It occurred to me while reading this excellent post by Ocean Guy that John Kerry is playing hard to the overblown sense of nostalgia that a lot of baby boomers still have for the 60s. The late 60s. The era of tie-dyed San Francisco flowers in your hair anti-war dope smoking acid dropping free love pre-Woodstock hippies (who were not quite as numerous as the aging boomers who like to remember themselves that way).
Is Kerry offering a virtual fountain of youth to folks who want one last chance to relive those glory days? Or to those who narrowly missed them by their unfortunate accident of birth just a few years too late? Would his election, in fact, vindicate those long hours learning protest songs and spitting at anyone in a uniform? Would love beads come back? Would we get to hear more Country Joe and West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band on the radio? And maybe, just maybe, could we forget about all this terrorist stuff and go back to worrying about more concrete enemies -- like "the establishment" or "the military industrial complex"? But seriously, what does any of this have to do with electing a President?
I'll confess. I have quite a bit of my own nostalgia for "the 60s." I only hung out with people who agreed with me on everything back then, so I was always right, I was always cool and I never had to back up my very strong opinions with inconvenient facts. Life was good. Watching Juan Williams on Fox News Sunday this morning, I had a real flash of deja vu. But he has a problem, because when you sit on a panel in a national news program in 2004, you can't just make stuff up and get away with it.
Or maybe you can. I guess the upcoming election will prove me right or wrong. Williams is taking his cue from his candidate, who never met an embellishment or equivocation he didn't like.
Hey, back in the 60s, some people thought this guy would make a cool candidate for President. At least he was funny.
