Conservative Pundit Dennis Prager Fears the Whippersnapper Vote

Posted by Jill Filipovic, Feministe at 2:00 AM on June 18, 2008.

Shorter Dennis Prager: “Get offa my lawn!"

Most adults throughout history have recognized that young people are likely to be unwise given their minuscule amount of life experience. After all, most adults, even among baby boomers, believe that they themselves are wiser today than 10 years ago, let alone than when they were 20 years old. It is remarkable, then, how often adults romanticize youth involvement in politics — “Isn’t it heartwarming to see young people getting involved?”

Actually, for a wise adult, it is not heartwarming.

And by “wise adult,” he means Republican. Of course, the best part is that he starts his column like this:

We regularly hear about Barack Obama’s appeal to youth, about how he has been able to excite and mobilize a generation of young people to become politically involved, his rare ability to excite young people, and about how many new voters will register (and vote Democrat) as a result.

All this seems to be true. The question, however, is whether it is a good thing for the country and not just for Barack Obama and the Democratic Party.

The answer is that it probably is not. With a few exceptions — and those exceptions are usually those rare cases when young people confront dictatorships — when youth get involved in politics in large numbers, it is not a good thing.

Right, except when they overthrow dictators – just that minor little thing. Otherwise, they’re fools, the whole lot of ‘em.

He goes on to beat the same dead horse that wingnuts have been beating for several decades now: Vietnam. Because if those hippies with their sex and their counter-culture hadn’t kept shouting about how Vietnam was so bad, we would have won.

Really, you’ve had about forty years to get over this one. Get over it. You were on the wrong side of history, as conservative so often are. And Prager, you’re downright crotchety at this point. But I hope at least Young Republicans are wise enough to listen to their elders and get out of this political stuff ASAP.

Tagged as: youth, activism, vote, obama, conservative, prager