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Generational Dynamics Web Log for 31-Aug-2008
Presidential election debate continues to focus on 1960s issues

Web Log - August, 2008

Presidential election debate continues to focus on 1960s issues

21st century issues are being totally ignored, so far.

I love irony, and so I'm absolutely thrilled about the choice of Alaska governor Sarah Palin as the Republican Vice Presidential candidate:

Sarah Palin in photoshopped <i>Vogue</i> magazine cover <font face=Arial size=-2>(Source: Kodiak Konfidential blog)</font>

Sarah Palin in photoshopped Vogue magazine cover (Source: Kodiak Konfidential blog)

Republicans who were complaining about Barack Obama's lack of experience now have to deal with their own VP candidate's lack of experience.

Democratic feminists, who have been screaming about how oppressive, battering males have been keeping women down, now have the chance to vote for a strong woman for an office a heartbeat away from the Presidency. (Just imagine: Sarah Palin vs Hillary Clinton in the 2012 election!)

Gen-Xers and Millennials who hate Boomers and older people now have Sarah Palin to vote for -- someone who is not only a young Gen-Xer, but is a super-hot chick and a former beauty queen to boot.
(The Vogue magazine cover with the photoshopped picture of Palin appeared on the Kodiak Konfidential blog, after Vogue announced last December that they were going to do a cover story on Palin. The blogger says that he "proudly supports Barack Obama.")

Those in the loony left who, like Jacob Weisberg of Newsweek and Slate, claim that an election loss by Barack Obama would mean that a U.S. is a racist nation, now have to deal with the fact that voters can make history by voting for either candidate.

Barack Obama is criticized as being too young and inexperienced, so his VP pick is Joe Biden, an old Washington war horse. John McCain is criticized as being old and out of touch, and so he picks a young, attractive governor from the state farthest away from Washington.

To me, as a person who dislikes politicians and was expecting to find the campaign increasingly boring, this is all hilarious and extremely enjoyable. I expect it to remain enjoyable until Palin gets boring or until she starts making gaffes and flames out.

All the issues being argued about in this election are from the 1960s generational Awakening era: feminism (women's lib), racism, generational change. Even the Iraq war as an issue is a reflection of the antiwar / Vietnam War debate.

(For information about generational Awakening eras, see "Basics of Generational Dynamics." For more information about the 1960s, see "Iraq Today vs 1960s America.")

There isn't a single bit of this that's at all relevant to what's coming. What's important today are things like the gathering storm in the Caucasus, the meltdown of the country of Pakistan, and the accelerating financial deflationary spiral. A crisis in any one of these areas would be enough to instantly remove feminism, racism, and Iraq from the public discussion, and there will be crises in all three areas.

Does it make any difference who's elected? It's hard to see how. It's true that Palin and Obama have little real experience. And it's true that I've called Biden the stupidest man in the Senate, with good reason: He wanted to stop the Iraq "surge," and send 2200 American troops into Darfur. And it's true that McCain has the most experience that's relevant to the first two of the three issues listed above.

But these potential crises are all completely new, and unlike anything that very few people alive today have ever seen before. There is nothing in past experience that could prepare any of the candidates for any of these crises, and so there's no predictable effect that the election of either candidate could have on the outcome of these crises.

Just as today's major political issues were leftovers from the 1960s Awakening era, the major political issues of the 1960s were leftovers from the WW II 1940s crisis era. The big issue in the 1960 election was over how the US should respond to a Chinese attack on the Taiwanese islands of Quemoy and Matsu. John Kennedy won in 1960, but got into trouble on 1940s-type Crisis era issues -- the Bay of Pigs disaster in Cuba, the Cuban missile crisis, the Vietnam war. The Administrations of Kennedy, Johnson and Nixon all foundered because they failed to recognize and deal with the new 1960s Awakening era issues -- women's lib, racism, antiwar, etc. It didn't matter which of Kennedy, Johnson or Nixon was elected -- they all made similar mistakes, because none of them had any experience with the new issues.

The same will be true today, no matter whether Obama, McCain, Palin or Biden is President. They're all focused on the 1960s issues, and none of them has a clue how to deal with the new Crisis era issues that are right around the corner. Any one of them will make many major mistakes, just as President Lincoln did in the Civil War, and Franklin Roosevelt did in WW II. However, the good news is that our enemies will also make many major mistakes, and at least we have the hope that they'll make worse mistakes than we will. (31-Aug-2008) Permanent Link
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Generational Dynamics Web Log for 31-Aug-2008 Presidential election debate continues to focus on 1960s issues

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Generational Dynamics Web Log for 31-Aug-2008
Presidential election debate continues to focus on 1960s issues