Spring Break
REALITY CHECK: Democratic generation gap
by David Litvak
Columnists | 2/12/08
Posted online at 2:35 AM EST on 2/12/08
I tend to enjoy argument, especially when it is with my father. For us, every discussion tends to turn into a debate, with every point suddenly vital and every position a vehement one. Typically, these debates focus on politics, but recently the exchanges have been more heated and more contentious. More than once in the past few weeks, we have been puzzled that our tempers could flare so intensely through a simple conversation.
Two weeks ago I cast my vote-by-mail ballot for Barack Obama in California's Democratic primary; last Tuesday my father voted for Hillary Clinton. On the issues, the two candidates have few distinguishing characteristics, and so far as I am concerned, either candidate would be preferable to the presumptive Republican nominee, John McCain. And despite all our arguments, my father and I tend to agree, at least in theory, on most political issues.
It is quite probable that my father and I ended up voting for different candidates simply because of those slight "distinguishing characteristics" that define the subtle distinctions in each candidate's position. However, after all of our arguments, the real culprit has emerged: not single-payer health care or troop withdrawals, but the fundamental generational gap between Clinton and Obama, between older and younger voters and ultimately between my father and myself.
Clinton, the quintessential Baby Boomer, was born in 1947. She was in college in the mid-'60s and was 21 in 1968, at the height of the Vietnam War. Her political career began immediately prior to the Reagan Revolution, and she has spent the last 20 or 30 years waging a valiant and hard-fought battle against partisan conservatism. She has stood tall against the "vast right-wing conspiracy," traded blows with the "Republican attack machine" and is by any measure an experienced and tested politician.
Obama, by contrast, was born in 1961, and is thus a generation removed. Though he has experienced, and even participated in, the divisive partisan politics of the past several decades, he is by no means defined by that experience. If anything, he has consistently articulated a desire to transcend that divisiveness and work with, not in spite of, the Republican Party. If the last seven years of an arrogant, unilateralist administration have taught us anything, it is that a continued insistence on being the president not to all Americans but to only a certain group of Americans-be they Republican or Democrat-is a recipe for guaranteed and unmitigated disaster, both at home and abroad.
Two weeks ago I cast my vote-by-mail ballot for Barack Obama in California's Democratic primary; last Tuesday my father voted for Hillary Clinton. On the issues, the two candidates have few distinguishing characteristics, and so far as I am concerned, either candidate would be preferable to the presumptive Republican nominee, John McCain. And despite all our arguments, my father and I tend to agree, at least in theory, on most political issues.
It is quite probable that my father and I ended up voting for different candidates simply because of those slight "distinguishing characteristics" that define the subtle distinctions in each candidate's position. However, after all of our arguments, the real culprit has emerged: not single-payer health care or troop withdrawals, but the fundamental generational gap between Clinton and Obama, between older and younger voters and ultimately between my father and myself.
Clinton, the quintessential Baby Boomer, was born in 1947. She was in college in the mid-'60s and was 21 in 1968, at the height of the Vietnam War. Her political career began immediately prior to the Reagan Revolution, and she has spent the last 20 or 30 years waging a valiant and hard-fought battle against partisan conservatism. She has stood tall against the "vast right-wing conspiracy," traded blows with the "Republican attack machine" and is by any measure an experienced and tested politician.
Obama, by contrast, was born in 1961, and is thus a generation removed. Though he has experienced, and even participated in, the divisive partisan politics of the past several decades, he is by no means defined by that experience. If anything, he has consistently articulated a desire to transcend that divisiveness and work with, not in spite of, the Republican Party. If the last seven years of an arrogant, unilateralist administration have taught us anything, it is that a continued insistence on being the president not to all Americans but to only a certain group of Americans-be they Republican or Democrat-is a recipe for guaranteed and unmitigated disaster, both at home and abroad.
Viewing Comments 1 - 6 of 9
Spike, '01
posted 2/12/08 @ 3:52 PM EST
"The promise, and the legacy, of an Obama presidency might be in the liberal platform he pursues, but I think its real power will come in the inauguration of a new mentality in American politics, a mentality of compromise, of openness to new ideas and of acceptance. (Continued…)
Steve Lantz
posted 2/12/08 @ 7:17 PM EST
As a lifelong conservative Republican with a wife who is a lifelong liberal Democrat, both of the same era as Mr. Litvak's parents, all I can say is thank God we are passing the torch to light the way to a global economy and society where collaboration rather than confrontation is the medium of exchange for our collective future. (Continued…)
A. Litvak
posted 2/13/08 @ 12:51 PM EST
My son and I have enjoyed spirited debates over the years. He is a worthy opponent, and I take a fathers pride in a son who has the courage to challenge his father?s beliefs. (Continued…)
Bill Parent
posted 2/13/08 @ 3:57 PM EST
I am 52. I have been on the phone with my mother who is 83 throughout this season. She is for Sen Clinton. I am for Sen. Obama. But she is open to the positives and negatives on each side. (Continued…)
Larry Kaplan
posted 2/13/08 @ 5:02 PM EST
To quote Mr. Obama, "It's time to turn the page." I am from your father's generation, but cannot agree with you more. In addition, in my entire voting career, I have never pulled the lever for anybody who inspired me---it was always for the lesser of two evils, or for the "guy who could win" or for somebody who seemed OK but not fabulous. (Continued…)
Sy Feerst
Sy Feerst
posted 2/13/08 @ 7:20 PM EST
My wife and I have been Hillary-ites from the start. Certainly, Hillary will be red meat for the GOP, but neither she nor we will be dissuaded by that. (Continued…)
Post a Comment