Lately I’ve read a lot of kvetching about how the Baby Boom generation, those born from 1946 to 1964, have screwed things up so badly. While I agree that there’s plenty of room for criticism of how badly screwed up things are, whining about the Baby Boomers is misdirected fire. The House and Senate leadership are both mostly Silent Generation and have been for decades. There is no distinctively Baby Boomer foreign or domestic policy.
If it’s just the past they’re unhappy with, they had best get used to it. The democracy of the dead will be with them for the rest of their lives.
I think the Boomers could still be faulted though for leaving a leadership vacuum that has allowed the most corrupt of the prior generation to hold on to power far too long.
I think you’ve got it backwards. The corrupt have not been left in. They’ve become corrupt because they’ve been left in.
That’s a product of the system. The seniority system means that you become more powerful the longer you remain in office which means you’re able to do more for your constituents but the longer you remain in office the more likely you are to conflate your own personal benefit with the public good.
The best way of coping with this is to have a limited government of enumerated powers. That ship appears to have sailed before any Baby Boomers had been born and while some of the members of the Silent Generation were still wearing triangular pants.
We could abolish the seniority system or establish term limits but there doesn’t seem to be much appetite for either. It’s not a Baby Boomer thing. It’s a human nature thing.
I think you’ve got it backwards. The corrupt have not been left in. They’ve become corrupt because they’ve been left in.
No that’s actually my point…they were left in, and subsequently became more corrupt, because the boomer generation failed to produce leaders who would have been the successors.
While I think your points about the House and Senate leadership are well taken, the Boomers don’t get off that easy:
– Boomers have been the largest cohort in the House and Senate and elected those leaders. And both chambers have seniority systems, so committee leaders tend to be the oldest of the bunch. The Boomers are overrepresented in both chambers compared to their share of the population – currently ~54% of the House and a majority of the Senate.
– Every President since 1992 has been a Boomer. And the Boomers will have the distinction of the only generation with two impeached Presidents.
– Boomers have been the largest voting cohort for a long time and will continue to be (barely) for 2020.
In short, the Boomers haven’t been bystanders in the political process – they’ve been the most politically influential demographic group for probably the last 30 years if not longer. The fact that the House and Senate majority leaders are Silents does not absolve the Boomers of their responsibility for the state of the nation.
I don’t know,
George W Bush, Bill Clinton, Barrack Obama.
Do they think Congress is too old? Hasn’t it always been that way?
Probably comes down to branding. Baby Boomer is a well known catch all. Silent Generation not so much. If they’re going to complain, they’ll pick a useful target, but Baby Boomers are not a monolith. Breaking generations into segments is useful for what? It’s like racism, a generalization useful to those who are picking a target.
My point is that only an ignorance of history could lead one to the conclusion that it’s all the Boomers’ fault. The continuity in U. S. foreign and domestic policies over the years is astonishing. Trump is a bump in the road but even he has followed the lead of the Obama Administration in many respects. Who followed the lead of the W Administration who followed the Clinton Administration.
Baby Boomers first comprised a majority of sitting Congressmen in 1998. I believe they still are. Seniority rules ensure that the Silent Generation still holds the reins.
A lot of the stuff the Right complains about was put in place by the Greatest Generation: the welfare state, the 1965 Immigration Act, affirmative action, Medicare and Medicaid,… After a Depression and WW II, they wanted security, comfort, conformity, no boat rocking. They also had to buy off the black underclass, who were in actual revolt in the 60’s and 70’s.
I do agree that longevity in office leads to corruption, but I also note that the Clintons and Obamas entered the Presidency with a modest middle class net worth and left office worth tens of millions of dollars.
The Deep State/Cabal takes care of those who obey. Trump is in trouble because he won’t obey. Eventually the Deep State/Cabal will threaten him and his family.
“The best way of coping with this is to have a limited government of enumerated powers. That ship appears to have sailed before any Baby Boomers had been born and while some of the members of the Silent Generation were still wearing triangular pants.
We could abolish the seniority system or establish term limits but there doesn’t seem to be much appetite for either. It’s not a Baby Boomer thing. It’s a human nature.”
And then we have Andy and Grey’s comments. All of which I’m sympathetic to. It’s not the baby boomers purely. It all started with the academic’s fave, FDR. (Ah, the academics.) It has metastasized. Demeaning small government types as anarchists is silly. From FDR on the creature from the swamp has been steadily slinking into our public dialogue and policy.
There is only one solution. Term limits. Its a tall order, but that’s where the battle for the country will be won or lost. If I was 45 and in the same financial position, that’s where I’d throw my weight, money and sweat equity. As it is, I intend to insulate my daughter through inheritance. For the rest of you with children or grandchildren, my condolences. But if you vote for more of the same, or feign above-it-all intellectual mumbo jumbo, quit bitching and look in the mirror. They can only get away with it if you pull the lever.
Sadly, that’s untrue, at least here in Illinois.
Any foreseeable winning candidate will pursue policies very similar to his/her opponent’s.
Just to be clear, I’m not arguing the Boomers are responsible for everything – we all are, as Americans. But as the largest cohort, they are responsible for a lot.
I’d like to add that human nature is very resistant to change, we actually like continuity. But events, ah yes, engineered or not, Pearl Harbor motivated the nation, as did 9/11. I think the latest generation will coast and complain until events sweep over and motivate them and then who knows? Fifty years from now they may be the “Greater Generation”. But not if they follow the siren song of the NeoSocialists.
It’s funny how terms get misused. When I was growing up the Baby Boom generation was born 1946-1955. Then I guess for advertising reasons they stretched it to 1964, which is more the silent generation era. It’s kind of like what they did to BMI (Body Mass Index) whenever drug sales were slow the good BMI number magically got lower so that some professional athletes started being called obese (well some NFL linemen and John Kruk are/were, but that’s another story).
Complaining about the boomers is just one more way to explain away failures. Mine are mine, I don’t blame God or the Trafalmadorians or the Trilateral Commission when I screw up.
Guarneri: If you think the entrenched bureaucracy is bad now, institute term limits in Congress.
What is needed is term limits on BUREAUCRATS. Not Mueller’s version he instituted on the FBI, five years and out so I can get my corrupt people in, but maybe 15-20 years. Also eliminate some or a lot of the civil service job protections that keep far too many parasites in place. And a real effectiveness rating system based on real work accomplished. That is a whole ‘nuther kettle of fish though, since such a system will inevitably be corrupted, coopted, or ignored. But we have to start somewhere.
That’s really my point, Dave. Only a fool runs as a Republican for major office in IL. Illinoisans pull the lever, so I have little sympathy. They are getting it good and hard for their exercise. (As an aside, a RINO is not running again in Collier Cty down here in FL. The Republican field is plenty. The Dem field, non-existent. They’d be fools. Its not just IL.)
We have two new neighbors on the block. One IL, one CA. Well to do. IL and CA continue to commit suicide.
You vote Democrat, if I recall correctly. You pull the lever. Good luck.
I’ll take my chances, Tars. The politicians first, the bureaucrats second.
I am a registered Democrat. I vote for the best candidate among those available regardless of party.