Two things have happened recently that may signify the last gasp of 1960's liberalism. The last Kennedy brother has died and Obamacare has all but died on the operating table. Could these two events signal that we are finally free from the ridiculous influence of the 1960's hippy movement? Have we finally rid ourselves of the illusion that a radical utopia can exist where flower power and socialist ideals can defeat terrorism and create prosperity?

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Of course I am not speaking of all liberalism; the balance of right and left in our country is a big part of what makes the United States so exceptional. This is about the very specific far-left brand of ultra-liberalism that took hold in the late 1960's in the drug-addled minds of middle and upper class teens and young adults who reaped the benefits of their conservative parents' lifestyle and then spit (sometimes literally) on everything in which their parents' believed.

For decades these radicals have tried to trick the nation into believing that radical change was the answer; that were it not for assassins' bullets or the results of close elections we would already know that 60's liberalism can remake America into a perfect society. Perfect by their definition would mean a nation that is admired by the rest of the world, free of any internal strife and filled with citizens (and non-citizens alike) who are healthy, wealthy and have no need to be wise because a benevolent liberal government would make all their decisions for them. They preached that the problem was not big government but rather that the wrong people were in charge of big government. All we needed was a far left leader with a far left Congressional majority to ram through far left programs and all would be ideal.

Of course they never could say who would pay for all this far leftness; nor would they admit that such programs could not be sustained for any length of time without repealing the laws of economics and physics. They never addressed the fact that there are those in the world who will never admire any society whose people do not worship and live exactly as they do. But they didn't need to prove their points. They had what-ifs and if-onlys and the curse of the Kennedys to blame for the fact that they could never actually prove their points.

Anyone who dared to disagree with 60's liberalism was called a racist or a warmonger because, in their twisted logic, anyone who didn't agree with radical 60's liberalism had to also be against the civil rights movement and in favor of the senseless mass murder of women and children in Southeast Asia (and then Iraq and Afghanistan).

Of course those who believed in 60's liberalism could continue railing against the establishment knowing that the establishment would keep them safe, prosperous and free so they could continue to rail against the establishment. Republicans, Democrats, conservatives, moderates - they didn't care who was in power - no one was immune from their childish rhymes and equally simplistic ideas. But it was easy for the children to do nothing but play when they knew the grown-ups were taking care of business.

So now, with the last remnant of Camelot gone and the American people standing up against liberal overspending disguised as reform, one wonders if these two events in the Summer of '09 will be what finally defeats the ignorance of the Summer of '69.

Perhaps what was needed to finally bury 60's liberalism was for the 60's liberals to finally get what they wanted: a far left president who has proven in six short months why 60's liberalism is doomed to failure. For this, history may owe the Obama/Pelosi/Reid triad more than we can ever say.