The speech Jeff Pope wrote is all well and good for the under-30 set, but it seems to me that McCain ought to be more concerned about the generation just before theirs: tail-end Boomers and older Gen-X’ers. This is the first generation raised mainly on liberal Boomer values, brought up to believe that self-esteem, self-fulfillment, self-identity and such could be had, and made paramount, without causing the downfall of the Republic. Barack Obama himself comes from this generation (as do I, for the sake of full disclosure), and unlike the under-30′s we actually vote in considerable numbers.
A President McCain would not only have to pass on the traditional American ethic to the under-30′s, but he would also have to find some way to reconcile it with the “autonomy ethic”, if you will, that millions of Boomers and Gen-X’ers were born and raised with, formed their lives around, and may or may not be ready, willing or even able to abandon so late in the game. For better or worse, McCain needs their votes at least as much as the under-30 votes, and he won’t get them if they perceive that he finds them expendable.
