Flower Power Ain't So Cool Anymore

The venomous Tea Bagging nincompoops of 2010 have give us a better understanding of American politics in the 1960s.

The radical, counter-culture movement of 1960s was grounded in, and driven by, personal freedoms and exceptionalism, and less so on the philosophy progressives hold dear, like human interdependence and the tacit recognition of innate human flaws.

Forgetting about personal heroes, and legendary pop figures, like Joan Baez, Joni Mitchell, and Neil Young, the often lionized politics of the 1960s, when examined, is disappointingly me-centric:

• Don't let me be drafted, and
• Don't let the government dictate my personal habits;

rather than a generational plea for fundamental fairness, or a generational acceptance of the pragmatic logic of collectivism.

Personal Freedoms Over Collectivism

Through this lens, Flower Power ain't so cool anymore.

Many hippies were no more than over-indulgent, self-centered libertarians, who might just have devolved into the bitter tea baggers so prominently featured on the Ninny-News-Channel.

The music of the 1960s was insanely good, though.


Joe Cocker - Woodstock 1969.

Follow The Money

Ever find you can't fathom your representative's position or motives? Then Google his campaign contributions. Sometimes it's a head scratcher.

Delousing powder is stocked at the Center for Responsive Politics. For federal campaign data, do a disclosure data search at the Federal Election Commission website.

To follow the money trail in state politics, go to the National Institute on Money in State Politics.

If you think the US Senate did an egregious disservice in 2009-10 by failing to look out for the best interests of their constituents during the 12+ month health insurance reform circus, then consider the top 10 Senators to receive contributions from the pharmaceutical and health products industry from Jan'09 to Sep'09: