Election’s Musical Divide

* I very much enjoyed Michael James Moore’s “You Sing Potato, I Sing Potatoe . . . “ (Commentary, Nov. 27), in which he explores the cultural differences between baby boomers who voted for Al Gore and those who voted for George W. Bush.

As much of his focus was on musical tastes, I’d like to point out to Moore that not all the Bush-Cheney bunch are Carpenters fans. Some of us prefer what was once referred to as the loudest band in rock ‘n’ roll: the Who. One of rock’s finest moments was when the Who’s Pete Townshend kicked left-wing activist Abbie Hoffman off the stage at Woodstock.

As for Moore’s favorite band, the Rolling Stones’ Keith Richards expresses his contempt for all that “ ‘60s’ peace and love stuff” in a 1989 video documentary entitled “25 X 5.”

ALBERT FLYNN

Burbank

*

* Moore hit the bull’s-eye. This election is more about the ‘60s than 2000, but while his essay was amusing, he missed the most crucial difference. One that makes the divide insurmountable. The Gore-Lieberman crowd wants America, with all its imperfections and virtues. The Bush-Cheney bunch wants Mayberry.

CASSONDRA WINTERS

Monterey Park

*

* As a pre-boomer member of the Silent Generation, born a couple of weeks before Elvis, I got a great deal of enjoyment out of Moore’s column. I don’t know if coming through these “formative decades” as an adult lends perspective, but I was unable to classify myself in either of his two groups. I voted for Bush-Cheney and politically consider myself a 1952 Eisenhower Republican. (I proudly wore an “I Like Ike” button to college classes, although too young to vote in 1952.) I was neither a fan of the pre-Army Elvis nor the post-Army Elvis.

In college, I read “The Catcher in the Rye” (Gore-Lieberman crowd) and C.S. Lewis’ “Screwtape Letters” (presumably Bush-Cheney bunch). I much preferred Simon and Garfunkel to Sonny and Cher and liked both early and late Beatles, but my favorite songs tended to be late (“Eleanor Rigby” and “Hey Jude,” certainly, but also “Let It Be” and “The Long and Winding Road”). I liked both Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young and the Carpenters, was a fan of Muhammad Ali but not of the Rolling Stones.

I think that, at the beginning of the fourth millennium, if the human race is still around, the only reason the year 1969 will be remembered is as the year that earthlings first traveled to another body in the solar system, and the My Lai massacre will be as little remembered as one of Attila the Hun’s massacres is today. What does it mean? The more things change, the more they change, and there is nothing like distance to lend a little perspective.

JIM MENTZER

Los Angeles

*

* One other difference between the Gore-Lieberman crowd and the Bush-Cheney bunch: At least one of the GLC team went to Vietnam. Neither of the BCB duo could be bothered.

BRAD SMITH

Granada Hills