To borrow a term from
the hippies' 1960's vernacular, "flashback" 40-50 years and take a
look at liberals' ideologies and how those ideologies have changed since the
1960's:
The United States in the 1960's was marked by tremendous
social upheaval. Beginning in the early-1950's, black Americans staged
widespread protests demanding equal rights. Monumental legislation allowing
African-Americans to sit at the same lunch counter as Caucasians was passed in
1964. The 1960's also brought us the war in Viet Nam, the Sexual Revolution and
the free love that it brought, marijuana and LSD, and groundbreaking rock music
which reflected the aforementioned social changes.
One of the catch-phrases of the 1960's was, "Don't
trust anyone over thirty (years of age)." Distrust of "the
establishment" was widespread during this period of time and massive
demonstrations, many protesting the war, were commonplace. America closed out
the decade of the 1960's with the rock music festival known as Woodstock.
Woodstock represented the pinnacle of the counter-culture. Free-love and drug
use were widespread as hippies indulged in an orgy - both figuratively and
literally - of drugs, sex, and rock 'n' roll.
The distrust of the older generation paralleled widespread
hatred of the government. One popular 60's rock anthem warned youth that if
they, "...step out of line, the man (will) come and take you away,"
(Buffalo Springfield's song, For What It's Worth).
Fast forward to the second decade of the 21st century. Now,
it seems, that the aging liberal hippies have done an about-face. The left no
longer distrusts the government; they now love it and, in a manner of speaking,
seem to almost worship it. Something has changed. The same hippies - who once
espoused their right to ingest whatever substance they wanted without "the
man" telling them that they couldn't - now seem to welcome the government
telling them how to live their lives. No longer do the hippies want the
government to leave them alone; they relish the government regulating everything
from the food that they eat, to the kind of car they can drive, to the kind of
light bulbs they can and cannot use, and, most surprisingly, what kind of
health insurance they MUST carry.
Ironically, the government throughout the 1960's, was
controlled mostly by liberals. Conservatives in government were the minority as
proven by the crushing defeat of Republican Barry Goldwater by Democrat Lyndon
Johnson in the presidential elections of 1964.
Now, in 2012, the same liberals that once detested being
told how to live their lives (in The Animals' song, It's My Life, Eric Burdon proclaims,
"It's my life and I'll do what I want"), now espouse a government
telling, not just them, how to live their lives, but telling EVERYONE how they
should live their lives. When the US was involved militarily in Viet Nam,
protests were everywhere - many violent. The US has now been fighting in
Afghanistan for over ten years, but barely a peep is heard from liberals.
Amazingly, the hippies of the 1960's, who were so adamant in
their "leave me alone" message of the time, now welcome "the
man's" intrusion into their lives. Bob Dylan's song, Subterranean Homesick
Blues, contains the following line: "Johnny's in the basement mixing up
the medicine; I'm on the pavement thinkin' about the government."
Now, instead of fearing the government, most liberals are beating the pavement actually
CHEERING the government.
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