Who of us old hippies would have ever envisioned that when we

[madokie]

reached this point in our existence that the one who ascended to the oval office would be someone like the bumbling idiot in there now, I sure didn't. I thought it would be someone who maybe experimented with alternate conscientiousness's and that had seen the light so to say. Not someone who is totally deluded. If I would have tripped with * he would have been the one who I would have put out in the cold or wherever to fend for him/herself, to be avoided with all effort from that point onward. I must say I am surprised at this later in life development.

[Atman]

1. It just goes to show that what they taught us in school is correct...

"In America, anybody can become president."

Absolutely any freakin' clown with a pulse and a few billion dollars.

[madokie]

4. or that has no scruples

[CountAllVotes]

20. no it proves my late father was right

money talks and bullsh*t walks ... :evilfrown:

[RaleighNCDUer]

27. ...while monied bullshit both walks and talks. nt

[Totally Committed]

2. I am shocked and sad every, single day....

I keep hoping I'll wake up and find it was all a bad dream...

TC

[Pharaoh]

3. Yes he should be given acid

and then forced to walk around one of his war zones..........

[TAPat]

6. Harsh, Dude! nt

[CountAllVotes]

21. hey no sh*t!

In our wildest dreams would this ever happen eh?

[Atman]

8. Remember the scene in Apocolypse Now, tripping in trenches...

as they were trying to take the bridge? That was great. Can you just envision Chimpy ankle deep in mud and his buddies' blood, tripping like a mofo, while the bad guys taunted him with cries of "FUCK YOU, CHARLIE!" through the darkness? That would be classic!

"Fuck you, Charlie Bush! You should no go AWOL, Charlie, or you be fly plane and not stuck in ditch! Fuck you, Charlie!"

Oh, but if we could only turn back time!

[madokie]

9. you did there for a moment

does that ever happen to you

[TAPat]

5. I'm on the very young end of the "old hippie"

spectrum, but yeah, there's a guy who would definitely bum a good trip! ;)

[madokie]

7. still bumming mine and I haven't dropped any in years

[On the Road]

10. Unfortunately, John Mitchell Was Correct When He Said:

"This country is going so far to the right you're not going to recognize it."

I went to high school in Ohio from 1967-71. My parents were politically conservative Presbyterians. Then I went to college in the South.

So no, I was never under the impression that the counterculture would win over the country or that future presidents would be inspired by it. I'm actually pleasantly surprised by how much of what's good in that era has been retained.

[laststeamtrain]

11. I know exactly what you're saying/asking...

...I'm 54 & my girl & I play this game; she's a few years younger.
"In 1970, where did you think we'd be in 30 years?"
It sure wasn't here.
Maybe that's part of what's wrong. Eye off the ball.
There were always ROTC nazis. Who knew they'd be in charge at this point.
Favorite 'what if': What if Carter had had a second term?
No wet brain Reagan trickle down BS. I know people who got 'tax breaks' for solar panels back in the day.
Sorry for my rambling. I just never thought twisted cold-war left-overs like Cheney-Rumsfeld-etc. would still be around...
Except maybe on the John Birch Society lecture circuit...

[CountAllVotes]

25. my best friend and I saw this coming

In fact, we both vowed to never have any children. We thought to ourselves, "You think it is fucked up now, give it another 30 years or so!" So neither of us ever had any kids thank god. We have NO regrets either.

The writing was ON THE WALL - JFK murdered, RFK, murdered, MLK murdered. What the hell else was left to believe in we asked ourselves? We saw nothing but a Tricky Dick and a possible war without end even then.

However, I do agree with other posters on this thread. If we could take a step back to 1968 or so, there would be riots in the streets, you can believe that much!

:grr:

:kick:

[catmandu57]

12. What hurts is that he's one of ours

By that I mean the age range that have shared the experiences and events that have shaped our lifes, chimpy* must have got ahold of the brown acid at sometime in his life.

[livetohike]

19. Unfortunately, I don't think it was the brown acid because even

if it was, he would have learned something.

No, he is just a jerk. One that in High School everyone would laugh at how obnoxious he was, all the while he would be thinking he was popular.

[catmandu57]

26. Couldn't you just see his buddies pulling one on him

slipping drugs into his drink to have some fun?

[livetohike]

28. That's exactly the type of person I think he was back then

and I could see that happening just as you described.

[lonestarnot]

32. He have never been nor will he ever be one of ours. Age is the only

common factor.

[wtmusic]

13. Kind of puts a damper on the idea of progress

two steps forward, one back?

or vice versa?

[xchrom]

14. here's what pisses me off -- i'm an old hippie -- and people are still

bitching about the ''far left'' but the country can elect george bush and that's not seen as extreme by either moderate repukes or moderate dems?

well i still live in hippie heaven -- the bay area.

and right now -- i ain't leaving -- the rest of the country looks nuts to me.

and yes -- george really did prove the adage that anybody can become president -- anybody -- proving that it was never a very good folk saying.

[johnaries]

15. Creedence. "Fortunate Son". 'nuff said. nt.

[demnan]

16. I really thought we'd be further along by now

I figured we would have peace as well.

[democrank]

17. Oh, madokie......

I think of this so often. Each morning for the last couple of years, I`ve been CERTAIN I`d wake up, snap on cable "news" and find hundreds of thousands of people in the streets. I was sure citizens would be ptotesting the warrantless wiretaps, the secret torture prisons, the signing statements, lies about WMDs, even the national debt, on and on ad nauseam.

This I know....if the Constitution had been trashed like this and Congress had refused to fulfill its oversight responsibility back during the times you mentioned, the streets would be full and would stay full until something changed.

The majority of people in every single anti-war march I attend are 55 and older. I`m 61 and I`ll march against this kind of grievous abuse until the day I drop dead.

[Hubert Flottz]

18. It just drives home this truth for me...

Bush is not in charge of the country OR his own mind.

[bridgit]

22. hubby has mentioned over & again, were this to have happened...

in the 60's the entire nation would have burst into flames

[livetohike]

23. I can remember how happy I was watching Clinton's inauguration

and thinking that finally our generation would have a chance to do some good in this world.

These past six years have been a nightmare. Bush is just a puppet being led by the older generation.

He is definitely not someone I would have hung out with back in the 60's and 70's. He never was one of us.

Now how on earth did he get elected? Sadly, there are many of us who turned NeoCon - apparently.

[acmejack]

24. Many defectors from the dream.

Think of the people who were all for peace and love back in the day but are now so far to the right that it hurts. I know many of them. I just cannot understand how people can change their belief system so totally.

[bluedonkey]

30. They never believed in the 'dream'

they just went along with it,because it was the 'in' thing to do.
I know many of them

[Beausoleil]

39. Agree

Just as I'm convinced of that of a lot of Bush voters. As long as they're on the popular team. Self-centered assholes then and now. Can't be thought of as a loser or uncool.
As least that's how I've rationalized to myself how so many of our generation have gone against everything we've stood for since the 60's and 70's. They didn't have any principles to begin with.

[RaleighNCDUer]

31. It depends on how they came into it in the first place.

When I first met my now-ex, she seemed to be this cool hippie chick - but it was a reactionary stance. Her positions were oppositional, because her parents were wealthy repubs. Eventually I saw through the facade and recognised the self-serving, corner cutting, insincerity of her true self. We got divorced about the time she started listening to Rush Limbaugh on a daily basis.

Just as there are atheists who hate religion because of their fundie upbringing, there were a lot of hippies who were anti-establishment because of their establishment upbringing. They are always the first to swing back to their roots and become zealots for what they briefly despised.

ON EDIT: IMO, a real hippie is one who comes to it from a positive place, just as a true atheist arrives at atheism through logic and rational deduction. An atheist who hates religion is not an atheist, but an anti-theist, a flip side of the same coin. Similarly, a nonconformist who is a product of teenage rebellion rather than an acceptance of basic principles is just a conformist to a non-conformist norm, who will continue to conform when the wind changes.

Does that make sense?

[madokie]

36. Sure it does and by that measure I am a true athiest and a true hippie

I personally may not have much but I do have conviction

[madokie]

34. one of my good friend went over to the dark side years ago

it doesn't mean we can't still be friends, it only means I have to hold my tongue sometimes and I'm sure he too. but I do. As Dennis the Menace told Joey one time, a friend is someone who knows you really really good and still likes you.

[MamaBear]

29. Not me.

Every now and again I drag out my *really old* Beach Boys albums, from the surf and car era, and listen to them sing about the guy who had the fastest land time, The Spirit of America is, I think, the name of the cut.

I know I am better off now knowing the bitter truth about my government and the leaders of that government, and how even then we were an imperialist power in the world.

Still, there seemed to be those who opposed the trend. Leaders to rally around.

Of all the things I miss and mourn, it is our leadership. Does nobody stand up because they know if they get too close to real power, a magic bullet awaits?

[OnionPatch]

33. Two steps forward, one step back

seems to be the way of history from my observance.

Happily, overall, I think humanity has become more liberal when you look at the really big picture over centuries. But there are always fits and starts and backward steps. Many steps forward during the sixties. Inertia in the 70's and 80's. Now we are having a couple of mega-backward steps right now. I have to trust that we are now due for some mega steps forward. Of course I am going to help the process along as much as I am able. :)

[madokie]

35. Thanks for the reminder. If ever, man is due some mega steps forward

it is now.

[Skidmore]

37. Who of us ever thought that the generation that stood

up against war and for civil rights and women's rights would now be the generation putting forward a body of elected officials who are enthusiastically going about dismantling all of those hard won rights and even the very Constitution.

[Pharaoh]

41. well had they not stolen elections

and done other evil nasty things behind the scenes we would be living in a much better world, no this is evil incarnate we are dealing with and as history has shown this will just run it's course till people wake up and sanity is restored,

But I hate to think of what the planet will look like then :hide:

[yorkiemommie1]

38. I was so optimistic back then

who knew they could backpedal so fast? what a nightmare.

[otohara]

40. I Was Oblivious to Christian Right Movement

they've been planning this right-wing take over of the govt. for years. Prop up phony X-tian to the White House and convince sheeple that it's the GOP with their greedy goals, phony pro-life movement as the party of Christian's.