In today’s "Here Come the Millennials", Bob Herbert seems convinced that the Millennials will reject conservative power in the next few years, even if not in the Presidential Election of 2008:
<blockquote>Whether young Americans can shift the balance of the presidential election is an open question. But there is very little doubt that over the next several years they are capable of loosening the tremendous grip that conservatives have had on the levers of American power.</blockquote>
Millennials, he says, are…
<blockquote>… a generation that is in danger of being left out of the American dream — the first American generation to do less well economically than their parents. And that economic uncertainty appears to have played a big role in shaping their views of government and politics.</blockquote>
I think he’s right when it comes to getting out the vote, overall, and I’m actually more optimistic than him on the presidency this year. I firmly believe the Millennials will show up to elect Barack Obama in 2008. (There’s more than economics at stake here. W’s sins are too egregious…)
But, I still worry about the long term outlook for the Millennials and our national character. I mean no disrespect to the babyboom readers here at TPM, but I've been starting to feel that the previous generation has really done some irreparable harm to our country.
--Bill Clinton = “If it feels good, do it!”
--George W. Bush = “I’m gonna do this. Not legal, you say? F#ck you, we’ll change the rules!”
Boomers have been too powerful for too long, and have systematically changed the rules in their favor at every turn. Specifically, I'm thinking of the way that government since 1980 has been turned into a transfer-station to funnel public money into private hands (i.e. - David Cay Johnston's "Free Lunch"). And the way that we've been saturation-marketed to the point that a lot of our personal identities are completely wrapped up in our consumption-circle patterns (i.e. – MTV, Abercrombie, SUV’s, and Credit Card traps on college campuses). And enormous CEO pay and golden parachutes for failed CEO’s whose workers lost pensions and jobs.
And perhaps the most emasculating insult: The real minimum wage hasn’t gone up over the last 30+ years. As Herbert says in his piece: “In 1974, the median income for men in their 30s (using today’s inflation-adjusted dollars) was about $40,000. The figure for men in their 30s now is $35,000.”
We've been sliced and diced, while the power mechanisms Herbert describes have been perfected and the middle class has been eviscerated. After all the marketing, and after all the debt, and after all the sugar-highs, and Schwarzenegger explosions, we may be convinced of our powerlessness and complete subservience… Not directly to our political leaders, but to our endless, subconscious drive to consume at all costs.
I guess it doesn’t matter if you’re in the fortunate elite upper-class they created with junk bonds, conglomerates, and hedge funds (like Paris Hilton. “That’s Hot. I’ll buy it.”)
But if you’re in what’s left of the middle class, the future seems Sisyphusian, like for the FreeCreditReportDOTcom Commercial Guy: “Too bad I didn’t know my credit was whack // cause now I’m driving off the lot in a used subcompact // Saw their ads on my TV // Thought about going but was too lazy // Now instead of looking fly and rolling phat // my legs are sticking to the vinyl // and my posse’s getting’ laughed at”
Change can’t come soon enough.
