Backbeat - Democratic Underground

H2O Man

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Fri Apr-11-08 04:08 PM
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Backbeat

I watched the movie "Backbeat" this morning. It was a story about the group that would become The Beatles, during their time in Hamburg, Germany. It was interesting to me, in part because I had been reading an internet account of a person who claimed to have had a verbal confrontation with a young person going door-to-door as a volunteer. I have no idea if anything resembling the situation described took place; my interest in reading it was in the manner that some people belittle the younger generation that is becoming such an important part of the 2008 democratic primary contest.

"Backbeat" tells the story of how John, Paul, and George, along with Pete Best, Stuart Sutcliff, and Astrid Kichener. They are the same age, in the film, as the young folks who will be voting in their first presidential election in November. They are the same age as the young folks that the republican machine is willing to sacrifice to the orgy of violence, death and destruction in Iraq – and that candidate John McCain is sounding increasingly willing to involve in a conflict with Iran.

The kids named John, Paul and George who were in Hamburg in 1960 weren’t the same adults that were making music in 1980. They were still making music that translated their perceptions of life experiences into song, but they had changed. That is going to be the same for the 20-year olds out campaigning today. When they are 40, their message will be different. The truth is that if anyone is the same at 40 as they were at 20, they have wasted two decades of life.

It is easy to belittle people, young or old, who have the energy to get out and work on a campaign. It really takes no talent at all to downplay the importance of what they are doing, and to then exaggerate the old "I told him…" bit. But the real question isn’t "what happened?" – but "why?" Why should any democrat insult a young person, no matter which democratic candidate they are campaigning for?

I encounter a lot of young people, in part because my own children’s friends feel welcome to hang out at our house, and in part because I still do presentations to classrooms and student groups. I meet young people who have a wide range of political and social beliefs. Most of them are either democrats, or to the left on the political/social spectrum.

More, they tend to support Barack Obama. Last weekend, I asked a group why? They pointed out the documentaries on Martin Luther King, Jr., which were on, and said that my generation had had him and the Kennedy brothers. They said that although Obama isn’t the same as those three, that his being had been molded in part by them. He is the voice that is expressing what they think and feel.

I asked for their opinion on why there is the amount of acrimony between the Clinton supporters and the Obama camp? My younger son – who agrees with his father that all life imitates boxing – said that it is similar to the hostilities between the Oscar de la Hoya and Pretty Boy Floyd Mayweather fans. He noted that Obama has near perfect political balance, much as Floyd has uncanny balance in the ring: because of this, no matter what the opponent throws at him, it is either blocked or simply misses, and then he lands hard counter punches to the off-balance and exposed opponent.

The young people who will be voting in their first presidential election have a different set of experiences that mold their outlook. As they are 18 to 22 now, we should appreciate that their views are the result of things including 9/11; the "forgotten" war in Afghanistan; the Bush administration’s lies that led to the war in Iraq; the failure of Congress to honor their oath to protect the Constitution; and an economy that makes a college education and a job take on different meanings than they did a generation or two ago.

I’ve had the pleasure of talking to young adults who support Senator Barack Obama, as well as some who voted for Senator Clinton in the NYS primary. I’ve also enjoyed talking to others who favored either a different candidate, or who are convinced that the current two-party system needs to be drastically changed. I am encouraged that they are interested in the system – because the truth is that there are plenty of powerful forces invested in discouraging them. Every time they exercise the democratic muscles found in the Bill of Rights, I know that our country becomes that much stronger.