Regarding the article, “Upset by political gridlock? Blame the boomers” by Rick Montgomery of The Kansas City Star: The article offers up a sociological answer to what is a problem driven by social class, greed and economics.
He gets it wrong right from the beginning by defining baby boomers incorrectly. This I can overlook as there has been much discussion of the title, but even 10 years ago it was well understood that those born in 1950 and back to the late 1930s had a far different life experience than those born in say, 1953, who graduated into an economy resembling our own, rather than the relative prosperity of their older brothers and sisters. People tend to forget the soup kitchens, etc., under President Reagan. Montgomery suggests brackets of 1946 and 1964. The only thing that is shared by the two divisions is the memory of the relative prosperity of the ’60s and ’70s before the 1 percenters began to regain control of our economy and the top down change of our cultural beliefs.
The history is simple but never taught. The whole of the U.S. was forced to sacrifice to win World War II. Part of that meant full employment and high taxes upon the rich. The nation was naïve enough to believe that the plutocrats were “all right” with the high taxes and loss of power. The truth was otherwise. Following WWII, large corporations invested heavily overseas and eventually mounted a campaign to regain control of the U.S. economy, figure-headed by Ronald Reagan and using social conservatives as foot soldiers and voters, making promises that they never meant to keep to get into power and begin the deconstruction of the safety net and labor unions. Jobs that could be moved offshore were, while those that couldn’t were attacked by not enforcing immigration laws.
Whatever millennials believe they have gained in cultural sensitivity or whatever they have lost in cultural identity, prosperity, death of the environment, rather creepy overcrowding and an increasingly uncertain future. I’ve often wondered how many of today’s youth if taken to 1965 would choose to return after a year.
John Bainter
Bothell
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