Teach your children well

"You, who are on the road
Must have a code you try to live by
And so become yourself
Because the past is just a goodbye
Teach your children well"
          Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young, "Teach Your Children" 1970

 

Generation Z -- people aged 15 to 30 -- came of age under a presidency characterized by insults, lawbreaking, cronyism, and flagrant self-serving grift.

I was age 10 when John F. Kennedy was elected president. I was awestruck. He said Americans would "pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and the success of liberty." He called on Americans to be patriotic and to serve the country. That sounded good to me.  "Ask not what the country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country."

Today I need to explain to young readers of this blog that JFK was not being sarcastic in that speech. He was not expecting "Yeah, right" smirks in response. I know this sounds quaint, but he was dead earnest.

Donald Trump defined the modern presidency for an entire generation of young adults who have never really known a political world without him at the center of it. Trump is the baseline. Trump is "presidential."

Boomers are well-accustomed to policy failures in presidents. Vietnam. The Iraq War. The blind eye to the financial industry's mortgage fraud. Some policies we admired, some we disliked, but each president broadly operated within the expectations of democratic behavior. Presidents tried to appear dignified, truthful, and grounded in civic responsibility.

Jimmy Carter modeled civic morality. Even people who disagreed with Ronald Reagan's policies heard his certainty that America must be a shining beacon of liberty and prosperity for the world. We weren't just powerful. We must be good. Obama modeled composure and intellectual seriousness. He wore a tan-colored suit one day. The political right erupted, saying that was denigrating the office. That was then.

Trump remade the office. He is a president who models rule-breaking as strength. He calls opponents “vermin,” mocks disabilities, promises retribution, and insists that any election he loses is illegitimate. The idea of a president as a unifying figure must feel old-fashioned. Older Americans know this is a departure from the past; younger Americans do not.

Trump, not Biden, narrated the American story through the Biden presidency. Trump left office for four years, but never left center stage. Trump's celebration of transgression becomes the new norm. Yesterday's guest post is an example of transgressive nihilism. Blowing up ships: how cool! Arrest Obama? What a smackdown to watch! Shoot someone on Fifth Avenue? Well, Trump's attorney argued in public that he could have Seal Team Six shoot Trump's political opponent and it wouldn't be illegal. That is how the game is played. Rules are for breaking. 

Young people are watching, and they are learning the lessons of the era:

We are raising a generation that will outlive Trump, but they may never outlive their early imprinting. Trump is the new normal for them.

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