Readers React: Like the 1960s all over again: There’s a generation gap on the left too

To the editor: Plaudits to Jonah Goldberg for both his timely take on the GOP’s generation gap and his reference to an iconic folk-rock song predating his birth.

Goldberg cites the opening lines of a 1967 smash hit, “For What It’s Worth,” to relate youthful conservatives’ disenchantment with the ascendance of Donald Trump to the presidency. That song’s lyrics also aptly describe how large numbers of young progressives similarly were dismayed by their Democratic elders’ choice for 2016 presidential candidate.

Polarization afflicted the country in the late 1960s too. That’s why youth on both sides of the political spectrum sang along with Buffalo Springfield: “There’s battle lines being drawn/ Nobody’s right if everybody’s wrong/ Young people speaking their minds/ Getting so much resistance from behind.”

No wonder that song resonated with us college students who found much to protest in the 1960s.

Devra Mindell, Santa Monica

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To the editor: Jonah Goldberg makes a startlingly important observation that could be easily overlooked: What gets disdained as “political correctness” is often just “an attempt to craft decent manners in the increasingly diverse and egalitarian society that young people actually live in.”

Don’t we wish that we didn’t have to codify treating and referring to one another as human beings worthy of respect? But we do.

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we all exercised a little empathy in our day-to-day interactions and responded sensitively when we offend or are offended? But we don’t.

Since World War II, we have blown up so many of the social conventions that have helped us interpret our world — and rightly so in many cases. But we haven’t really developed fully functional substitutes.

So in the meantime, get over the idea that my asking you to acknowledge and respect my preferred form of address is all about making you wrong. It isn’t. It’s just good manners.

Cheryl McDonald, Pasadena

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