Jason's Space

The New York Times has a telling article today about Barack Obama and his role in the Neverending Story of 1960s generational politics -- or, in this case, lack thereof:

Mr. Obama calculates that Americans of all ages are sick of the feuding boomers and ready to turn to the generation that came of age after Vietnam, after the campus culture wars between freaks and straights... Obama is critical of the style and the politics of the 60s, when the psyches of most of his potential rivals for the White House were formed.

REVOLUTIONARY! The 60s are over? Who'd a thunk it? And as for Obama himself:

He is tieless and relaxed and oh so cool.

Heavens, no wonder the pundits all drool over him -- Barack is new, he's hip, he's funky. Congratulations America, your political journalists have entered 1975.

How else would you explain this bizarre illustration accompanying the Times article? It's a 70s-style Keep-On-Truckin' blaxploitation Obama, leaping merrily over what appears to be the cast of The Electric Company, and is captioned "Candidate Next" -- which, to me, has the ring of a rejected Shasta Cola slogan. Good Lord.

It's well established that our media is behind the times, but it takes a jolt like this to make you realize it's 30 years' worth. Not to mention how fixated they are on style; never mind that Bill Richardson singled-handedly brokered a ceasefire in Sudan, Barack Obama doesn't wear a tie! Stop the presses! It's the biggest thing since Nixon went on Laugh-In!

There is this endless media obsession with generational battles, at least on the Democratic side. Remember how Bill Clinton was the redeemer of Baby Boomers everywhere, just because he may or may not have "inhaled"? And now we have this epic battle between Boomer Hillary and Post-Boomer Obama; what a perfect narrative that is. Obama's just like the 70s -- smooth, stylized, substanceless -- and our political climate can always use a little "healing." Add some wanking about Generation X and you got yourself a Pulitzer Prize!

(Oddly, this doesn't seem to apply on the GOP side. George Bush grew up in ahistorical Connecticut preppy neverland, but we didn't hear about him being "out of touch with his generation" or anything. I guess Republicanism transcends time and space.)

The hilarious part is, nobody else thinks this way. Nobody but the media gives two shits whether our politicians are "facing new challenges that require a new political paradigm" and "moving beyond tired ideological battles." Nobody else worries about hippies coming back and staging a love-in at the Omni Shoreham. But our erstwhile DC reporters do, and until they get over it (i.e. never), we get to read about Barry Obama and his Leisure Suit Revolution. Please, Dems, when you make up your minds about the candidates, don't let crap like this cloud your decisions. It's 2007, these people are who they are, and there are bigger things at stake than symbolic progress.