most boomers, me NOT included, are libs. and we all know libs have no grasp in reality, which leads to panic and anxiety.
On Nov 30, 7:42 am, Cold Water <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > The Hysterical Style > Baby Boomers — the ungrateful-est generation — can’t help swinging from panic > to frenzy. > > By Victor Davis Hanson > > Politicians now predict the implosion of the U.S. auto industry. Headlines > warn that the entire banking system is on the verge of utter collapse. The > all-day/all-night cable news shows and op-ed columnists talk of another Dark > Age on the horizon, as each day another corporation lines up for its me-too > bailout. > > News magazines depict President-Elect Obama as the new Franklin Delano > Roosevelt, facing a crisis akin to the Great Depression. Columnists for the > New York Times even dream that George Bush might just resign now to allow the > savior Obama a two-month head start on his presidency. > > We are witnessing a new hysterical style, in which the Baby Boomer “me > generation” that now runs America jettisons knowledge of the past and daily > proclaims that each new development requires both a radical solution and > another bogeyman to blame for being mean or unfair to them. > > We haven’t seen such frenzy since the Y2K sham, when we were warned to stock > up on flashlights and bottled water as our nation’s computers would simply > shut down on January 1, 2000 — and with them the country itself. > > Get a grip. Much of our current panic is psychological, and hyped by > instantaneous electronic communications and second-by-second 24-hour news > blasts. There has not been a nationwide plague that felled our workers. No > earthquake has destroyed American infrastructure. The material United States > before the September 2008 financial panic is largely the same as the one > after. Once we tighten our belts and pay off the debts run up by Wall Street > speculators and millions of borrowers who walked away from what they owed > others — and we can do this in a $13 trillion annual economy — sanity will > return. > > Gas, now below $2 a gallon, is still falling — saving Americans hundreds of > billions of dollars. As housing prices settle, millions of young Americans > will buy homes that just recently were said to be out of reach of a new > generation. > > If it was once considered a sign of economic robustness that homes doubled in > value in just a few years, why is it seen as a disaster that they now sell on > the way down for what they did recently on the way up? If we were recently > terrified that gas would reach $5 a gallon, why do we now just shrug that it > might fall to $1.50? > > Unemployment is still below 7 percent; it was around 25 percent when Franklin > Roosevelt became president. Less than 20 banks have failed, not the 4,000 > that went under in the first part of 1933. > > We all wish Barack Obama to succeed as president. But there is no more reason > to panic and circumvent the Constitution for his early assumption of office > than there was for Bill Clinton to prematurely step aside in November 2000 in > favor of then President-Elect George W. Bush. > > We have now forgotten that by the end of the year 2000, the American economy > was sliding into recession. Lame-duck President Clinton had been impeached. > Vice President Al Gore had ostracized him from his presidential-election > campaign. In the presidential transition, Clinton was considering pardons for > Puerto Rican terrorists and most-wanted fugitive Mark Rich. > > George Bush is neither the source of all our ills nor the “worst” president > in our history. He will leave office with about the same dismal approval > rating as the once-despised Harry Truman. By 1953, the country loathed the > departing Truman as much as they were ecstatic about newly elected national > hero Dwight Eisenhower — who had previously never been elected to anything. > > As for Bush’s legacy, it will be left to future historians to weigh his > responsibility for keeping us safe from another 9/11-like attack for seven > years, the now increasingly likely victory in Iraq, AIDS relief abroad, new > expansions for Medicare, and federal support for schools versus the > mishandling of Hurricane Katrina, the error-plagued 2004-2007 occupation of > Iraq, and out-of-control federal spending. As in the case of the > once-unpopular Ulysses S. Grant, Calvin Coolidge, and Harry Truman, Bush’s > supposedly “worst” presidency could one day not look so bad in comparison > with the various administrations that followed. > > But these days even that modest assessment that things aren’t that bad — or > all that different from the past — may well elicit a hysterical reaction from > an increasingly hysterical generation. > > — Victor Davis Hanson is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution and a > recipient of the 2007 National Humanities Medal and the 2008 Bradley Prize. > > © 2008 TRIBUNE MEDIA SERVICES, INC. > > http://article.nationalreview.com/print/?q=ZGMzODEwMTJlNDBmYjRiYzRmMm... --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups. For options & help see http://groups.google.com/group/PoliticalForum * Visit our other community at http://www.PoliticalForum.com/ * It's active and moderated. Register and vote in our polls. * Read the latest breaking news, and more. -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
