Selling Woodstock in the 21st Century

One word review here: Amen. Not sure when my last such review of an Andrew Sullivan post has been, but this one is worth echoing:

It was an almost perfect line for the culture war he is still, alas, a part of. And it's a sign of some desperation. He wants to malign the Democrats as Woodstock hippies - still working after three decades! - while touting the torture "enhanced interrogation" he endured as a Viet Cong captive as an emblem of his patriotism. But notice how a politician still gets traction in our culture: not by addressing actual policies or even engaging current cultural arguments. He gets it by electro-charging up the ancient cultural divide that has prevailed since Vietnam and that still drives the boomers and those drawn into their orbit (i.e. the rest of us). This culture war is something we need to move beyond if we are to tackle the threats from abroad and make concrete, pragmatic reforms at home. And yet it's still indispensable in provoking the kind of emotional response that campaigns need to gain oxygen. Remember the Swift Boat attack? This is what Obama is up against. He's a post-boomer politician in a boomer-dominated discourse, where Woodstock and Vietnam are still the needle-changing motivators. Still. How many more election cycles do we have to go through before we get past this?

There's a certain side of me that wants to find the best in McCain. Primarily based on his 2000-2004 record. Funny things happen when folks start seeing their lifelong dream slip away from them, though. A simple hug of an unpopular President and cribbing of talking points from the 60s certainly goes a long way.

And, ironically, one of my few qualms with Hillary is that an eight-year run will simply prolong this discussion. Unfortunately, I'm not convinced that Obama has enough specifics and a track record to push the discourse off this track. Yet. Maybe by 2016 he or someone else will have it down. But even then, it's a reach. My sense is that the answer to Sully's question is a bit further away than he or I might wish for.