U.S. youth becoming libertarian by default?

Hmmm....  Well, assuming these polls mark a real trend, there is plenty in this article to implicate both parties.  But also, as Rush Limbaugh likes to say, youngsters' heads are "full of mush."  I'll be more charitable and say they've been spoiled by their solicitous helicopter parents, on-demand consumer culture, and lack of experience.

More precisely, I'd say younger kids (younger than me, let's be clear), grew up in a society where they believed all adults were honest and had their best interests at heart, and stuff was supposed to work as advertised.  And if not, there were all kinds of consequences and avenues for formal and informal complaint.  Because their parents outdid themselves teaching them they were growing up in a world that was basically fair and just.

The trouble in politics is, it's quintessentially a liar's game, and stuff never works like it's supposed to, because too many cooks always spoil the broth, and half the cooks can't even cook, and the menu's in 3 languages, etc.  Gen. Yers or Millennials or whatever the New Yorker is calling them this year, have no patience for all that.  Stuff is supposed to work as advertised, they say.  Or they shop somewhere else.  Trouble is, there are only two stores.  

What these young folks don't understand is that our government -- thanks to electoral politics -- has never run smoothly, and probably never will. 

Sooner or later they'll get off their high horses, wisen up, and realize they have to get dirty and compromise and choose the worst of two (or three) evils just like their parents and grandparents always did.  This does not mean they have to abdicate.  From from it!  But they have to realize that democratic politics is a brawl, and things get messy and bloody and the judges don't always call the scorecard correctly.  Politics is not a product and they are not its consumers choosing from a menu.  THEY ARE THE PRODUCT; AND they are the customer service department.  And until they realize that, they are doomed to irrelevance and stupidity.   

The only real reaction I've seen to this are the Occupy movements.  Mark my words: they will lead to something.  I don't know what yet.  But enough of these kids (and older activists) have realized that they have to get their hands dirty to get attention.  They don't know what to do yet, but they know they need to do something.  Calling the 1-800 number isn't going to work this time.

The Kids Are All Libertarian

By Vinnie Rotondaro

July 12, 2012 | Vice.com

URL:  http://www.vice.com/read/the-kids-are-all-libertarians

OWS is the 'rotten fruit of Obamaism'

I'm not sure you old tea-party types sitting at home in the 'burbs watching FOX and listening to ClearChannel really understand the sentiments driving the OWS protests. If you think this is about getting out the vote for Dems in 2012, re-living the hippy '60s, union funding, or George Soros's diabolical organizing, you're just not getting it. So here you go:

Of course, the sense of possibility that progressives might win was what fueled the election of Obama. And their frustration is what has created the context for OWS—and raises the specter that it might alter the landscape the president must traverse next year in dramatic and unpredictable ways.

"Obama didn't build a movement, he built an electoral machine," says Marom. "If he had built a movement, he would not be where he is right now. But the fact that he was elected, that so many people came out in the streets for him, that people cried when he won, was an expression of the fact that they wanted what they thought he was, which is an alternative. He wasn't it. He can't deliver it. This political system can't deliver it. This economy can't deliver it. But there are millions of people who genuinely want it. That's amazing and inspiring to people like us, who are just, like, 'Okay. This is for real.' "

As an avowed liberal-progressive, I'm still not sure I like OWS, because I'm not sure all their energy will come to anything; and meanwhile there are real winnable battles being fought, and the stakes are high. There are big elections coming up, and Republicans and faux Democrats are vulnerable. But votes and elections just aren't what OWS is about. That's their prerogative. I just hope they know what they're doing.

2012=1968?

In 2008, Barack Obama lit a fire among young activists. Next year, Occupy Wall Street could consume him.

By John Heilemann

November 27, 2011 | New York Magazine

URL: http://nymag.com/print/?/news/politics/occupy-wall-street-2011-12/

Strategic advice for liberal-progressive losers

Kline's critical essay is excellent but long so I'll quote selectively:

"At best, progressives seek to convert.... Thus, they don't frame what they engage in as a fight but rather as a debate."

"It is difficult to think of a major progressive policy which commands less than a plurality. This situation is one reason for the lazy reliance upon electioneering by progressives, they know that their issues are popular, in principle at least. Rather childishly, they just want a show of hands then, as if that is what goes on really in elections."

"One could say unflatteringly that the goal of 'progressives' in activism is to raise their personal karma by standing up for what is right."

And here's how Kline sums it up, how radical leftists like moi can win:

"Money is not the main problem; feet on the ground moving forward are the real problem. A discrete agenda pursued full-time by experienced organizers is the solution. Less talk, and more walk. Progressives have successfully stamped Big Capital as 'anti-us' historically, and they need to return to this. Those active for social reform have to forget about the electoral cycle. They have to forget about what the lunatic Right is doing as much as possible and concentrate on what they themselves are in process of accomplishing. They need a compact reform agenda (yes, bullet points and not more than ten of them). They need a defined activist strategy, no matter how large the difficulties or time horizon appear. They need to build genuinely activist organizations with specific plans to achieve a core set of goals. And they have to reclaim militancy as a word, and deed, of pride. If they do those things, they will make real progress, and moreover they will be ready when the moment comes for breakthrough amongst the wider society."

On third thought, this is a stinging rebuke to me and basically everybody who spends most of their spare time & energy blogging, posting, linking, and writing stuff to support their liberal-progressive causes. Because basically, Kline is saying (while writing/blogging, OK I get the irony here), that preaching to the choir won't cut it, that nothing was ever won politically by persuasion but only by pounding electorally those folks who hate your guts. 'Nords, it doesn't matter what Americans think, it matters how their politicians vote. Point taken. Blog on!....

Progressively Losing

By Richard Kline

September 11, 2011 | Naked Capitalism

URL: http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2011/09/richard-kline-progressively-losing.html