Conflict Among the Democrats

Dear Editor,
    The candidacy of Barack Obama has excited a whole new generation of previously disinterested young Americans. And though this large and swelling involvement of youth should set Democratic Party members singing “Happy Days Are Here Again,” a few in the ranks of the regular and older members seem averse to joining the movement and instead expect these young people to temper their idealism and switch allegiance to a candidate of their elders' choosing.
    This wave of change is not going to happen if the incipient enthusiasm of these young people is squelched; the bulk of the newly involved will drift into the dead center of an apathetic public that has little faith in any political party's capacity to set this nation on a path that bodes a more promising and inclusive future for working and middle-class and destitute Americans.
    Before any of us good old Democrats let this happen, best we remember John F. Kennedy's inaugural charge to the American people of his time: “Let the word go forth from this time and place, to friend and foe alike, that the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans.”