Yes, I read this article in the Post this Sunday and could not believe this kind of fascist behavior goes on today. As the reporter noted, the minder was not there to listen to his questions and correct him, the minder was there to watch the responders and note who was not toeing the party line. This is just too unbelieveable. I hope this story gets picked up and discussed more. It needs to be discussed.

Fascistic seems like a bit much. It just bears watching.

But thisis also cause for concern:

WASHINGTON - The way many high school students see it, government censorship of newspapers may not be a bad thing, and flag burning is hardly protected free speech.

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It turns out the First Amendment is a second-rate issue to many of those nearing their own adult independence, according to a study of high school attitudes released Monday.

The original amendment to the Constitution is the cornerstone of the way of life in the United States, promising citizens the freedoms of religion, speech, press and assembly.

Yet, when told of the exact text of the First Amendment, more than one in three high school students said it goes “too far” in the rights it guarantees. Only half of the students said newspapers should be allowed to publish freely without government approval of stories.

“These results are not only disturbing; they are dangerous,” said Hodding Carter III, president of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, which sponsored the $1 million study. “Ignorance about the basics of this free society is a danger to our nation’s future.”

Hmmm. Another example. Maybe in all that "back to basics" we could find some time for some old-fashioned basic civics lessons, huh?

I still owe you and the Chef a followup on your civics curiculuum.

It wasn't Yglesias, it was his coconspirator young Sanchez:

Millennials are the most doted upon, fussed over, and scheduled generation in living memory. Although far less violent than their counterparts of a decade ago, they have grown accustomed to attending schools that resemble airport security lines. In an article in Sweden’s Axess Magazine, William Strauss and Neil Howe, generational studies gurus and authors of Millennials Rising, call today’s young adults "America’s new conformists," observing that they "believe in security rather than radicalism, political order rather than social emancipation, collective responsibility rather than personal expression."

The defining youth icon of the early ’90s was the suicidal Kurt Cobain, the apotheosis of the alienated loner. Now the airwaves are dominated by synchronized, interchangeable boy bands and Gap ads featuring khaki-clad clones. Standing out is out; fitting in is in. As Strauss emphatically says, "This is not a libertarian generation." Gen Xers were stereotyped as politically "apathetic," but as a character in the foundational Gen X film Slackers notes, withdrawing in disgust is not the same thing as apathy. Millennials do not withdraw in disgust: They are not only more conformist but more sanguine about politics.

Scott Beale, author of Millennial Manifesto, attributes this attitude in part to the political scandals that shaped the different generations. Other recent youth cohorts recall Watergate and Iran-Contra -- scandals involving institutional abuse of power. But if you say scandal to ’80s babies, they’re more likely to think of the furor over an intern’s position on the presidential staff.

"Millennials," says Beale, "might look at politics and say ‘these people suck,’ whereas Gen Xers and baby boomers before them were more likely to say, ‘Man, these people suck and the system sucks.’" The new attitude may make Millennials dangerously susceptible to that old utopian mantra: "If only we had the right people in charge..." As Strauss observes, boomers and Gen Xers were "raised not to follow Hitler or Stalin; Millennials were a post-consciousness raising generation."

Once those cautionary examples begin to fade, so does the skepticism of power they engendered. Strauss posits that the next decade may see the emergence of a new "middle class populism" if the jobs available as Millennials begin to graduate from college don’t match the high expectations set by the tech boom of the ’90s.

Media theorist Douglas Rushkoff confesses alarm at the new mind-set he’s seen in his visits to American colleges, a trend he half-jokingly describes as "fascism in youth culture." If that characterization seems hyperbolic, we can at least say that Millennials are a highly nationalist and communitarian generation.

Yet Rushkoff does see a way proponents of limited government might appeal to them. Millennials, he points out, are already powerfully engaged in their communities -- they are disproportionately likely to volunteer at the local level -- and highly goal-oriented in their own lives. If they can be convinced to see government intervention as a barrier rather than a supplement to their local activism and personal aspirations, they may warm somewhat to libertarian ideas.

Or perhaps that’s just the Rorschach test talking. Although Gen Xers were often accused of being apathetic, their skeptical, ironic, self-sufficient, and entrepreneurial qualities gave them a natural inclination toward libertarian views. Millennials have no such affinity. If their political engagement continues to be shaped by collectivist ideas, many of us may soon be nostalgic for apathy.

Here is a thought that won't make you sleep better tonite: while the Millenials seem to be less concerned about the First Amendment than the ACLU is (I put them at about the level of free press that the Brits prefer with their Official Secrets Act - but I am a clueless old f---, so take that with a grain of salt), they seem to like the Second Amendment just fine. A Jacksonian generation in the making??

Neither the US nor the world is likely to be a safer or more prosperous place with a Jacksonian nation.

If certain Cassandra scenarios start to play out, whether in the economic or security arenas, a Jacksonian US will not handle with equanimity the slings and arrows of the external world. It will be puzzled by and hostile to its (quite natural) decline in (relative) power. It will arouse even greater suspicion in the outside world than it has already.

We need to keep our internal balance to face the potential unpleasantnesses in the decade to come.A Jacksonian nation will merely exacerbate the self-defeating behavior of an empire starting to reel from having already over-reached the bounds of its strategic strengths.

We're not in an irreparable situation by a long shot. "Decline" isn't necessarily a bad thing, since unfettered hegemony isn't good for either the international system nor for the US itself. Nor do I believe that America has become the "dispenable nation."

But a Jacksonian nation dramaticaly limits our margin for error iin navigating the coming perils. It also calls for a great deal more wisdom in our leaders than I see evidenced on either side today.

If so, then we've got the Warren Zevon Trifecta.