In Praise of Binge Drinking

 h/t Theo

When I was in college (Cornell) I was too young to vote because in those days you had to be 21 to vote. But I was in grad school (Columbia) when I voted in my first Presidential election and, naturally, I voted for the Democratic incumbent Lyndon Johnson. I say "naturally" because I still remember what it was like to be, as the saying goes, young and foolish.

The reasons that a large majority of college students today are Obama supporters are pretty much the same as they have always been. Young people tend to be idealistic, oftentimes annoyingly so. They are universally more trusting than is good for them, which is why they are such easy prey for online identity thieves and sexual predators. And despite any intellectual prowess they may have garnered, they are often much more naive than their parents, who have learned a thing or two in the school of hard knocks. And kids are rebellious. Anything that their parents advocate usually meets with disdain from the little know-it-alls.

There isn't much you can do about Obamania among today's youth. Their hero is much younger than his opponent. He plays basketball; his opponent I'm guessing plays bridge. Obama is a smooth talker and young people are all about appearances; much less so about substance and deception. The only thing one can do is hope they'll be too hung-over on Election Day, because the only thing that trumps youthful naïveté is youthful binge drinking in the hopes of getting laid.