If you are old enough to remember the so-called “Summer of Love” that was perpetrated on this land by a bunch of bored, spoiled kids and their liberal enablers in 1968, then I don’t have to draw you a picture of all that it entailed. On the other hand, if you are fortunate enough not to have that awful year and the subsequent decade seared into your brain, unfortunately you can still get a whiff of it by pointing your nose toward lower Manhattan.

Although I’ve tried to steer clear of coverage of the Occupy Wall Street gang due to the fear of non-chemically induced flashbacks, I’ve seen enough to recognize that we’ve been here before. For a quick history lesson watch — if you can bear it — some video of Woodstock and you’ll be shocked at how similar are the dreadful inanities of the those hippies and their woeful imitators at OWS; minus the awful music of course.

And so we are once again treated to the sounds of endless dronings about abuses of power coupled with angst-filled moanings of economic injustice, all delivered by expensively clad clods armed with all the latest toys and hurled amidst mountains of garbage; all the detritus of rampant capitalism. It almost makes one nostalgic for the yelping of 40 years ago, when the participants at least had the incentive of keeping their sorry selves out of Vietnam. Yes, the 1960s were the halcyon days for liberals, when antiwar protests sent a tingle up the leg of Walter Cronkite, as they continue to do for his devoted disciples. Remember Cindy Sheehan?

Which brings us to our current rebels without a cause. Amongst endless speculation of exactly who or what is the target of their whiny protestations, the answer seems to be a familiar one for anybody who remembers the ’60s: it’s The Man. Who is this man, you ask? He’s the evil authority figure who — although he is the source and sustenance of your existence — is the one who makes you do things you don’t want to do: like work, pay taxes and make mortgage payments. In other words, it’s Daddy. The realization that Daddy is knocking on the door of their heretofore carefree lives is a rude awakening for those reared by the tender hand of the Nanny State, and probably the reason for their self-imposed stupor.

All of this would be a terribly sad story were it not so fiendishly funny. Their claim that they represent 99 percent of the American people is what gives real value to the OWS movement, but not in the way that they planned. None but a tiny minority on the deluded left truly believes that the American Way deprives anyone of a chance to improve their lot; a look at the last names of the people in the so-called one percent is proof enough of that. No, the real economic problems faced by this country are the result of the policies of those who are bound and determined to put an end to the class-busting foundations at the core of our nation’s prosperity.

So what to do when the nightly news is rife with coverage of same? How to keep one’s chin up when we are ankle deep in the inane rantings of post-adolescent chuckleheads? Not to worry. There is no cause for despair, because these displays of liberal absurdity almost always lead to conservative gains. And this is why groups like OWS, much like their progenitors from the ’60s, are bound to drive the county in a right-ward direction. In truth, as the Immortal Bard says, methinks that they protest too much. In the four decades since the Summer of Love and its attendant foolishness, we’ve had 28 years of Republican presidencies and only 14 of Democrats.

The most recent demonstration of America’s distaste for leftist protest shenanigans was the defeat of John F. Kerry in 2004. I am sure that it only took the publication of photos from his antiwar days to swiftly sink his boat. They recalled Americans of a certain age to the noxious notions of that time, like it took just as much courage to resist the draft as it did to actually serve and fight. Voters didn’t buy it in 1968 and 1972 when they elected Richard Nixon and certainly not when George W. Bush dispatched Kerry in ’04.

However supportive he may be of their aims, Barack Obama and his messiah-like campaign of light did much to erase the memory of the left’s propensity to participate in angry demonstrations against the American Way of Life and so attracted many independent voters to his side. But riding to the rescue like so many socialist cavalrymen come the largely unoccupied occupiers of Zuccotti Park, just in time to remind America what a nation where 99 percent of its population consisted of slackers and malcontents would look like. And if the Obama Administration makes the critical mistake of hitching their wagon to this group of losers, he will soon join their ranks.

So, I say to the occupiers of the Wall Street and friends: Keep up the good work and stay warm this winter. Peace and love.