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2008 Campaign

Family Security Matters does not stand behind or endorse any candidate for president (or any other public office). However, as the President is also Commander-in-Chief and is responsible for setting national security policy, we will be publishing a variety of articles on both the Republican and Democrat candidates for President during this election year. As always, the opinions of our Contributing Editors are their own, and do not necessarily reflect those of Family Security Matters.

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July 25, 2008

Welcome Surprises Mingle with Disturbing Questions

Colonel Kenneth Allard (US Army, ret.)

During the dog days of a long summer, two recent and particularly nice surprises are worth sharing.

You may recall that this column has recently “had issues” with the New York Times, even going so far as to point out that our “newspaper of record” is distinguishable chiefly as a lighthouse of media bias. Possibly you can then imagine the delight of awakening on Monday to find that an editorial submitted by John McCain had just been rejected by the Times, consistent with its policy of elevating condescension to an art form.

Matt Drudge reported that Times editor David Shipley had delivered the bad news with a lock-jawed yuppie sneer: “It would be terrific to have an article by Senator McCain that mirrors Senator Obama’s [earlier one but] I’m not going to be able to accept this piece as currently written.” Recognizing a gift horse when they saw one, the McCain campaign promptly withdrew their submission. As the Huffington Post noted with wonderful sarcasm, the former POW might have had a better shot if he had somehow been able to summon his “inner Maureen Dowd.”

That might have been enough but on the same day a Rasmussen telephone poll was published showing that “49% of voters believe most reporters will try to help (Obama) with their coverage.” All by itself, that insight might mean that the education system hasn’t yet failed completely. But best of all was the nugget buried deep in the Rasmusssen Report: “Just 24% of American voters have a favorable opinion of the New York Times” – and most of them are apparently Starbucks drinkers. “Sir, would you like a little shot of liberal bias to go with that double decaf latte?”

The second nice surprise was Mamma Mia, which ended a mid-summer drought of really bad movies. Having loved Abba’s music since the 1970s, this is hard to admit: but after ten years, the later stage versions have seemed somewhat dated, even shopworn. Not so the movie, which featured lively song and dance numbers by such familiar actors from my generation as Meryl Streep and Pierce Brosnan. They looked and sounded good - surely aided by make-up, good lighting and liberal doses of oxygen between takes. The producers also had the good sense to show ‘70s-era costumes only when the script required dependable bursts of audience laughter.

There was enthusiastic applause as the movie ended but afterwards it was hard to resist the thought that Mama Mia might have been sub-titled: The Baby-Boomers Hit Their Sixties. It was equally hard to resist a disturbing question: what legacy will the Boomers leave when our last song and dance numbers fade away? One good if obvious answer: civil rights. My generation, of course, did not begin that revolution. But we joined it, embraced it and helped graft it permanently into the nation’s culture. Having marched in civil rights demonstrations as college students, we may now help elect a black senator as president this fall – particularly if the press has anything to say about it.

But it is hard to be terribly proud of much else, although my approach is admittedly contrarian. Only three of us from my college class ever served in the military because Boomers always found it easier to raise our voices in protest rather than to put ourselves at personal risk. Dennis Hopper, another actor in his 60s, now does retirement commercials, his supremely self-indulgent tones annoyingly intact. It is more than enough to make you reflect about spiritual values and the personal examples we have passed along to our kids. Last weekend, for example, Mamma Mia competed with the new Batman movie, tailored for the under-30 crowd. Yet one of its co-stars had already died tragically of a drug overdose while the other was just arrested for assaulting his mother.

The thing to remember about values is that their importance seems over-rated until you really need them. And that history - whether the result of war, financial collapse, or social upheaval - has a nasty way of testing relentlessly complacent societies when they least expect it.

FamilySecurityMatters.org Contributing Editor Col. (Ret) Ken Allard is a former NBC military analyst, the author of Warheads, and a columnist with the San Antonio Express-News. E-mail him at Warheads6@aol.com.