Democrats' Move to the Right Profoundly Affects our Young People and Our Future.

[TM99]

81. You are writing the truth

and while I do feel for the upcoming generations, I particularly lament my own - Generation X.

I remember these things as well. I was a young boy - born in the late 1960's - to parents and grandparents who lived this reality you describe. It wasn't perfect. Nothing ever is, but I watched as a young knowing teen when Reagan wormed his way to power. It was bad under him, Bush Sr. and Clinton. Bush Jr. brought war and bankruptcy to this nation. And now Obama is part of the crew who will finish it off.

I am not of the instant-grat generation. I still worked hard. From summer jobs to pay for school to driving an old clunker into the ground because I couldn't yet afford my first 'new' car. I let the military pay some of my school in exchange for shit I wish I had never experienced or seen. Moving back in with my parents would never have been an option for me or any of the friends I ever knew.

I do not envy Boomers. I do not begrudge Millenials. I do fear for those of us who are now in our late 30's to early 50's. Will there be Social Security for us when we reach retirement age? Will there be Medicare? I wasn't career military so I can't expect that pittance. How many of us will own our houses? I have always rented. Where is the retirement? I and so many of us will be working till we die. After all, we are saddled with house, education, and credit card debt as much as the 20 year olds are today. After I lost my savings to disease, chemotherapy, and recovery, I have had to accept that I may never, no matter how hard I work, get back what I lost. I am expecting to be paying on student loans alone till I am 75!

My parents, though very old now, have a hard time understanding how radically different my and my partner's 40's and 50's are compared to their own. They had secure jobs. They had a secure home & mortgage. They had pensions to look forward to as well as Social Security and Medicare. My parents are hardly wealthy, but I know they do not worry about their base security needs as they approach death. Will I? Will my love? Will my best friend and my sisters?

Obama and Democrats moving beyond the concept of even Right or Left straight into corporate totalitarianism affects all of us...not just the young. I was right not to vote for him in 2008. I had no choice in 2012, I tell myself. What a damned disappointment 'hope and change' turned out to be, eh?!