The Angry Young Man

Both 9iu11iani and Edwards are supposed to drop out of the race today. I could care less about 9iu11iani, he was a joke, but I find Edward's retreat a bit regrettable. I was never enthusiastic about the guy (face it, I'm not really enthusiastic about any of them), but after encountering so many folks who sang his praises, I did check out his platform. I'll give him an A for effort with his ridiculous tax plan that would see the IRS doing everyone's taxes for them and then mailing each Amurrican a form they could agree or not agree to sign. Right. That's going to work. What? We've become too retarded to even do our own taxes? I didn't get it. Go buy TurboTax. It's cheap. Hell, buy a used copy off E-Bay, that's what I do. $19.95!!!

Before the last election, I caucused with the Democrats in that stupid looking Washington state. Even though I'm a Green, I was a Howard Dean supporter and as my precinct argued about who to throw five votes at, it came down to three candidates. The old timers all wanted Wesley Clark, some gay was passionate for Edwards (I was distracted by his boyfriend, who stood there, silent, looking exactly like John Edwards!), and there was me, threatening them all with beatings if they didn't go for Dean. The guy I was shagging at the time, Matt, a splendid example of Generation NPJ, came to the caucus with me. He watched the proceedings with detached interest. He was 22, politically out of it, and registered Republican just like his parents. I wonder what his politics are today.

Anyway, I kept hearing the same crap about Dean - "He's not electable, he's not electable." People who parrot back stupid bits of political conventional wisdom without thinking about what they're saying should be rounded up and stripped of the franchise. Our five votes went two to Dean, Two to Edwards, and one crusty vote from the raisin ranch up the hill to Clark. That election was a joke.

I do believe this race is going to narrow itself down to Barry Obama and John McCain. What we're faced with here is the set up for an amazing generational conflict - the remnants of the Greatest Generation, Generation Jones, and the Boomers all fearing "the terror" and too laid down with baggage to really support a black man, versus the NPJ's, who don't think about race, don't fear the terror, and have more ready concerns, like who's going to pay them six figure salaries once they graduate from the over glorified finishing schools their wealthy Boomer parents stuck them in. Gen X, as usual, will stand around being cynical, disengaged, looking hip. The NPJ's are twice the size of Generation X, and at 78 million people, two thirds of whom have reached voting age, they are prepared to enter the American political process for basically the first time. Oh, and their Boomer parents taught them all too well. X'ers can turn even "We Shall Overcome" into a cynical, ironic joke, these kids, they take it very seriously. Hell, I was called "sir" by at least three different whippersnappers in the last week alone. SIR?! Think about that. 2008 REALLY is the year everything is going to change.