Way ahead-per Gallup by 8 Points and then Lost just days later -to Reagan by 10- points. Reaganism was hard to survive. It was later even Harder to survive the Democrats transitioning to Reaganomics.
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2012/09/27/election_1980-style_115600.html

[Faux pas]

83. Old boomer here

I've voted D my entire life. I'm proud and happy that the younger one's here are critical thinkers and are all for Bernie!

[dogknob]

84. Thanks. n/t

[avaistheone1]

90. Another female baby boomer who supports Bernie Sanders!