First off this is an expression of my Freedom of speach and only my opinion.
If memory servers me correctly, when I was a teen ager in the mid 80's I first heard the term Gen-X and thought that the term captured our generation perfectly. It was the Big 80's... Reagan was president and the promise of a bright future with big $$$ was in front of us. The song "Land of Confusion" stated "My Generation will set it right!", eliciting a "yeah right" from my young mind. "It was your generation who screwed it all up and it will take my Generation to make it right!" I thought.
Fairness, Equality, and ambition were values repeated to us over and over in public school and, at least for me, it sank in. In my young nievete I believed what I was taught.. That our wonderful melting pot was a land of opportunity for everyone, and that it took hard work and ambition and a little luck to succeed. I believed that racism was fading and personal freedoms and liberties were sacred. I believed that the U.S. was simply Better than everyone else because of our Rights enshrined in our Constitution and that they were unalterable. Predatory evangelists were being shown for the the were and Secularlism was a strong force for good.
.... Ah.. the follies of youth....
Frankly .... We Failed... as a Generation we have failed ourselves, our families and our Country. Yes we fought the first Gulf war, quite brillantly.. we have continued and have made huge progress on the fight for equality for everyone... Yet... we sold our souls... we fell prey to the us verses them tactics that have always worked so successfully throughout history. The Republican party, long a party of big business saw its power lessening with every passing year (yeah, i know its hard to believe now).. But, there was a way out of this tide of populism... History has proven that again and again. Make it Us, Vs Them and make sure only the "right people" are us.. and make sure the majority of the Voting population wanted to be right... Religion provided the perfect vehicle for this mind set and an unholy alliance was created between Evangelicals in particular and Big business, with the Republican party as the framework and a subtle noble and rightous us vs the morally and ethically and physically poor them. Unbridled greed along with the popular "gospel of prosperity" beliefs snowballed nicely into revolts verses the evil's of the democrats and secularlism. The advent of Fox news provided the final pieces to the puzzle, unleashing a mouthpiece of cynicism, controlled news and applied mass psychology that Joseph Goebbels' would have envied. I will give it to Rupert Murdoch. He certainly studied Roman history and understood that whoever controls the Games indirectly controls the masses. In the modern era that translates to football and nascar. By brillantly gaining control of those areas he was given a HUGE audiance to slowly poisen against the evils of secularlism and equality.
And Gen-X... my Generation.. the Generation that was gonna get it right... Bought it Hook, Line, and Sinker.
The fruits of this alliance are being shoved down our throats today. Look around, I dont have to point it all out.. look in the mirror Gen-X and if you can be honest with yourself, you will see it.
You want some examples... Remember the movie "Heathers"? ... To quote Wikipedia "The girls—three of whom are named "Heather"—rule the school through intimidation, contempt, and sex appeal." If Sarah Palin doesnt fit into that description no one does. And yet, its primarily Gen-X'ers who love her. The same generation that is the driving force behind evangelism and the politics of division are the same ones screaming for her. Look in the mirror Gen-X....
Racism wasnt fading, it was simply going underground. Regardless of the tolerance being taught in school, the overt racism we heard at home and the code words we heard in our churches and the subtle messages on TV were more powerful and I believe these things deeply poisened who we are, and twisted a generation that had the chance to truly change the world for good.
I am a Gen-X'er. I am a Husband, a Father, a Veteran, a Technologist, and a Professional. I was once a Gen-X'er who believed our generation would continue the work of our fathers and make our country ever greater. Where once I was proud to bear the Label of Gen-X, it now embarrases me. To see what we could have been, and what we instead chose simply crushes my spirit.
True, sparks of hope have appeared again..... But we have seen this before only to see the religious right, of which Gen-X is a huge constituency, extinguish them right before our eyes.
Look in the mirror Gen-X. How much longer can we sustain the self righteousness and us vs them mentality that feels so good? How long till the consequences of years of voting the way we have come home to roost... I fear that day is quickly approaching.
wasrepublican.