Today,
Georgia10 discussed how the aforementioned whores (consultant and the media variety) viewed their erstwhile challengers, the netroots.
She quoted Chris Bowers:
In the Joe Klein / Mike McCurry narrative, the netroots are teenagers while career political professional are adults. [...] This is the dominant narrative concerning the netroots within much of the "gang of 500." The netroots are teenagers who think they know what they are doing but don't, while the establishment , both media and political, are adult professionals who know how to get things done.
Georgia said that "Bowers explains how we're painted as (1) newcomers, (2) young; (3) uninformed; (4) rabid; and (5) inexperienced and arrogant."
That is because the "Gang of 500," or as I call them, consultant and media whores, are mostly comprised of the aforementioned Baby Boom generation. They are mostly in their mid to late fifties. They are all at the pinnacle of their careers. They are in almost complete control of our nation's destiny, this Baby Boom Generation.
And just look at the shape we are in as a country.
Now, I know, as it was pointed out in both Chris Bower's story on MyDD and Georgia's story today here at Daily Kos, there are many members of the aforesaid generation fighting the good fight in the netroots. Indeed, as Chris pointed out, the median age of a member of the netroots is 46. And I know that an entire generation cannot be held responsible the characteristics and failings of those who lead them.
Or can they?
Members of the Baby Boom Generation have lived a charmed life. Born right after World War II, the America they know has always been a great superpower and has always been the leader of the free world politically and economically. To them, there has always been a middle class. Families always had televisions. Families always had cars. Families always lived in the cute suburbs.
In essence, and of course, in general, Baby Boomers grew up living the American dream (you know, the white picket fence variety) in postwar booming (no pun intended) America. They got spoiled.
It should be noted here that living on credit cards and in debt came of age along with the Baby Boomers. They expected to live the American Dream, no matter if it was outside their means. They expected what they wanted when they wanted it. The essence of being spoiled. And no one could ever tell them different.
When someone did, as in the Vietnam War and the Draft, they burned their draft cards, yelled "Hell No We Won't Go!" and protested in the streets. And they basically, over time, got their way. The war ended. A President was defeated. A second President resigned. And so, as they came of age, the Baby Boomers were emboldened. Everything was always going to go their way. They would always get what they expected, and no one was going to challenge them.
Baby Boomers came to power in the political, social, corporate and economic world in the late 1980s and early 1990's. Two of their own became President and Vice President in 1992.
And so it goes.
Now we come to 2006. They are aging. Soon, they will begin to retire. And as it goes with all passages of time, they are being replaced. They don't like it one bit.
Enter the netroots. What media and consultant whores of the Boomer generation have always known is changing. The way elections are run is changing. The way political parties are run is changing. The way news is presented is changing. The way we organize and voice our dissent is changing. These changes belong to by and large to a new generation. And these changes are loosening the grip on the power that the Boomers have long held.
Being spoiled, Boomers will not let go without a lot of noise. Like the whining of children, they belittle what is replacing them. Enter Joe Klien and the multitude of others who have begrudged the netroots and the like. Who defend the consultocracy that rules both Washington and the Democratic Party. They are Boomers. They are defending what they know so as not to lose power. So as not to lose relevance.
As with the passage of time, one generation always yields to the next and so it will be with the Boomer generation. Therefore, it is a foregone conclusion that the netroots, powered mostly by a new generation, will win.
I am a member of that new generation. I am 30 years old. A younger member of the X Generation. We are the Boomer's children. And we are ashamed at the mess left to us by our parents. We have to clean it up.
The first step is sending our parents out to pasture.
You first Joe Klein.
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