Like many people I spend allot of time watching what is going on in Iowa. I worked an Iowa Caucus when I was 20 in 1988 and believe it or not I was campus chair for George H.W. Bush. That was a lifetime ago and I am today supporting my senator Barack Obama for president.
Obama is the first candidate that I have ever given substantial money to and the first candidate in my 40 years whose message I believe in fully. I am not naive I realize that the Senator is a politician- but I also realize that what he is saying and what he represents matters to me and to my generation. Those of us who grew up under Reagan and Bush I, the Gen Xers are a small group but if there is something that all of us share- right or left is that we are tired of hearing about the 1960's from our parents and their friends.
The Entire 60's experience was great for them but for us we remember only the remains of the "glory" and the constant acrimonious debates over every issue- while the Baby Boomers spend us into bankruptcy. The issues today are not the 1960's issues and that is what Hillary Clinton and George W Bush epitomize- old debates and old ways. We are ready to move beyond all of this and address real issues clearly and to realize that we live in a complex world- one where the old ways don't work. We do not want to run away from the mix that is our world.
Barack Obama says it straight. He wants to have today's conversation about issues that matter. I think Barack Obama's appeal is kind of like that scene in Its a Wonderful Life where after seeing what his world would be like without him- George Bailey is crying in the snow and he says " I want to Live Again" that is where America is today. We have had enough of debating whether Lyndon Johnson or Barry Goldwater were right it is time to live again and to believe again in something other than the 1960's. I am looking forward to waking from this dream to the fresh snow of Bedford Falls and leave this Pottersville behind.
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