A wise man once observed, “A gentleman is a man who knows how to play the accordion, but does not.” In an effort to be more of a gentleman, I’ve stepped away from Ricochet a bit – I’m not writing right now, to give you folks a break. You’re welcome. I’m also working a lot right now, so I’m running out of hours in the day. I hope to start writing again soon, to clear my head. But something happened a few moments ago that was so wonderful, that it demands recognition.

My teenage kids were watching “Planet Earth,” which, if you haven’t seen it, is a beautiful nature documentary narrated by (of course) David Attenborough. The photography is astonishing. The pacing is fantastic – from one exciting story to the next, with great music, breathless commentary, and varying pacing of video montage to add suspense and excitement. It’s great fun to watch. But then, out of the blue, everything stops, while Mr. Attenborough gives a boring, somber lecture about global warming and evil humans. My middle daughter asked why they interrupted the show for that. My baby reflexively responded, without missing a beat, “That’s where their funding comes from.” She’s a junior in high school.

Kids their age have had global warming and evil humans stuffed down their throats since preschool, by the establishment. I wonder how many kids out there, feeling the anti-establishment tendencies that many of us have felt at some point in our lives, share my daughter’s cynicism?

Another example: My kids were watching a reality show (“Survivor”) a few months ago, and one of the contestants accused another contestant of disliking him because she was a racist. The other contestants on the show laughed out loud – “Jamal just played the race card! Ha!” Not only was that their immediate response, but that clip made the broadcast program. I find that telling.

One of the left’s more significant problems is that leftism doesn’t make any sense. Killing convicted murderers is wrong, but killing innocent babies is right. The government is inefficient and uncaring, but it should control our healthcare. People who have never owned slaves should give money to people who have never been slaves. Our Constitution is an outdated document written by dead, white, male slave-owners, and it could not possibly be expected to be relevant in the lives of modern Americans. But it does protect the rights of illegal immigrants who are not citizens of this country and do not like this country. We should tax cigarettes to discourage people from using them. We should also tax income and labor. Republicans are intolerant and mean, and Muslim Jihadists are tolerant and nice. And so on and so forth, ad nauseam.

One wonders how many kids are starting to look at the establishment, and think to themselves, “Those old fogies don’t make any sense. They just want power. I can see through their stupid games.”

I know that some young people think this way because I see my kids and their friends. But I wonder how many? Is a backlash coming? Kids can be rebellious. At least they were when I was a kid. I didn’t listen to anybody.

I find the movement for “forgiveness of student loans” to be fascinating. Do the Democrats really believe that they need to make impossible promises like that to get the youth vote? Is there a reason they’re doing this? What about the impossible promises about reparations? Do Democrats think that they need to buy the black vote? Blacks have voted over 95% Democrat for decades

(Note that this is not racist, but if whites vote 55 percent Republican, this is obvious racism. If you don’t understand, that’s because you’re racist.).

Do the Democrats have polling data that shows that they need to do something to get young people or blacks to vote for them? Or are they just looking for ways to move America further leftward, when it has already moved so far to the left? I’m not sure. But I know that if even a small percentage of youth or blacks start voting Republican, the Democratic Party ceases to exist as a national political party. The Democrats know this as well.

But I listen to my kids’ cynicism. I listen to Democrats shamelessly pander to those who would normally blindly vote for them en masse. I listen to the increasingly shrill Democrat media, which sounds more and more desperate.

I wonder – is something is going on?

I’m not sure. Maybe not.

But a guy can dream, right?

What do you think?