"Don't you understand what I'm tryin' to say?And can't you feel the fears I'm feelin' today. . .And you tell me over and over and over again, my friendAh, you don't believe we're on the eve of destruction."P. F. Sloan, songwriter, sung by Barry McGuire, "Eve of Destruction," 1965
Boomers had their chance. We were warned.
We heard that song in our youths. The laments of the young are the same or worse now. The Eastern world is still explodin'. We can stay for more than four days in space, but when people return it's the same old place and the same human race, and now its Trump who hates his neighbor but when evangelical Christians and TV cameras are looking on, doesn't forget to say grace.
Rick Millward is a boomer. Most of the people holding political and economic power in this country are boomers, but that is ending. It will be the Millennials' turn to hold the seats of power, but in the meantime their votes were decisive. Millward tells us that they didn't vote for Trump. They voted NO.
Millward is a songwriter, musician, and music producer. He left Nashville and moved to Southern Oregon. He performs primarily in local wine venues.
 |
| Millward |
Guest Post by Rick Millward
A Millennial’s View.
Botched Election. Israeli Genocide. Inflation. Student Loans. Climate.
I’m in conversation with a 30-something student, a Ph.D. candidate, self-described Progressive, a Millennial who feels, like many younger Americans, deeply disillusioned with Democrats and outright furious at Boomers. While some Democrats default to finger-pointing and blame-shifting, these younger voters reject policy nuance and strategic justifications that led to the rise of Trump and the GOP. To them, it’s not just a tactical failure—it’s a moral one. The Biden nomination was, they say, a betrayal; only Harris’s presence kept them engaged at all.
As we talk, I struggle to respond. My detailed explanations of geopolitical realities sound empty. Pointing out that Republicans are worse isn’t persuasive; they already know, but find the difference negligible. This isn’t youthful idealism. These voters came of age during 9/11, two recessions, COVID, inflation, and now see a system rigged for the wealthy.
They view Republicans as an unstoppable machine wrecking their future, and Democrats as ineffectual, if not complicit. The American Dream feels dead. Issues they care about, especially climate, are met with delay and denial. They see GOP cultural pandering around gender, performative patriotism, and religious posturing as absurd distractions, and they reject the idea that systemic racism is overblown. Their universities are compromised by investments that betray their values, all while trapping them in decades of debt. Many are incensed by U.S. support for Israel, which they equate with endorsing genocide.
Is it any wonder some are voting “against” their own interests? The shift of younger voters, especially Latino and Black men, toward the GOP may be less about alignment and more a protest vote, which in turn makes things worse. Republicans have the money; Progressives have the numbers. But numbers are powerless if disinformation overwhelms them. And conservative efforts to discredit media fuel a toxic online landscape where truth, lies, and fantasy blur.
The best arguments I muster aren’t convincing:
(1) GOP rhetoric aims to demoralize. Resisting it is essential.
(2) Being Progressive, by definition, requires optimism.
We do agree Democrats need a strategy to counter misinformation with facts, loudly and transparently. To win back youth and minority voters, they must stop taking them for granted and fully embrace issues like climate, justice, and inequality.
As we part, I’m left feeling unable to defend Democrats or my generation. The world is complex, and the torrent of disinformation favors simplicity. Still, that same difficult hope, though grim, requires that we try.
Update: Since writing this, youth support for Republicans is dropping. They’re paying attention.
[Note: To get daily delivery of this blog to your email go to: https://petersage.substack.com/ Subscribe. Don't pay. The blog is free and always will be.]
ReplyDeleteI’m also a “boomer”, but not by choice. In fact I reject the categorization of generational identity which I think was invented by the social observers who made up the term to describe a phenomenon that turned in something definitive. Question: What were the generations of our ancestors called before we invented this generalized demographic?
To lump every person of a particular age, regardless of economic, social, ethnic, religious, intellectual or opportunity into one group and that to explain the state of the world is overly simplistic.
I get it. We humans are pattern-seekers and we like to simplify complex things in ways we can understand, even if the information used to shape that understanding is insufficient, biased or simply wrong. Kahneman writes about this at length in Thinking Fast and Slow.
I wish we would stop using generational identity (I.e. Millenials, Genx, GenZ, etc….) to frame what a “generation” thinks. But we won’t of course because we have the illusion that we are System 2 thinkers (analytical and deliberative) to have devised this taxonomy, when in fact we are System 1 thinkers (instinct) who uncritically accept the classifications it because it ‘s easier.
The youth have realized that Trump is bad economically for them.
ReplyDeleteThere are some differences between the parties. Republicans have abandoned any pretense of caring about the Constitution and rule of law. Democrats haven’t (yet). Republicans have normalized the lunatic fringe racists and conspiracy theorists. Democrats haven’t. Republicans attack science, especially vaccination and climate change. Democrats are more willing to address those issues. But neither party has been willing to address the problem of money in politics, our takeover by oligarchs and our unsustainable national debt.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Rick, for bringing up this important topic.
Many young progressives "reject policy nuance", indeed. After all, broad-strokes moralizing and a pie in the sky sense of entitlement just feels better.
ReplyDeleteThe 33 year-old now-likely next mayor of New York City, a Democratic Socialist to the left of AOC, youthfully prescribes widespread rent freezes, defunding the police, free citywide public transport and preschool, and government-run price-controlled grocery stores.
How all this will be paid for may yet bring out the grown-up in him. Coming from a background of wealth and privilege, optimism hasn't been an issue to date.
As Margaret Thatcher said about how it will all be paid for:
DeleteSocialism works great until you run out of other people’s money.
Ah, the left-wing romance of government-ordained equality in majority squalor, first in the old Soviet Union, now China. It works!
DeleteNeedless to say, an anointed cadre of selfless elites must of necessity live better, for the good of the People, in the name of the People.
If NO one in the Uniparty represents my interests, why vote at all?
ReplyDeleteAre people confused? Many political leaders today are GEN X!! They were called "latch key kids." More conservative than Boomers.
ReplyDeleteThe Baby Boom generation was born 1946-1964
Generation X was born 1965-1980
Millennials were born 1981-1996
Generation Z was born 1997-2012 (I think)
" Teach your children well..."
ReplyDelete...and you did.
You taught your children to hate children.
How proud are you every time your daughter, or granddaughter gets an abortion and kills your grandchildren(or great-grandchildren)? ... Just as long as she's free to skank out that cooch
You taught your children to judge a person based on the color of their skin and to ignore the content of their character.
Whenever that character is lacking, which is more often than not, your children cry systemic racism.... A system born from over 60 years(100 years when you factor in the Godfather of progressiveism, Woodrow Wilson) of pernicious encroachment of boomer governance to oppress the individualistic American character "...of virtue, talent, and patriotism without which the nation could not survive."(- Thomas Jefferson) in favor of collectivist utopian fantasies where we will all be free because we will all be Slaves to Mommy government.
You taught your children to believe that Government is God, and God is a "childish" fantasy.
You sold your children to the Ideology of Eugenics(and to just ignore the true intent of Margaret Sanger). Science that will manipulate our very genetics and cure-all of humanity's ills.
There was a woman in the late 18th century that wrote a legendary book. A warning.. that expressed the diabolical quest for Man to remove the need for Woman in order to create life out of dead flesh.
Transgenderism (aka, FRANKENSCIENCE) is the pedophile dreamscape of such men. The noxious waftings left over from the Weimar Republic, and it's dehumanizing feature of grotesque brutal sexuality, and hatred for all humankind especially for what is beautiful.
Woodstock was your highest moment only stopped dead at Altamont when the drug fueled hangover started to really kick in.
But, like what used to be known as the 40-year-old hippie is now the 80-year-old hippie, " 400000 acid trips and all were bummers ...but I ain't given up yet..."
One of my all time favorites Steely Dan songs I came to find out year's later was written specifically to mock John Lennon's "imagine"
" Only a fool would say that..."
https://youtu.be/Hvz0TOm0zgI?si=y67MhEDxdyJNx6s9
You are a generation that never grew up, always wanted to be children playing in the garden.
God sent the snake to Impress on Adam and Eve the need to grow up and be responsible, (For what was the shiny red apple? Eve's first menses, that's why she ate it first. Females mature to sexual knowledge earlier than males. And what really is the Snake, but Adam's stiff little member. I believe that the garden of Eden is the worlds first form of sex education in ancient mythic style.) ...and do what is right by their CHILDREN. Your generation is born of the sin of Cain(...not to mention, you are products of MKUltra. ...don't worry, so am I) The mark is upon you.
Why, right here is an example of what I would assume to be one of your grandchildren who, God bless America, wasn't aborted, Although I'm sure this child wishes they were aborted because they have to live in a world that YOU have left them...
https://youtu.be/0XJXYjq89Xg?si=u5oUDumX9V7I7VSC
... You do know how to copy and paste don't you? ...Boomer??
And...
Mamdani's mantra...
"I'm gonna take you New York!!I'll make it happen...."
https://youtu.be/5eoPZgFEusM?si=uuFbojzBbpA8VnJF
According to the Hidden Tribes Survey, progressive activists (like the ones Rick Millward talked to) constitute 8% of the American people. That tiny faction can only win in places where they are highly concentrated, like New York City. There is no way that faction will ever be able to win nationwide, or even statewide, except in very small blue states like Vermont.
ReplyDeleteTrump has remade the Republican Party into a new populist working class party. The Democratic Party needs a remake as well, but we have yet to see a politically practical plan for doing that.
RM says, “To win back youth and minority voters, [the Democrats] must stop taking them for granted and fully embrace issues like climate, justice, and inequality.” Recent surveys have showed that the climate and woke social justice issues are remarkably unpopular with the American people.
The far left is not going to be the salvation of the Democratic Party.