80s wisdom 

Your father's wisdom, based on the platitudes of conservative GOP politicians like Ronald Reagan. The belief that if you let the economy lie, it'll do just fine. Similarly, staunch social conservatism, which implies opposition to LGBT marraige, and legalizing weed and prostitution. In my opinion, economic conservatism is right in principle, but social conservatism gives the Republican party a terrible, terrible name.

Just remember, it's common to disagree with the generation that shapes you. It happens constantly; it's natural. In doing so, though, you gravitate a little more towards the generation that shaped the generation that shaped you. Which means, in a way, that the 2012 election is similar in a way to the election of 1972, where Richard Nixon, Republican conservative, was re-elected, and promptly cut remaining federal spending from vestiges of Lyndon B. Johnson's Great Society. This election is like that election in that the voters who are turning 18 were raised by the voters who were turning 18 then, and it is the youth who make a difference in the elections these days, because the Internet is full of them.

So disagree with your parents, and eschew traditional 80s wisdom. But recognize that when you get older, you may realize that it was right.

"Young Republicans have no heart. Old Democrats have no brain."

You: The rich have too much money! Let's tax them!

Dad: The government has to realize that if you pile tax after tax on the rich, they lose the ability to waste money on things they don't need. When they waste money on things they don't need, they revitalize everything else. Young liberals these days just get jealous that rich people can relax and blow money after a life of hard work.

You: Thanks for the 80s wisdom, dad.

80s wisdom by Generation X is boss September 7, 2011