A blast from the past

From The American Spectator:

In the Sixties, if truth be told, a lot of students joined the anti-war movement for two fundamental reasons: that's where one found the best drugs and the hottest hippie chicks. How else were nerdy, unathletic upper middle class guys going to score? Let's face it, even today -- though Conservatism has come a long way -- not many girls get turned on by a Dick Cheney black light poster.

Patrick Korte wasn't born till midway through the Reagan Administration, but his sudden notoriety is proof that some things never change. Korte is one of those earnest upper middle class high school kids who hopes girls will make out with him if he plays the political radical in the Che Guevara T-shirt. Late last year Korte, a senior at Connecticut's tony Stonington High School, organized a group called "World Can't Wait: Drive Out The Bush Regime," but apparently the name was too dorky even for Stonington High School girls. So Korte did what comes natural to high school students. He plagiarized a few lines from an old history book.

Korte judged it would be cool to resurrect the moribund Students for a Democrat Society, the Sixties anti-establishment movement that in 1969 splintered into Maoist and terrorist factions, before ultimately self-destructing. The Connecticut teen styles himself as the reincarnation of SDS founder Tom Hayden (I know, he only seems dead) sans the movie star ex-wife. No slouch when it comes to academics, Korte has expertly memorized all the Left's usual cliches and gripes: U.S. imperialism, racism, sexism, poor education in the inner cities, pollution, homophobia, the prison-industrial complex, etc., etc. Naturally Korte and his new/old organization have no original ideas to resolve these issues, just the conventional strategy of attacking the current "authoritarian" administration. And I do mean "attack." For a peacenick Patrick Korte sounds an awful lot like a Marine sergeant in Anbar Province. He can scarcely open his mouth without spitting out the words "enemy," "militancy," "fight," "combat," "sink," "tearing down."

[Snip]

The SDS did play a bit role in the Sixties and America's subsequent moral, social and intellectual decline. (I suspect it was responsible for disco, too, though I can't prove it.) It took the U.S. decades to recover from that hangover, but thanks to Ronald Reagan's hair of the dog we survived. So no matter how unpopular the war in Iraq, it is doubtful that Americans (red state Americans, anyway) are going to put up with any more of SDS's shenanigans.

Patrick Korte plans to be in Chicago August 4-7 hosting the first SDS Convention in 37 years. Some of the old veterans will be there, captivating their younger audiences with tales of their heroic exploits of avoiding service in Vietnam. There'll be educational workshops and long mornings of vapid forums doubtless culminating with some idiotic demonstrations against the war. Hopefully the Chicago cops will be there too.

I'm old enough to remember the first SDS and the Black Panther Party and all the rest. I look forward to the amusing jape that will accompany their attempted resurrection.