Yesterday’s Washington Post has a style section piece, “Right, and Left Out: Young Conservatives Can’t Get With the Program.” As soon as I saw the headline I balked. You just know it’s going to be less the intended cultural trend piece, and more of one of those classic they-walk-among-us anthropological expeditions. Let’s go to the lede:

It’s early February, and the happy hour at the Union Pub on Capitol Hill is jammed with an unlikely slice of young Washington strivers: conservatives, libertarians, free-market/small-government types, anyone right of center. People, in other words, in their 20s or early 30s who actually groan at the label Generation Obama.

Wow, it’s almost like 47 percent of voters didn’t vote for Obama, and some of them happen to be under 30. I also love that “actually” in the last sentence. You’re darn right I’m groaning at “Generation Obama.” Who uses that phrase other than Style section reporters? If we’re going by the if they say it must be true standard, am I part of the Pepsi Generation? The piece goes on to do some thumbsucking about the GOP’s demographic troubles but all the details are tone-deaf. Young conservatives drink beer and listen to Dave Matthews? Imagine that! They’re just like you and me! (On that score, whether it’s among a group of ideologically sympathetic people or not, Dave Matthews blasting overhead always sends me heading for the door. If I ever have to hear him caterwauling the lyric “Hike up your skirt a little more and show your world to me,” I’m going punch a kitten.) Anyway, the piece did manage to quote former NRO-nik and all around smart guy Peter Suderman and not make him look bad, so thank goodness for small favors…