Madam, - I don't know what John Waters has against the 1960s, the decade that gave us civil rights, youth culture and some brave, visionary leaders. He is wrong to see the past 40 years as dominated by the popular ideals of the sixties. It fact it has been dominated by the reaction against them.
In the context of the United States, the reaction began with Barry Goldwater in 1964. It grew with the Nixon years and the "southern strategy" of the Republican party, the pandering to the angry white male and the "God and guns, gays and terrorists" rhetoric of more recent years. Ronald Reagan was a typical product of the reaction: he began his career with attacks on hippies and "welfare queens", and his enormous win in 1986 was the high tide of the backlash.
Bill Clinton was an ambiguous figure. Like Tony Blair and Margaret Thatcher, Clinton continued many of Reagan's policies such as welfare reform. His presidency was a product of the Reagan years rather than of the 1960s.
The signs are that the backlash has run its course, thanks largely to the incompetence of George W. Bush. Both main US parties are seeking a new coalition, one that will inevitably be a reaction to the extremism of the Bush-Cheney years. Perhaps the labels "left" and "right" will become obsolete as both parties adopt more pragmatic politics. For example, there is a definite swing in opinion polls towards allowing gay marriage, or at least civil unions, since the California Supreme Court ruled positively on the issue. On the other hand, no Democrat would now agitate seriously for a ban on handguns, and the Republicans may follow the British Tories by leading the way in policies against global warming.
Eight years after Goldwater's catastrophic defeat, the Democrats suffered their own landslide defeat under George McGovern (1972). Hilary Clinton, like many others, gained her first political experience when canvassing for the anti-war Democrat. Barack Obama is the most liberal candidate since McGovern. Obama's advance to the nomination is a sign that many Americans are following the words of one of the 1960s' most iconic figures, Martin Luther King, in judging people by their character, not on their skin colour.
Instead of being banished, the exiled souls of the 1960s may be coming home. - Yours, etc,
TOBY JOYCE,
Balreask Manor,
Navan,
Co Meath.