EDLL

David Broder in his January 22 Op-Ed in the Washington Post, "Born to Build Bridges," argues that President Obama, "by virtue of his birth date and birthplace, is spared the psychological burden" of the battles that mark the baby boomer generation.  He implies that this generation can be summed up and dismissed from history in the old and tired debates of "our two baby boomer presidents," Bill Clinton and George W. Bush. President Obama, however, by virtue of his birth is actually a baby boomer himself, a generation spanning all those born between 1945 and 1964. A richer insight into the generational significance of these three baby boomer presidents may be that the former two symbolize the tragedy and the latter the triumph of this generation.

Clinton clearly represents the prodigality of talents and passions that characterize the creative and affluent coming of age of his generation during the 1960s. But ultimately, his legacy is the tragedy of unfulfilled promise due to self-indulgence and moral aimlessness. Bush, in turn, represents the moral certitude of the truth-seekers of his generation and correspondingly the tragedy due to a failure to listen and appreciate the complexity and diversity of perspectives and cultures that is required of both leadership and citizenship in our modern age.

President Obama, on the other hand, represents the triumph of his generation by his appeal to the enduring values and truths of our democracy and his style of strenuous pragmatism to fulfill these values in the realities of our present time. His ascendancy is not a passing of the torch from one generation to the next, but rather a clarion call to all generations to lead and to serve, to be responsible and accountable. This synthesis of idealism and practical accomplishment is a hallmark of effective community organizing and it is this ebullient optimism in the power of people to come together to effect change that is perhaps the lasting legacy of the baby boomer generation. The true gift that Obama so well illuminates is to have the charity to see what is best in everyone and every generation and then to expect that they see it themselves and act on it.