In the 1960s the radicals of the day railed against “the establishment”. Hippies and yippies warned of the “Military Industrial Complex” and the “man”. They warned there were powerful interests that controlled American domestic and foreign policy. They implored people to “question authority”.
This group talked about “people power”. “Free speech” was sacrosanct. The radicals of that time famously warned that distant foreign wars were a waste of money and lives. Some even argued that the only solution was to get out of the rat race and check out to the hills, the “back to the land movement”. For many of these folks “live and let live” was an ethos that rang true. They advocated for tolerance and for equality among the races. These people, back then, were almost entirely on “the left”.
How times have changed.
Along the way the radicals got older and started doing coke instead of reefer. They bought Saabs (a luxury car -sorta- from a technically non-aligned state) and BMWs. Joni Mitchell morphed into Annie Hall. Then for a brief moment many of these people became Reaganites in the 80s. But it was short lived. Once Clinton came along with a yuppie friendly center-left message many Saab driving old hippies rediscovered their (mostly) lefty roots and came home to the Democratic Party. And there many Boomers have stayed to this day, patting themselves on the back for having voted Obama into office.
The one time anti-establishmentarians BECAME the establishment.
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