The Democrats are about to blow it: This election is about new millennials, not aging baby boomers

[yuiyoshida]

Dems are misreading the electorate. Play 2016 like a transformative election, and the winner could be next Reagan


“This campaign is about a political revolution,” Bernie Sanders says on the campaign trail, “to not only elect the president, but to transform this country.” Hillary Clinton replies that that’s a pipe dream and points to how hard it is to make even incremental progress against an intransigent Republican Congress.

But while Clinton has good reasons for this rejoinder, she may be misreading the political landscape, and would do better politically by stealing Bernie Sanders’ ideas. Both numbers and recent history show that if the next president paints a big enough vision on the campaign trail, he or she could become as influential as Ronald Reagan. Here’s how.

The politics of selfishness

In 1978, Stanford Research Institute was charting the effect that the baby boomers were having on American society. Businesses were struggling to market to a generation that cared less about status and more about personal expression. This was the Me Decade, obsessed with human potential and self-actualization, and in California, Ronald Reagan was watching this change firsthand. Arnold Mitchell and his colleagues at SRI hit on a new market research method to get a handle on what was going on, which they called VALS, for Values and LifeStyle. Instead of using traditional demographics, they targeted people psychographically, based in significant part on Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, which put self-actualization at the pinnacle of human experience. The research found something stunning: There was a large and growing group that hadn’t been understood before, which they called the Inner Directeds. These people cut across traditional demographic lines, and what they had in common was their desire to live life on their own terms.

Reagan took advantage of this group in the 1980 election. Boomers hated government and had railed against it since the Vietnam War. “Government is not the solution to our problem,” Reagan told them, “government is the problem.” You shouldn’t have to conform to government mandates, you should be free. Instead, Reagan put business at the center of American culture. It was business, he argued, that could best fulfill the needs of the individual, efficiently, cheaply, and with great abundance and variety, helping them to express themselves and their uniqueness. The consumer was king. Boomers responded by voting for Reagan in huge numbers, in both the 18-26 and 27-38 age brackets. The sudden loss of young voters rocked the Democratic party to its core.

http://www.salon.com/2016/03/07/the_democrats_are_about_to_blow_it_this_election_is_about_new_millennials_not_aging_baby_boomers/

[First Speaker]

1. They might go to Trump...but can't believe they'd go to Cruz...

...the whole I-am-God's-Instrument-on-Earth bit would turn off Millennials too much...I hope!

[napi21]

2. The problem I see with that assesment is the millenials may be the most entusiastic, but

it doesn't look like THEY are actually voting! That's always been the problem as far back I can remember. It's the older people who actually VOTE! I WISH it would be different this year, but so far, in the primaries it doesn't look like it's any different.

[redstateblues]

10. The youth vote has always been unreliable

[Hortensis]

27. Exactly. NO election is about people who don't vote.

As for this agist crap, Yuiyoshida, I recommend not adopting it just because it seems advantageous at the moment.

We're citizens, lots of voting citizens, and as a group we're not getting out of anybody's way. Millennials will be facing age discrimination themselves before we're gone.

LOL, in fact I just read earlier some wishful thinking here on DU about how boomers were now dying off, so this is apparently some new disgruntled meme about "Bernie obstruction" -- we drop dead. (But the old fart doesn't. ) I didn't advise that person to hold his or her breath and see who's gone first, but the thought crossed my mind.

As for the "millennials," people who don't vote are doomed to learn over years why they really should have. Young people shouldn't be thinking mom and dad will be handling this for them until they feel like it, and that may be part of the problem. A whole play-date generation has grown up now who didn't cross the street by themselves until they were in their teens.

[yuiyoshida]

33. You MAKE IT SOUND like I wrote THIS

WHY WOULD YOU THINK THAT Lets BLAME the messenger okay??

[Hortensis]

34. I'm making sound like you posted it, Yui.

If it's to decry, then decry. The whole thing is silly and reaching anyway, the point being the initial message that we are somehow liabilities to the nation and should get out of the way.

[yuiyoshida]

35. YES I POSTED IT!!!!!!!!!!!!

I Post a lot of stories, if I didn't post them, well damn, You wouldn't have to complain about them. I am going to Post what I think is relevant, and if you don't want to read them, than don't. Post your own Stories...

[Hortensis]

36. We are all responsible for what we post. If you post an agist

attack on half the people on this forum you should damn well expect to be called on it.

[yuiyoshida]

37. THAN BITCH ABOUT THE AUTHOR, This comes from Salon.com a legit website.

and either read my stuff or don't.

[Hortensis]

39. You don't really get the concept of a discussion forum,

do you? You posted for response, you got it. If you want a bunch of kids to verbally slap you on the shoulder and tell you you nailed it with this one, maan!, go find a group of kids.

[yuiyoshida]

40. have at it

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shawn_Lawrence_Otto

[Javaman]

55. there are folks here on DU that enjoy complaining for the sake of complaining.

they are exhausting.

[Bubzer]

45. You do understand agism works both ways right? You attack her for agism, then engage it yourself.

I think you need a good long introspection before posting again... maan!

[Ed Suspicious]

51. Ageist much? Pots and kettles absorb light equally.

[Hortensis]

53. Oh, but I'm ageist as heck against 18-...28s? How could I not be?

With exceptions for the exceptions, half of them are too busy taking selfies to vote and half the rest don't even have that excuse. Most are still in adolescence, with all the bigotry against adults and fealty to "My Group" that means, and the most generous excuse you can make for the whole lot is that they haven't yet attained mature brain development.

It's very different for we older wise ones who have been experiencing and learning from life, working, supporting ourselves and them, and *voting* for decades - and still are. Which is why the whole notion that we should get out of their way so they can fix the contry sent my eyebrows flying for my hairline.

(Again, if you're young and you vote, I'm not talking about you.)

[brush]

57. Thanks. Finally someone included the "e" in ageist and ageism.

[Hortensis]

68. Yes, I took a lesson. :)

[PasadenaTrudy]

60. +1 n/t

[Bucky]

92. That's the problem with you messengers... it's just nothing but bad news from you people

Sorry, but actions have consequences. If you bring bad news, there will be only be bad news. I'm pretty sure all the world's ills can be cured by simply getting rid of the messengers.

First they came for the messengers, but I wasn't a telegraph boy, and so I said nothing... [p align="center"]

[Bluenorthwest]

42. Good lord! You accuse the other poster of 'ageist crap' then you close with ageist crap of your own:

"Young people shouldn't be thinking mom and dad will be handling this for them until they feel like it, and that may be part of the problem. A whole play-date generation has grown up now who didn't cross the street by themselves until they were in their teens."

Insanely ageist generalization. A whole generation unable to cross the street? Ageist crapola deluxe.

[Bubzer]

46. Thank you for for seeing this hypocritical bullshit as well! Glad I'm not the only one!

[Sunlei]

67. Even Sen. Sanders said, "80% of under 29s do not vote". He got that group to vote in primary.

Mrs. Clinton should team-up with Sanders and move a lot closer to his policies.

That would take sitting down together, adult discussion and no more shouting, shallow debate, one-liners for twitter.

[Hortensis]

76. I absolutely agree they should team up. You know,

in looking at what they would each be likely to accomplish as president under all the likely scenarios, experts do not feel there is a great deal of difference.

I also don't think they would have any real difficulty working together to win the election. Bernie has worked and voted with the Democratic Party for 25 years, and there is not and never has been any shouting. Don't be fooled by the artificial environment of a debate; it's like an exceptionally long campaign commercial. They are both actually dignified, very high-functioning adults.

And above all, the anti-government plans of the forces massed on the right appall both of them terribly.

[Rex]

72. Millennials been voting since the first day they could. I guess you don't know any.

And here you are complaining about them the most. Go figure.

[LisaM]

78. I know lots in Seattle, where the population is getting younger and the turnout last November

Was the LOWEST PERCENTAGE since 1932. And there was a brand new system (wards) for City Council on the ballot with all kinds of ramifications to the neighborhoods.

[xmas74]

74. It's Baby Boomers vs Millenials

with no one interested in what Gen Xers, like myself, care about. Then again, we tend to get the shaft on a regular basis.

[LanternWaste]

96. An analysis or editorial of a demographic is not "ageist crap," it's simply analysis and editorial.

An analysis or editorial of a demographic is not "ageist crap," it's simply analysis and editorial.

Unless of course, one believes any mention of age regardless of context is "ageist crap." Should that actually be the case however, the buffoons and half-wits really do win...


"A whole play-date generation has grown up now who didn't cross the street by themselves until they were in their teens..."
Seems you yourself are guilty of precisely what you indict others for: ageist crap (space provided free of charge for distinction lacking relevant difference below).

[BuelahWitch]

94. Not voting??

They're coming out in droves! My state (KS) had one of the highest turnouts ever for their caucus, and that includes 2008. I don't think that's Boomers and X-ers.

[oberliner]

3. Isn't Bernie Sanders an aging baby boomer?

Aging baby boomers can be just as transformative as millenials - with Bernie Sanders being a case in point.

[Zen Democrat]

6. Bernie is a War Baby, not a Boomer.

[oberliner]

8. Even more to the point

Older people can be transformational.

[Skittles]

20. apparently we all are all self-absorbed, government-hating assholes

[snooper2]

48. Does he still drive his own car? I would like a President who can drive a fucking car please

Oh, and maybe one who had video games as a kid or young adult...

And one knows how email actually works...like, technically, how it works


Can we just keep Obama Please!

[Zen Democrat]

4. I know lots of Boomers for Bernie.

[FreakinDJ]

5. You would need to talk to DWS and Hillary about that

millennials have been complaining about being excluded since before the debates or primaries started

[Rebkeh]

7. Good read, thanks

Every now and then Salon puts out good stuff but it's too damn hard to swim through the muck to get it. especially when it doesn't happen often enough, I gave up on them so, thanks for posting this.

I wish the older generation would wake up to this point: it's a different economy, stupid. He nailed it.

[yuiyoshida]

9. You are most welcome

Its fun to come across a gem like this... thanks to TWITTER!

[jpak]

11. Sorry - I blame Disco

[Hydra]

12. This is a great article, and seems to sum up the basic forces involved

It may even be TOO basic and not rooted in the real reasons things are happening, but I love the hierarchy of needs portion. The people the Clintons try to appeal to already have all of their basic needs met if they want more freedom and less taxes. People like me are struggling on the bottom level of the hierarchy just trying to stay working, housed and enough food.

"Instead, they(Millennials) tend to see themselves as empowered but also a part of a collective, a social fabric, individual but cooperative, and because of this they value tolerance and equality."

I don't feel terribly empowered, but I do feel like society should be inclusive, cooperative, and beneficial to all.

[yuiyoshida]

13. agree

[Major Hogwash]

14. I love you.

You are fabulous!!

You go, girl.

[yuiyoshida]

16. who?

[Major Hogwash]

19. Yoohoo, I'm talking about youwho!!!

I'm so shy . . . . not!

[yuiyoshida]

21. Yoiks!

[Wednesdays]

15. Thanks for the article

Oh, and yoroshiku desu.

[yuiyoshida]

17. dou itashimashite

sora kara rakusho datta, kochira koso!

[Skittles]

18. the Boomers who voted for Reagan SUCKED

gawd, he made GREED AND IDIOCY fashionable

[yuiyoshida]

22. He's almost Like a

demi god to some in the Republican party...

[Skittles]

23. I saw through Reagan IMMEDIATELY

same with that nitwit Dubya

[yuiyoshida]

24. You gots those

xray peepers, YES INDEED!

[Skittles]

30. honestly, you did not need xray glasses

you need to give a f*** about someone other than yourself - people voted for greed, oh yes they did

[Boomerproud]

84. Thank you Skittles

I'll be 60 in April (so I was 24 when the Reagan Regression happened) and I still don't understand what went so terribly wrong. My mother's caregiver asked me the other day who I was voting for this year and I honestly said "For the first time in my life I may sit it out." She snapped "Well, that's a vote for Hillary!" No one seems to understand my dismay and feelings of hopelessness.

[Eleanors38]

69. You... you... you must be Pro-GUN!!

[yuiyoshida]

70. Me? Naw... pro phraser absolutely

[Eleanors38]

71. I saw that! Curious topic revealed in that clip...

Some years back I tried to engage a prohibitionist in discussion around the next generation of "firearms" and the problems it posed for all sides in the debate over guns. What if...

Jane Fonda's blow-drier;

Capt. Kirk's phraser;

Flash Gordon's ray gun

all become reality. Will they be recognized as weapons protected by even the most direhard supporters of the Second; if so, will the Evil AR 15 or AK 47 become the flintlocks of the future? Unfortunately, the discussion descended into another tRumpian Penis™ contest.

I agree with the others: This is a good post.

[Hatchling]

90. Only if they are set on stun.

[Bluenorthwest]

43. I was protesting Reagan when he was Governor, later opposing him was a moral imperative.

To this day, straight Democrats who love that monster are trying to polish his image.....they demonstrate in doing so where they actually stand and where they stood back then when it very much mattered.

[Gormy Cuss]

25. True but Boomers shifting to Reagan weren't why Carter lost.

Rather, the voters who chose John Anderson and voters over age 30 drove the shift (and the oldest Boomers were only 34 in 1980, so they weren't a big part of these older age cohorts.)

FWIW Carter only garnered about half of the Boomer vote when he was elected in '76.


Edited to add links to 1976-1980 vote estimates by age:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election,_1980

http://www.gallup.com/poll/9460/Election-Polls-Vote-Groups-19761980.aspx

[Warpy]

26. They were mostly the younger boomer cohort

Don't forget, the boomers were born from 1946-1964, a tremendously long time for any cohort. The older boomers, my bunch, were mostly appalled that he fooled so many people and disgusted that he was against so many things we'd fought for, like legal access to abortion.

And yes, no matter whether they were older or younger, they SUCKED.

[Democat]

28. Why isn't there a young exciting Democratic candidate?

Obama was a breath of fresh air.

As much as I would support Clinton or Sanders, neither one can offer anything truly new.

The only Republican who can offer anything new is Trump, and what he's offering is the first reality TV president.

[Skittles]

38. Triumph the Insult Comic Dog says Clinton and Sanders could be in a Cialis ad

yup

[Warpy]

52. Old age and treachery beat youthful exuberance every time

and usually without breaking a sweat.

I don't give a fart on fire about things like the age, sex, race, religion, or family national origin of any candidate. What I do care about is a candidate's stand on issues that are important to me.

However, both candidates will be too old in 2020. That's about the time for one of the Castro brothers to grab the baton and run with it.

[Scout]

95. we had one once, but he couldn't keep his dick in his pants.... n/t

[muriel_volestrangler]

29. This thesis has extremely shaky ground; it's all based on one survey of 'independence'

The only piece of data put forward for how millennials are so different from boomers is this:

"Most boomers were anxious to establish their independence; the data show millennials are not."

That goes to Strategic Business Insight's "The Millennial Generation", which does indeed contain those words, in this context:

Older Millennials grew up in the era of Michael Jackson's Bad, benefits concerts, the fall of the Berlin Wall, and the Challenger disaster. Younger Millennials lived through the OJ Simpson trials, the Oklahoma City bombing, and the introduction of Netscape, Google, and the iMac. Other comparisons and contrasts between Baby Boomers and Millennials are useful. For example, Millennials are the first generation to be weaned on technology; Boomers are the TV generation. Boomers are the product of Depression-era parents toughened by WWII; Millennials are the creation of a society in which parents are friends who promote self-confidence and self-expression (often) over the reality of the possible. Most Boomers were anxious to establish their independence; Millennials are not. Boomers parents are less likely than their own parents were to cut financial ties with their offspring.

You might think from that that "establishing their independence" means 'independence from their parents' - and you'd be right. Here's the other mention of 'independence' in the article:

The number of Millennials-headed households has grown significantly, from about 5 million households in 2002 to almost 30 million households in 2012. Nevertheless, Millennials household formation lags behind that of Boomers or Gen X when those cohorts were the youngest: Almost one-third of Millennials have returned to their parents' home (Boomerang Kids), according to GfK MRI spring 2012; fewer than half of Millennials are household heads. Women Millennials are establishing their independence at a somewhat faster rate than are their male counterparts. Of Millennials-headed households, one-third struggle to make ends meet, and about one in ten require financial assistance, reports SBI's MacroMonitor, a biennial macroeconomic survey of US financial households. In 2011, more than two in five Millennials households had an annual income of less than that of all US households. All Millennials have experienced the effects of the 2008 Great Recession. If the comparison between older and younger Millennials holds true as it has for Boomers, older Millennials will reap greater gains than will the younger wave.

This is about how fast millennials move out of the family home.

So, no, you shouldn't construct an argument that millennials have a more collective outlook on life based on them staying longer in their parents' homes (which may well be based on economics rather than preference, anyway). Perhaps they are more collective; but the author ought to have looked for some data on that, rather than googling the phrase he wanted to use without thinking about it.

[DonCoquixote]

31. it is about everyone

EVERYONE, because we need numbers. We all will be screwed by the GOP, so failure is not an option.

[Warren DeMontague]

32. You're gonna set the teeth flying with this one, around here.

Still, it needs sayin'.

[JI7]

41. No. they are not coming out to vote.

[Bubzer]

44. Alert results

Obviously I voted to leave it. Someone's got some mighty thin skin to alert on this.

THAN BITCH ABOUT THE AUTHOR, This comes from Salon.com a legit website.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=7665537

REASON FOR ALERT

This post is disruptive, hurtful, rude, insensitive, over-the-top, or otherwise inappropriate.

ALERTER'S COMMENTS

OP gets called on a story they posed, they respond by telling Hortensis to 'Go bitch about this'.

Telling a woman to 'go bitch about "whatever" is extremely sexist and has no place on DU.

You served on a randomly-selected Jury of DU members which reviewed this post. The review was completed at Mon Mar 7, 2016, 08:07 AM, and the Jury voted 1-6 to LEAVE IT.

Juror #1 voted to HIDE IT
Explanation: Over-the-top
Juror #2 voted to LEAVE IT ALONE
Explanation: No explanation given
Juror #3 voted to LEAVE IT ALONE
Explanation: As a women, I don't find the word "bitch" used as a synonym for "complain" to be remotely sexist. Dumbest alert I've seen in weeks.
Juror #4 voted to LEAVE IT ALONE
Explanation: No explanation given
Juror #5 voted to LEAVE IT ALONE
Explanation: No explanation given
Juror #6 voted to LEAVE IT ALONE
Explanation: Jeezus these alerts are getting ridiculous
Juror #7 voted to LEAVE IT ALONE
Explanation: No explanation given

Thank you very much for participating in our Jury system, and we hope you will be able to participate again in the future.

[mountain grammy]

47. I too was on the jury and voted to leave it..

pretty silly alert, in my opinion. Good post, Yuiyoshida. I'm a boomer and totally not offended, although I wasn't sucked into the Reagan worship like so many I knew at the time. I wanted to flee to Hawaii, far enough away and one of the few states Reagan didn't carry, but I was too broke and about to get much broker. A divorce and 3 jobs marked the Reagan era for me. That and watching friends die.
Like a good friend posted, I'll remain silent about Nancy Reagan's death like she remained silent about so many AIDS deaths.

[treestar]

49. how egotistical and insulting to baby boomers

one person one vote. Your age doesn't make your vote any weaker or stronger than others.

[GOLGO 13]

50. Good post Yuiyoshida

Thanks for sharing

[stevekatz]

54. Gen-X

forever the middle children of history

[brush]

64. Middle childred are the most independent though . . .

because we don't get the "favorite" treatment that firstborns get, nor the pampering of the "baby" that younger ones get.

Makes learn to depend on ourselves.

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

82. We're the lost generation.

Not as greedy as our predecessors, but we grew up with the internet still in its infancy, so we're not as connected or as socially conscious as a whole, because we didn't get to see all of society's warts. We knew something was wrong, but we were so insulated by corporate-controlled media that we only got the perspectives the rulers wanted us to get. Only now are we finding out everything that was always wrong, but was kept from us in our schools, our TV and newspapers, thanks to social media.

[ScreamingMeemie]

56. Hey bratty children and stodgy oldsters...

...spare a segment of history for us Gen-Xers, why don't ya?

[xmas74]

75. We kinds got screwed over, didn't we?

Stuck in the middle and no one really cares what we think either way.

Even with the recession everyone talked about the Boomers and the Millennials. A few reports I've read said that some think Gen X might be the most screwed over in the end because it all hit at a time when we should be securing our careers, growing our families and growing our wealth yet many were unemployed or underemployed and couldn't afford to invest or buy homes.

[Orrex]

58. Typical click-bait

Tired, redundant analysis of a well-known and long-standing phenomenon, dressed up with a WE'RE DOOMED headline to grab eyeballs.

I don't fault the OP, but it's a greasy tactic by Salon.com

[Zing Zing Zingbah]

59. Can we get an election about Gen X before we move on from Baby Boomers to Millennials?

Yes, we still do exist.

[cemaphonic]

62. A beautiful dream.

Not this time around though. Cruz and Rubio are both Xers

[Rex]

73. No one cares about our generation but us, we are the left out ones.

The original Latch Key Kids. America and the disposable generation.

[0rganism]

79. not so sure we cared much about it either

to me, the essence of GenX is represented best by Kurt Cobain -- a human being of great energy and talent but dismal lack of any hopeful vision which contributed both to his uniqueness and eventually to his own self-destruction.

[Warren DeMontague]

81. Meh.

Like Obama, we have been quietly transformative.

I believe that.

[Rex]

85. Agree 100%.

But then again, we've had to be that way so we learned early.

[Rex]

83. Cobain is not someone I would use to represent our generation.

We could say the same thing about the Boomers and Jim Morrison.

[0rganism]

86. fair enough, the archetype is in the eye of the beholder

i look in the mirror and see hints of Cobain. i see it in the faces of co-workers, friends, associates of various stripes: it's a kind of energetic world-weariness and self-neglect. but maybe that's just what i've learned to tune in to.

[Rex]

89. I agree with that Cobain tapped into those bittersweet moments of youth.

Not that I am saying he wasn't a huge cultural influence, I am comparing him to the frontman for the Doors. I don't really see anyone there much and that is my point. We are like a blackhole in some ways to the rest of society.

[Zing Zing Zingbah]

93. It has been so many years since Cobain.

I'm a young X'er, but yeah I was totally into Nirvana back then, probably more so than the older X'ers at the time because I was still in high school. I don't think he is representative of our generation any more. We are all much older now. I'm not how I was in high school anymore. Life is a lot different. It is annoying to see that Gen X always gets skipped over, but we shouldn't be especially right now. We are the ones raising kids now. We have become experienced in our careers. The millennials are the new ones on the scene and the baby boomers are mostly retired now. Granted, the oldest millennials I would consider to be among my peers, but not the youngest ones. It seems to be the young ones (18 - 20 something) getting the attention and not the ones in their 30's.

[Warren DeMontague]

80. Who?

[cemaphonic]

61. So... vote for Rubio or Cruz?

Because the other major candidates look like aging Boomers to me.

[Bucky]

91. Reagan wasn't a Boomer but carried their banner

Which is why, as GenXer, I'm voting for Betty White

[PasadenaTrudy]

63. I'm a boomer for Bernie :)

I don't even know anyone in their 20s, thank goodness.

[whatthehey]

65. Somebody needs to tell them then

This is the norm, and I haven't see any sign 2016 is any different (IA for one was down among 3o and unders)

[Sunlei]

66. Don't let that 'media' split the D party by age. Our Fed. Gov. is ours, belongs to ALL 'The People'.

[cantbeserious]

77. This Revolt Has Been Building For Years - The DWS, DNC, DLC, Third-Way Has Only Themselves To Blame

eom

[alarimer]

87. There are a whole lot of other people in this world besides millennials.

And they do not vote. So, from a political point of view, who really cares what they want?

[B Calm]

88. It could be about millennials, if they voted!