Well, I sure think so.
And yet the self-fellating goes on, and we even get unwarranted help from our sorry junior eagle scout late boomers and early X-ers. Case in point: this post by one Nathan Newman:
http://coffeehouse.tpmcafe.com/blog/coffeehouse/2007/jan/15/new_left_netroots_and_the_other_lefts
After the media hype of the Vietnam War, this country saw an explosion of institutional rejuvenation and creation the likes of which we have rarely seen.I once had a lawyer helping me negotiate a purchase and sale agreement for a commercial property. At one point in the process, he told me: "Owen, I can get ya the ears, the tail, the hooves, prolly the asshole, and maybe the dick in this deal -- but not the tenderloins." I'm afraid we boomers got the asshole -- actually, a whole crowd of assholes -- and not much else.Local and state governments were challenged and radically changed. Cities where rightwing local leaders had sicked dogs on civil rights campaigners were taken over by new black progressive leaders, who would become mayors of cities across the country.
New community organizations, from ACORN to Citizen Action groups to a range of other organizations grew and expanded throughout the 1970s, becoming the backbone of what some called the "Backyard Revolution" that changed local politics across the country in ways we often take for granted.
From barely being a blip in American consciousness, the environmental movement built a host of new institutions, from the PIRGs to the League of Conservation Voters to local environmental organizations in communities across the country.
The feminist movement similarly emerged out of the New Left and built its own set of institutions and sought leadership in a range of existing institutions-- and the new female Speaker of the House is just one testament to the success of that long march through the institutions by progressive women.
Comments (7)
I can't imagine the kind of insanity and disconnect from history it takes to consider the post-Vietnam period some sort of leftist golden age.
Posted by Djur | March 19, 2007 9:47 PM
Posted on March 19, 2007 21:47
Djur -- We don't have to imagine. All we have to do is watch.
Posted by MJS | March 19, 2007 10:04 PM
Posted on March 19, 2007 22:04
After the media hype of the Vietnam War, this country saw an explosion of institutional rejuvenation and creation the likes of which we have rarely seen.
And yet what I remember is this.
Posted by Stanley W. Rogouski | March 19, 2007 10:31 PM
Posted on March 19, 2007 22:31
...becoming the backbone of what some called the "Backyard Revolution" that changed local politics across the country in ways we often take for granted.
More properly called the Not In My Backyard Revolution.
Posted by Reechard | March 20, 2007 1:29 AM
Posted on March 20, 2007 01:29
"So what really did happen after the love-in was over"
I wasn't there, but what I heard is the New Left grew a huge yellow streak after the guns came out at Kent State. Figuring that "the inner revolution" had to be accomplished before the somewhat more dangerous real thing, they dropped out and started esting and rolfing and finding their inner children.
But, again, I wasn't there. Maybe they all just got into disco.
Posted by AlanSmithee | March 20, 2007 6:31 AM
Posted on March 20, 2007 06:31
alan
in my estimattion
despite a personal yellow streak wider then
the deep blue sea
i think i can fairly claim
here's things about my generation
worse even then its yellow streak
like its
vanity and pride
which put " our souls "
so far up our own asses
we have occasionally
to spit chunks of it
back out our pie holes
yes
the personal quest
for a meaningful fruitful
gratifying
"high place of my own"
and if not for me
then for my own very special
off spring
-----------------
never underestimate the remorphed
striver ambitions
of the woodstock gen's
" leadership" cohorts
Posted by owen p | March 20, 2007 9:09 AM
Posted on March 20, 2007 09:09
Pelosi is the apothesis of some kind of universal feminist triumph ?
I think I'm ready for that sex change now... (Retch.)
Posted by ms_xeno | March 21, 2007 2:23 PM
Posted on March 21, 2007 14:23