A noted writer and Republican leader among elite conservative thinkers, William Kristol, wrote an opinion piece in The Bulwark that raises valid questions concerning the Biden-Harris administration and Donald J Trump's political losses. What will the end of the Trump era be like? ---it certainly does not appear to be finished. What will a Democratic regime accomplish? What will the USA have learned about itself?
More important, who will be the leaders in the next 32-year period of changes and what will those changes look like?
I will not repeat the good stuff of Kristol's article. I want to present my own ideas, partly in answer to some of Kristol's questions, partly to summarize what I worry about, what my expectations are, what my aspirations look like.
I was born in 1953. Donald J Trump and Joe Biden represent the Baby Boomer generation and the end of its political reign. It has been a reign of terror. Since coming of age to actively participate in our nation's politics, the disintegration of a once-thriving middle class, of jobs in both urban and rural areas, of a once-proud public education system, of local law enforcement agencies into militarized bullies, and of the Constitutional separation between religious and state powers took place with little resistance. The nation's Boomers were once divided on war, the draft, and racial injustices. Our parents may have showed us the divide; we took shovels to it. Instead of building bridges and healing the fissures, we grabbed what we could for ourselves and elected governments that laughed at the divide.
My daughter now 29 years old says that her generation is panicked by the mess that is left to them. First, their chances to establish stability were diminished by the endless wars, the 2009 crash and its fallout, student loan debts, job losses and the shortage of affordable housing. Add to that, they have experienced sharp increases in gun violence and police brutality. There is no point in comparing this younger generation to the reputed Greatest Generation. However, we should be grateful that this young group probably saved us from another Donald J Trump term in the White House. They did turn out to vote.
We left these messes to our children and grandchildren. We, the generation that held antiwar demonstrations and vowed to upend the institutions that supported racial inequalities. That heralded greater access to upward mobility. Except we fell to selfish endeavors. After a brash beginning to our adult lives, we found quick "riches" in easy credit lines and real-estate bubbles and inheritances. All too quickly, the divide between easy-street and real struggle began to grow. Instead of using our privileges to generate solutions to growing problems, we reveled in selfish endeavors and the pursuit of power and greed.
Of course there are standouts. Every generation has them. The Great Depression had its photographers who captured riots and hunger and gender inequality so that powerful white men could empathize with the people's struggles and bring about change. World War II had its writers and artists who questioned the nation's internment policies, Japanese and Italian internment, and the unjust policies at war's end that disenfranchised women and Black workers, the workers and soldiers who had helped win the war. Other generations since have given us people who care about the environment, sustainability, income inequality. The reason we have a growing industry of sustainable energy in opposition to the powerful oil and gas industries is that some people willingly fight against the curve and resist the temptations to join the status quo.
The Baby Boomer generation voted for Donald J Trump. The majority of older white men and women voted for authoritarianism and white supremacy. Their children and grandchildren voted to end the Baby Boomer reign. Even though Joe Biden is ten years older than I am, they voted for him because he can wield power for the changes they want. And Kamala Harris, a much younger woman, will expertly guide the Biden Administration toward these changes.
My crystal ball is dulled from decades of wishing and dreaming and lamenting the political stalemates that eventually brought about the Trump era. Most Democrats and Republicans alike, though for different reasons, blame Donald J Trump and his ridiculous crime family for our nation's close encounter with fascism. No. This regime is merely the boil on the inner thigh of a diseased nation. The Baby Boomers brought us here.
In my novel, LITTLE TEXAS, I say that older generations owe the younger generations. I stand by that. We created the messes; we must help clean them up. Maybe this isn't what we wanted in our last years but, it is what will improve our last years, what will ensure our legacy as movers and shakers, what will determine that our children and grandchildren are faithful participants in a thriving liberal democratic republic. We came too close to losing this opportunity.