Kinder Spiel

I just read a brief article at Newsweek.com entitled, "Harvard Poll of Young Voters Should Worry Democrats". The gist of it is that the enthusiasm of the tide of young voters (18-29 year-olds) that propelled President Obama to his petite landslide in 2008, and the Democrats to large majorities in both houses of Congress, is waning. Recent elections in New Jersey and Virginia are suggested to be indicative of this, and the author speculates that failure to arrest this decline in youthful zest for the Democrats will spell disaster in November of this year. I suppose if "disaster" means the Democrats taking their semi-decennial electoral ass-whooping, then it's all probably true.

While I am generally somewhere to the left of Rupaul politically (not to be confused with Ron Paul), I too am losing my reverential zeal for many Democrats, and I have intermittently IN THIS VERY BLOG commented upon my reasons, which are essentially disillusion with their disorganization, cowardice, greed and lack of true principle. This is as contrasted with my disillusion with Republicans due to their arrogance, ignorance, greed and lack of true principle. It seems to me that the two major political parties in this wonderful democracy of ours have degenerated into anti-parties which are defined primarily by what they stand against rather than for. Both of the major parties in recent years, when they have expanded, have expanded almost exclusively through recruiting adherents who are frustrated with their opposition, and this is routinely accomplished through the use of legions of scientific propagandists who torture the facts into unrecognizably surreal parodies of truth, often overlooking the real practical failures of their opponents. Now, I'm not saying that we have reached the Weimar Republic level of political dysfunction in America in 2010, but we can't afford to slip much farther and have any hope of addressing the very real and very dangerous chickens that are, at this very moment, on their way home to roost.

But that's not what's grinding my gears right now. So, 18 to 29 year-olds are losing their enthusiasm for the Democrats?! Well gosh, Obama has had all of about 15 minutes to try and repair the damage of 28 years of Reagan-Bush-Clinton-Bush with the political equivalent of a rabid howler monkey hanging on his back, and God knows the considerably less competent Congress never gets finished wiping off the sweat of election night anxiety. How could anybody expect anything to be getting done? The Democrats are afraid of the shadow of their own farts and now the hip youngsters are going to frighten them into catatonia by getting distracted by something shiny and wandering off. This is what X-Box and I-Phone have done to this country; if you can't fix it, beat it, find it or understand it in 10 seconds, go on to something else. Having been an 18 to 29 year old myself at one point, I retain a certain visceral understanding of the fierce urgency of now, but now that I am a semi-centenarian I can also appreciate that patience truly is a virtue, and whether you are a totalitarian or an anarchist, you pretty much have to admit that implementing any program of sustainable change requires persistence. Clichés are, well, clichés, but Rome was NOT built in a day, and we didn't get into this mess overnight and we will not get out of it overnight.

The political analysis is not that younger voters are flocking to the Republican banner; in fact, the Republican Party remains about as popular as anal fissures with anyone with an IQ over 65, but because the basic Republican supporter tends to be more obsessive/compulsive than the average Democrat, they are far more likely to consistently vote, and vote consistently. So the Democratic Party has to attempt to continually fan the flames of liberal outrage to hang on to power, while all the Republicans have to do is hunker down and chant their nonsensical mantras while waiting for the Democrats to collapse under the weight of their big tent. Soulless geniuses like Lee Atwater and Karl Rove have understood this for decades now, but somehow the Democratic leadership still can't find their ass with two flashlights, GPS and a bloodhound. The emergent phenomenon of the "independent" voter confirms this, but voter independence is generally just another expression of voter shame; I'm a dyed-in-the-wool Democrat, but I am so ashamed of the lack of courageous and principled leadership in the party that now I'm an Independent. I'm sure that there are many Independents who are also simply Republicans who are ashamed of the illiteracy, bigotry and poor dental hygiene of their party leadership.

It is entirely possible that the Two-Party System which served America so well for so many years is now simply not up to the task of meeting the demands of a rapidly-changing and chaotically complex nation. In the zero-sum, politically bi-polar world of the American electoral Cold War, there is no room for heterodoxy or compromise, which means there is no room for intellectual independence, apolitical innovation or, apparently, simple courtesy. Richard Nixon's silent majority, while not the people he thought they were, really do exist, and they are the great force of moderation which has kept the two parties within the narrow confines of the parallel wagon-wheel ruts in the trail to America's manifest destiny, but we are passing out of the age of two-dimensional political topology and our nation's future course can no longer be adequately defined by terms like "liberal" and "conservative". Those constructs were reactions to a world that no longer exists and can never be reclaimed. A principled life remains the pinnacle human ideal, but dogma is a fatal liability; we are down the rabbit-hole and shit will be getting increasingly freaky from here on.

A wise man once said that the great thing about getting old is that you have less time to suffer the consequences of your mistakes. This ironically implies that caution should be a characteristic of the young, which a visit to any school, shopping mall or jail will demonstrate not to be the case. America's youth, as they toss sleeplessly in fear of diminishing job security and burgeoning national debt, must understand that political frustration cannot be addressed in the same manner they change cellular services or sexual partners; the political process cannot be abandoned or ignored; it must be reformed and refined through consistent and determined participation. There is no freedom without responsibility and there is no success without effort; these inconvenient facts have eventually beaten a modicum of wisdom into even the most hardened cranium throughout our history. So my advice to the whiny, fickle children who aspire to rule the world is quit crying and dedicate yourself to upholding the principles of our republic and drag this damn country kicking and screaming towards the promise of your birthright; otherwise, in 25 years you will be like me and so many of my contemporaries, surveying the smoldering ruin of youthful dreams and wondering what the fuck happened.