In 50 years, who do you think will make this list from our current crop of public figures?
Elon Musk (if he can qualify for the list), Bill Gates, that jackass who ran Apple, Alan Greenspan (maybe, for his role in helping to destroy the global economy), and the guy who invented OxyClean (the only invention from a commercial that actually worked!). Eric Snowden maybe, we'll see how all that finishes up. That was about as big a leak as it gets and Constitutional implications (despite Congress's apparent not giving a fuck about it) are of a historical nature. The Supreme Court as a single entity for their rulings that breathed life into non-anthropomorphic entities, cutting back on the voting rights act, and acting hesitantly on gay rights.
Despite being British, Steven Wilson, for helping the recording industry find another reason for getting music fans to buy albums for a fifth to a hundredth time, and injecting tons of money back into an industry milking their old catalog.
Charlie Rangel (NY) and William Jefferson (LA) for pushing the boundaries on what apparently is an acceptable amount of cronyism for a Representative.
And Trayvon Martin. The write up on him will be "The unarmed teen that was shot and killed that keeps getting brought up by conservatives every time a black gets shot by the cops".
I'd say Al Gore, Dick Cheney, Barack Obama, Ron Paul, and Jon Stewart will probably make it into the history books written about this generation.
Who? Cheney maybe due to badness the Neocons created (they may just be remembered as a monolithic group of idiots). Obama was hamstrung by the Republicans and despite great promises, we didn't see much change anywhere, other than getting the foreign policy voice back under control (W fucked up so bad they gave Obama a Peace Prize for crying outloud!). Obama won't get poor historical press because of handling of the Great Recession, no Obamavilles. I do suppose being the first somewhat black President is of some note, but accomplishment wise, he is somewhat tepid, in large part caused by unparalleled partisan garbage.
Jon Stewart won't be remembered. Virtually no one in the press has been remembered. Walter Winchell may be the only guy.
It occurs to me there isn't a woman in my list. I'll hat tip towards Ellen Degeneres. Great comic turn rights advocate for gays.
