The Generation X's and Y's in the Neocon Political Incubator

[YOY]

Rove aide Sara Taylor is my age:32. Doesn't look much smarter than me and earns a hell of a lot more...jesus, I've got a better education hands down and plenty of real world experience to boot, but facts are facts: she is a generation X neocon. I know there are some evil bastards in my generation as well as the greedy old bastards pulling numbers in the Admin. It had to be expected. Still it comes as a refreshing blow and in some ways a subtle reminder of just how history runs in cycles.

Remember, Dick Cheney got 8 deferments from Vietnam and he & Rummy was in with the Nixon administration. I can't help but wonder just how many more there are. Folks my age or a little younger or older that are going to take up the reins of the neocon torch 20 to 30 years down the line. In it for the pseudo-patriotism and profiteering. Never served and never will.

Makes you wonder.

Makes me want to keep tabs on them lest they try their stale old shit again.

[pocoloco]

1. They will be back,

that is if we ever get them to leave.

[MADem]

2. You know how to get those little bastards to come to Jeeeeebus?

You reinstitute the draft. With no deferments. To include MEDICAL. Hell, even a flat-footed fuck can flip a burger or type and file.

All of a sudden, those fat, soft, snarky, looking-down-their-noses "I got mine" baaastids will become long-haired-hippie-hell-no-we-won't-go activists. Into the streets! Fists in the air!!! Power to the people!

You're right, though. There's a lot of 'em. More than there were "back in the day." Anyone in their forties through sixties may have a bitch of a time once they hit eighty and up, if those clowns get ahold of the reins.

[YOY]

5. There's a problem with that:

They would get deferments for other reasons (other than medical) and young folks like me trying to make enough bread to feed our budding families get drafted.

[MADem]

6. That's why you need Democrats to write the legislation. With no input from the other team.

Charlie Rangel is a "no deferments" kinda guy--though I do think he wasn't ready to go so far as to waive medical requirements.

No school deferments, no "Oooooh, I knocked up my girrrrrlfriend" deferments. It's an "Off you go, ya baaaastid" attitude.

During WW2, it was shameful to be seen around town without an induction date, if you were young and seemingly hale and hearty. Perforated eardrum, flat feet, heart murmur...badges of SHAME. You were considered a bum, and women would shun ya!

[juno jones]

8. Sorry but IMHO...

The ones with money would leave the country rather than serve...as would I, even though I don't really have any money..because my pacifistic, progressive liberal son is going to turn 18 someday soon and I will never allow him to be drafted for a illegitimate war of choice just to prove someone's point. I am relatively young, but as a child I hated Vietnam and the draft and I swore if I ever had sons, I would do everything in my power to keep them from that fate. I also find it sickening that I made a considered decision to bring my son into this world, but if some asswipe wanted cannonfodder, I would have to give him up...No, it does not work that way anymore. If he chooses to enlist-that's his perogative, but otherwise, I'm a little disappointed people here would offer up other people's sons and daughters to this monsterous ravening machine no matter the circumstances.

on edit: my family has served this country all the way back to the revolution. None were drafted, all volunteered. But we aren't fighting fascism 'over there' anymore, are we? We're fighting it here, and drafting the children of liberals is not going to make it any better...

[YOY]

10. and "No deferments" means that my Peace Corps service doesn't mean squat

Despite the fact that I've taken an oath that is contradictory to military service.

I gotta say that I'm with you regardless of certain dems who think they're making some sort of good point.

[MADem]

11. Well, that's a choice to make, isn't it?

Right now, there IS a draft. It's a draft of poor kids from towns with no jobs, no industry, no futures. It's a draft of kids whose parents can't afford college. It's a draft of kids whose parents don't have a basement for them to hang out in after they finish their schooling and cannot find work. It's a draft of the least of our brethren, economically speaking. And anyone who says otherwise is kidding themselves.

I'm not talking about the officer corps. I'm talking about the groundpounding E1-E3 inductees.

I come from a military family myself. I'm retired. Even in "good times" (when the Services were quite picky in terms of quality) I had a load of (smart, motivated, well behaved) kids from rather desperate circumstances in the lower ranks. More than a few didn't have a home to go home to on leave.

And if people don't want to serve, fine, there are options, and that includes leaving the country, going the Chris Shays chickenhawk route, or being a sincere CO. But a draft sure would level the playing field.

And the draft is what ended Vietnam, at the end of the day. Hopefully we won't take so long to figure out how fucked up the entire construct of 'adventurism abroad' is if we do try it again. As a nation, we don't do well at that sort of thing. The Department of Defense should go back to its designated role--DEFENSE...and stop trying to be a Department of Lunatic Wars.

[DCKit]

3. Nearly all the "old guard" were in the Nixon administration

Wolfowitz, for example, and Sr. was at the CIA at the time.

They've had nearly 40 years of planning to pull this off.

[YOY]

4. Gotta start tracking these ones my age now

or they will do the same.

Not stalk or investigate, just ID & keep an eye on them.

[DBoon]

7. It's not stalking if their activities are public

WHat you do in the public sphere is entirely legitimate to track

And who cares about marital problems or other private matters?

[YOY]

9. Yep, but who you work for and people you piss off on the way up

and the young repugs I've worked with don't give a shit about anyone but "number one". Knowing these things before they try to take the reins (provided they don't steal the ballot box again) is crucial.

[whistle]

12. Well, are you totally corrupt, able to lie with a straight face

....twist heads off squirrels, put stamps on them and mail them back to yourself? If not, then you are definitely not Karl Rove aide material! :sarcasm: