Matt has a nice essay about the Left of the 1960s and the Left of today. Go contribute. I think about this sort of thing all the time, and I confess I’m not as ambitious as Matt; I’m not sure how I’d construct such a comparison. It’s complicated by a lot of factors, not the least of which has to do with my profound disappointment that I didn’t get to live back then. I know that it’s silly to be envious of past generations, but sometimes, it really feels like it was simpler then. I will say this: Iraq is Vietnam on crack, which to me is a saying both somewhat silly and quite profound.