Last night, Orrin Judd linked to an exceptional--and exceptionally prescient article by James Webb from the online edition of the May/June 1997 American Enterprise magazine.

Give it a quick read--I'll hang out here until you're done.

Back? Great. Is there anyone who doubts that the scenario it describes would be repeated in some form right now, if there was a President Kerry--or heck, even President Bush--and a Congress whose both halves were controlled by Democrats?

A couple of days ago, Glenn Reynolds wrote:

The Republicans have a lot of problems. Given a halfway palatable alternative, I would have supported a Democrat last time. But the Democrats are far too incoherent, if not outright irresponsible, on national security to trust. And every time they seem to have their act together, it falls apart again. Too bad.

To see that fallback position, and how we arrived there, click through the rest of the articles in that issue, which was devoted to analyzing the 1960s and how the mindset that it begat dominated the 1970s like worn-out shag carpeting, and will continue to linger on, apparently until the last baby boomer retires to the Carlos Santana Memorial Nursing Home.

Update: Roger L. Simon (who knows of whence he speaks) writes, "my suggestion to the fuddy-duddy progressives mourning 1968 is to live in 2005. Remember what your shrinks told you - live in the now".

Indeed^TM.

Another Update: California Conservative reminds us that radical boomers long ago lost their sense of humor. As I've written before, political correctness kills comedy.