First of all, kudos to CCBOhio’s well written diary Let's just stop boomersplaining politics to millennials. CCB make several excellent points, especially this one:
First, if Clinton wins the nomination, she is going to need as much support as she can get. Do you really think such condescension will help win anyone over? If you want Sanders supporters to support Clinton, how is such sarcasm going to earn their votes?
While I agree with much of what Connie Schultz wrote, condescending lines such as “but it’s particularly entertaining when the reprimands come from young white men who were still braying for their blankies when I started getting paid to give my opinion” are not only unhelpful, but are downright damaging. I was taught to respect my elders, and I think that’s a very good thing. But respect is a two way street. We may be a gaggle of geezers, but we also need to remember what it is like to be young, enthused, and getting involved in our democratic process for the first time. And we need to respect that, and them. I have sincere respect for millennials, and acknowledge the challenges they face: graduating from college with a mountain of debt, income inequality, saving the planet from our boomer carbon guzzling ways. But I would also ask you to remember that every new generation faces serious challenges. My generation faced the prospect of being forced to join the military (the draft) to be sent halfway around the world to kill or be killed by people who just wanted to be left alone to decide their own form of government. But that pales in comparison to the generation before mine, the one that is called the Greatest Generation for their bravery and sacrifice in saving the world from Nazism, Fascism, and Imperialism. Every generation faces challenges, we succeed over them by working together and respecting each other.
I remember my first involvement in our democratic process very well. I graduated from high school in 1969, which I proudly remember as the Summer of Love.
I acted on deeply repressed desires and made love to another man for the first time — I found out who I was in that summer of love, and have never looked back. The year before, 1968, I also got involved in a political campaign for the first time, and fell “in love” with a candidate who was perfect on all the issues for me:
"Some see things as they are and ask Why? But I dream things that never were and I say, 'Why not?'".
That awful night I cried myself to sleep, asking “Why?”. But the next day I got right back up on my feet and contacted the local Eugene McCarthy campaign office and asked how I could help.
But while 1969 was the Summer of Love, the summer of 1968 was anything but:
The 1968 Chicago Democratic Convention, the most divisive Democrats have ever been. The sitting Democratic President, Lyndon Johnson, and Democratic Congress had achieved many great things: the Civil Rights Act, the Voting Rights, the Medicare Act. But by 1968 Johnson was hated by many for his escalation of the Vietnam War. I was one of them, hence my support for RFK and then Gene McCarthy. It came down to a race between McCarthy and Hubert Humphrey, the sitting Vice President. We Kennedy/McCarthy supporters didn’t like Humphrey as he was a symbol of the status quo, and we wanted change. And too many had downright hatred of Humphrey:
But I’ve always had a strong practical side, and after Humphrey won the nomination I enthusiastically supported him — I knew he was a man of integrity, and the Republican candidate was not. I gave the speech in support of Humphrey in my high school mock election. I’m still appalled and embarrassed to admit that George Wallace won our mock election, by a landslide. And this wasn’t the deep south, it was central Ohio. Worse yet, those bigots are still alive and well:
Democrats were not able to overcome the divisiveness of the 1968 primary campaigns and convention. Too many were disillusioned by a Democratic candidate they perceived as a continuation of the status quo and stayed home instead of going to a voting booth. So instead of a proud Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor President, we got this:
Instead of a third term of a Democratic President in the White House who would have continued to champion Democratic ideals and would have been under pressure to wind down the Vietnam war, we got a Tricky Dick who escalated the fucking war. And got a bunch of reactionaries on the Supreme Court. And damn near became mentally unstable while having the nuclear launch codes when Watergate came crashing down on him. Ask Henry Kissinger, even he was frightened.
Let’s not do that again, ‘kay? I am a proud supporter of Hillary Clinton for many reasons. But Bernie Sanders and Sanders supporters are not my enemies, some are my friends and many share my views in many areas. I am a boomer, and millennials are not my enemies, they are my are my grand nephews & nieces, and my hopes for the future. If you are a Sanders supporter, Hillary and Clinton supporters are not your enemies. Any one of these guys is:
You say you want a revolution
Well, you know We all want to change the world
You tell me that it's evolution Well, you know We all want to change the world But when you talk about destruction Don't you know that you can count me out
Don't you know it's gonna be all right All right, all right
You say you got a real solution
Well, you know We'd all love to see the plan You ask me for a contribution Well, you know We're doing what we can
But when you want money For people with minds that hate All I can tell is brother you have to wait
- John Lennon