Live From St. Paul – The Bastards of Young

God, what a mess, on the ladder of success
Where you take one step and miss the whole first rung
Dreams unfulfilled, graduate unskilled
It beats pickin' cotton and waitin' to be forgotten

We are the sons of no one, bastards of young
We are the sons of no one, bastards of young
The daughters and the sons

Clean your baby room, trash that baby boom
Elvis in the ground, no way no beer tonight
Income tax deduction, one hell of a function
It beats pickin' cotton and waitin' to be forgotten

We are the sons of no one, bastards of young
We are the sons of no one, bastards of young
The daughters and the sons

Unwillingness to claim us, ya got no war to name us

The ones who love us best are the ones we'll lay to rest
And visit their graves on holidays at best
The ones who love us least are the ones we'll die to please
If it's any consolation, I don't begin to understand them

We are the sons of no one, bastards of young
We are the sons of no one, bastards of young
The daughters and the sons

--The Replacements


Long before I learned that Barack Obama would be speaking from St. Paul tonight, I was thinking of the Twin Cities, and of this Replacements’ anthem for my generation. Tonight’s final clinching of the nomination by Obama heralds a new era in politics -- our era. I’m calling it the era of the Bastards of Young: we’re the first American generation with a chance to do worse for ourselves than our parents did for themselves.

We’ve been mostly ignored since we began – by our parents, by the self-obsessed baby boomers, by the government that charged us usurious interest rates on our student loans, by marketers who’ve moved on to generations y and z. We’re not monolithic. Mostly we just stand against stupidity and, recognizing how prevalent it is in the world, spend our time trying to avoid it.

This is our ethos. Treating people badly because of the color of their skin? Stupid. Paying someone less money for doing the same job just because she’s a woman? Stupid. “Protecting” the institution of marriage from gay couples when our parents got divorced in droves? Stupid. Destroying the planet our kids will inherit? Stupid. Nuclear power? Stupid. Squander our nation’s wealth on an ill-conceived adventure in Iraq? Stupid. 8-track tapes? Stoooopid!!

In 2004, John Kerry tried to wear the mantle and appeal to us but failed miserably. He was and is forever defined by what he did in Vietnam. You see, they got no wars to name us. Blasting U2 at Kerry rallies somehow never felt right. In contrast, Barack Obama taking the stage to “Beautiful Day” makes all the sense in the world. U2 are OUR Beatles. Hell, Obama might even own a U2 album.

We missed out on the summer of love but learned to never mind the bollocks. We missed out on cheap drugs and free love, getting higher drinking ages and lectures on safe sex instead. The Boomers gave us better coffee, better beer, and of course, fine balsamic vinegar, but the planet’s a mess; the economy’s a shambles; our cities are dying; and why aren’t there any good public schools left for our kids?

It’s our time alright. It’s time for my generation to elect one of us. Time for the Bastards of Young.
--June 3, 2008