Then today, it finally hit me.  These youngsters are our offspring.  As they grew up, they learned how terrible the country was for people of color back before the 1960s.  They also learned how an anti-war movement composed of mainly white "hippies" joined forces with civil rights groups and subsequently forced one President to retire early, helped get another to resign, and helped bring an end to a terrible war.  Powerful stuff, and it seemingly all came from the idealistic activism of their parents.  That's you and me.  We taught them that anything was possible.  Whether we wanted to or not, we taught them to distrust authority, and that it was better to make love than war.

So then, along comes a black man; an eloquent, black, peace-loving man; an inspiring, thoughtful, anti-war man of color; a young, brilliant, successful, African-American man;  an eloquent, inspiring, anti-war, multi-racial, brilliant, well-spoken, African-American, peace-loving, successful and unusually gifted man; and what do our kids do?  We taught them fairly well, so naturally they listen to his message.  And what's his message?  Well, it's "change", "end the war", and "we can all work together as Americans".  So, they think, 'I love what he's saying, he must be the guy'.  They think, 'He's our MLK, RFK, JFK, and Clean Gene all wrapped up together, and I can't wait to get started on our very own crusade to change America.  Mom and Dad will be so excited!'  And so, as Democrats (particularly young Democrats) so often do, they fall in love with their guy.  The children of the flower-children fall in love with the peace-loving guy who says that we can, 'make nice together, not make war'.

Then he becomes a sensation.  Well, at least in the Democratic Party, he becomes a sensation.  And our kids tell us excitedly that he will lead our party to a great victory in November.  They just know that he will because <u>   (insert various mostly illogical reasons)    </u>!

Naturally, we think they are crazy.  But they're not quite crazy.  They're just young and in love with a politician for the first time.  So they can't see his faults.  And, as is typical for all new lovers, they can't stand it when we point them out.  "That's just like you Clinton people," they say, "always so negative!"

Meanwhile, our Hillary campaigns with brilliant plans for their future and their children's future, repeatedly displaying her customary competence and expertise; but unfortunately, at this early to mid-point in their lives, many of our off-spring have difficulty fully relating to and appreciating such hard-earned competence, so they don't even ask their guy to measure up, and argue that his style is so new and different and better that policy differences don't matter to them.  They say he can and will work all that out later with Congress, and he won't listen to any lobbyists.  Evidently, we begin to think, we didn't teach them quite well enough.

And now their guy has the lead.  He has the momentum.  He has the money.  He has the media.  He even has some very good ideas.  But his candidacy still doesn't inspire us.  We worry that he might get nominated and then lose the general election.  We worry that he might win the general election, but then fail to implement anything worth the effort it will take to get him elected.  We worry that his prime and his time has not yet come.  We worry that our kids will become disillusioned with politics.  We worry about the future of our country.

Hillary worries about our future too.  But she doesn't just worry; she soldiers on, day by day, campaign stop to campaign stop, debate to debate.  And she does so with all the energy and enthusiasm of a much younger person, all the while displaying the confidence and competence we all expect of her.  How does she do it, and why does she do it?  She can do it because she is already more than ready for day 1 in the White House.  Her competence and dedication shines through.  And she does it because of her deep love for our country, our people, and our world.  

Our children have fallen in love with him.

Our candidate has fallen in love with us.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I2Om-c9IM jw

I only hope that our children's children will one day be able to appreciatively wear symbolic flowers in their hair and look back on the 2008, 2012, 2016, and 2020 elections and say, "Thanks, Mom and Dad, Grandma and Grandpa, for coming together and doing the right things for us."

[editor's note, by Clarkin08] Diary has been edited per comments received.