Ah, but I was so much older then
I'm younger than that now ...
Half-wracked prejudice leaped forth
"Rip down all hate," I screamed
Lies that life is black and white
Spoke from my skull. I dreamed
Copyright © Bob Dylan 1964
Campaign Badge,
Bill Clinton, Baby Boomer
"THE time has come, Senator Barack Obama says, for the baby boomers to get over themselves." From Shushing the Baby Boomers January 2007
What are Obama and large sections of the press trying to tell us? I can't see anything new or revolutionary in his speeches. And yes, I'm a baby boomer.
For a man who claims to want to heal divisions, I find much of what Obama says as very divisive. From calling the woman who raised him "a typical white woman", addressing a female reporter as "sweetie", referring to white working-class voters "bitter", to portraying Hillary Clinton as a temperamental woman1.
I've tried very hard to like Obama, as my politics are closer to those of the Democratic Party, than they are to the Republican. I've tried to see what many people see in him. And I've thought long and hard about what it is about him that turns me off. I think I've worked it out.
He makes me feel that I am invisible. I am a white, female baby boomer. Not his favourite section of society. When he talks, I don't feel at all that he's talking to the likes of me. I actually get the impression that he thinks my kind of person doesn't count.
"In the elections of 2000 and 2004, I sometimes felt as if I were watching the psychodrama of the baby boom generation--a tale rooted in old grudges and revenge plots hatched on a handful of college campuses long ago--played out on the national stage," From "The Audacity of Hope".
I'm also edgy about his style and his followers. He refers to his campaign as a movement, his speaking style is that of a preacher rather than of a political leader. He exhibits no humility, only arrogance.
Jake Tapper puts it well in Political Punch. "Inspiration is nice. But some folks seem to be getting out of hand. It's as if Tom Ashley descended from on high saying, 'Be not afraid; for behold I bring you good tidings of great joy which shall be to all the people: for there is born to you this day in the city of Chicago a Savior, who is Barack the Democrat.'"
When, with messianic self-regard he said, "We are the ones we've been waiting for", I knew that I was not one of the "we". And as in so many cases, he was taking the words of another (We Are the Ones We Have Been Waiting For: Light in a Time of Darkness) who in turn took it from the poet June Jordan in "Poem for South African Women", without attribution.
We are on the verge, if not already in it, of a new cult - the Obama cult. Listen this Obama supporters' video on You Tube.
This sort of thing puts me right off. The adulation of one man, the belief that this one man can change, not only his country, but the whole world, does not inspire me, it scares the hell out of me.
In 1972 in Australia, reformist Gough Whitlam ran for election under the banner slogan, "It's Time". And maybe it's getting to the time when baby boomers should bow out of centre stage. But we are not bowing out of life just yet!
The world DOES belong to the new generation. Let's hope, that unlike Barack Obama, that some of them will come up with something new
1"I understand that Senator Clinton, periodically when she's feeling down, launches attacks as a way of trying to boost her appeal." -- Sen. Barack Obama speaking about Sen. Hillary Clinton's campaign tactics to reporters on Friday, as quoted by the Associated Press February 15th 2008
Half-wracked prejudice leaped forth
"Rip down all hate," I screamed
Lies that life is black and white
Spoke from my skull. I dreamed
Copyright © Bob Dylan 1964
Campaign Badge,
Bill Clinton, Baby Boomer
"THE time has come, Senator Barack Obama says, for the baby boomers to get over themselves." From Shushing the Baby Boomers January 2007
What are Obama and large sections of the press trying to tell us? I can't see anything new or revolutionary in his speeches. And yes, I'm a baby boomer.
For a man who claims to want to heal divisions, I find much of what Obama says as very divisive. From calling the woman who raised him "a typical white woman", addressing a female reporter as "sweetie", referring to white working-class voters "bitter", to portraying Hillary Clinton as a temperamental woman1.
I've tried very hard to like Obama, as my politics are closer to those of the Democratic Party, than they are to the Republican. I've tried to see what many people see in him. And I've thought long and hard about what it is about him that turns me off. I think I've worked it out.
He makes me feel that I am invisible. I am a white, female baby boomer. Not his favourite section of society. When he talks, I don't feel at all that he's talking to the likes of me. I actually get the impression that he thinks my kind of person doesn't count.
"In the elections of 2000 and 2004, I sometimes felt as if I were watching the psychodrama of the baby boom generation--a tale rooted in old grudges and revenge plots hatched on a handful of college campuses long ago--played out on the national stage," From "The Audacity of Hope".
I'm also edgy about his style and his followers. He refers to his campaign as a movement, his speaking style is that of a preacher rather than of a political leader. He exhibits no humility, only arrogance.
Jake Tapper puts it well in Political Punch. "Inspiration is nice. But some folks seem to be getting out of hand. It's as if Tom Ashley descended from on high saying, 'Be not afraid; for behold I bring you good tidings of great joy which shall be to all the people: for there is born to you this day in the city of Chicago a Savior, who is Barack the Democrat.'"
When, with messianic self-regard he said, "We are the ones we've been waiting for", I knew that I was not one of the "we". And as in so many cases, he was taking the words of another (We Are the Ones We Have Been Waiting For: Light in a Time of Darkness) who in turn took it from the poet June Jordan in "Poem for South African Women", without attribution.
We are on the verge, if not already in it, of a new cult - the Obama cult. Listen this Obama supporters' video on You Tube.
This sort of thing puts me right off. The adulation of one man, the belief that this one man can change, not only his country, but the whole world, does not inspire me, it scares the hell out of me.
In 1972 in Australia, reformist Gough Whitlam ran for election under the banner slogan, "It's Time". And maybe it's getting to the time when baby boomers should bow out of centre stage. But we are not bowing out of life just yet!
The world DOES belong to the new generation. Let's hope, that unlike Barack Obama, that some of them will come up with something new
1"I understand that Senator Clinton, periodically when she's feeling down, launches attacks as a way of trying to boost her appeal." -- Sen. Barack Obama speaking about Sen. Hillary Clinton's campaign tactics to reporters on Friday, as quoted by the Associated Press February 15th 2008
Labels: obama baby boomers invisible
posted by Kate at
12:38 PM
1 Comments:
I don't sense arrogance, Kate. Not to say I like the UTube segment, but I cannot vote for McCain or Ron Paul either. Funny though, cause some of Ron Paul's ideas are out of my playbook. But only some; And I don't want to dilute the Democrat vote.
Funny, I don't think of you as a boomer, but then you do fall into that DOB. My kids are almost boomers (1960 and 1962)and they have a different attitude towards life than I sense is yours. But then, they are Yanks!
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