A question for other Gen X DUers

[LonePirate]

I have a question for other Gen X DUers. Was there as much pandering, fawning and deference to our generation by the media, candidates, etc. during past elections compared to what the Millennial generation is receiving nowadays?

As I recall, we always stood in the shadows of the Baby Boomer generation who were firmly entrenched due to their age, position atop society's ladder and numbers. I don't remember us ever being as respected or being the subject of concern and interest like the Millennials are now.

Did these things happen and I simply was not tuned in? Or is my general assessment shared by other members of Gen X?

[firebrand80]

1. Rock the Vote! nt

[LonePirate]

2. Ah, yes. I do remember that campaign from when MTV still played music videos.

Didn't that also lead to the infamous boxers or briefs question?

[firebrand80]

6. Yeah, a very provocative question at that time

Today our Presidents admit to doing hard drugs

[Cal Carpenter]

14. I actually registered for the first time through Rock the Vote

at Lollapalooza, I think. I went to a lot of concerts back then though, so I'm not sure.

Crazy.

But other than that, no pandering that I know of to the likes of me. I was so excited that I was old enough to vote, until I realized I had no enthusiasm for any of the candidates. LOL.

[geek tragedy]

3. nobody's ever pandered to us,we're an afterthought nt

[Aerows]

12. You've got that right.

We may not agree on our choice of candidate in the primary, but you are absolutely right about that.

[Avalux]

4. No there wasn't. We were ignored because there aren't a lot of us, we didn't matter.

Personally, I didn't really want to be a part of it all anyway; I was disgusted with Reagan and the politics of the time. So we just checked out. Then what did we do? We conformed somewhat but had kids who are now millenials, and we've passed our anti-establishment ideals and independent thinking on to them, then we taught them to SPEAK UP and DO SOMETHING about it, not be silent like us.

[ScreamingMeemie]

5. No fucks were given for us.

We are the middle child. Always. Although I love being called names that include "millennial" when I tell people who I voted for. No pandering to us. They expect our vote... us who make up a large portion of the working population. One of these days, the "Establishment" will be surprised mightily.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/12511183153

[Prism]

7. There weren't social media

And now that traditional media largely derive direction and content from the Internet, they pander to the Internet's biggest audience and consumers.

Also, the Boomers are now out of thy magical 18-47 range advertisers love

[apnu]

10. No but there were a shit-ton of books and other print made about us.

Which functioned like social media today. Just slower and more wordy.

[Lone_Wolf]

8. There is a lot of truth to what you say

We are sandwiched in between two larger generations who, due to their size, will always have more economic clout than us. However, be wary of those who are trying to divide the generations. We have a lot of the same as the Boomers and Millennials and we should all be fighting for that.

[apnu]

9. Yes there was a lot of pandering and shouting at us.

We were not in the shadows, but were the kids yelled at by the "grown-ups" for being slackers and lazy shits.

Books were written about us and much cud was chewed about us. Our generation is the first generation of the culture obsessing over what we are doing and thinking. then there was GenY, briefly, and now there is the Millennials.

And the truth is, we were fucked buy the generations before us, much like the millennials now.

But there are two differences that I see. One is, college tuition costs have skyrocketed to shocking levels. I blame W. Bush for that and all his "spend your credit to fight terrorism" bullshit. He made it too easy for colleges and universities to set whatever tuition levels they wanted, the government was paying for it after all, what did they care? He opened the doors to greedy vampires and now we've got a dried husk of a generation.

The other is, for GenX, we were loathed and berated, but Millennials on the other hand, are the first raised by helicopter parents generation. So everybody is worried what they think and do and treat them like toddlers fawning lavish attention on them.

Wile we GenXers got heaps of negative attention, that we didn't need or want. The millennial gets heaps of positive attention, that they don't need or want. Kinda the same, kinda different. Both are screwed.

GenX is still the disliked and dismissed generation, we're the older sibling to the Millennial. We get all the shit, none of the praise. They get all the praise, as if our parents feel guilty for being assholes to GenX and are trying to make it up to the Millennials.

I pity them, but I also have limits on my sympathy for them. We were given a shitty hand to play, but some of us did get lucky that the Internet boom happened when we were positioned to benefit form it, that opened doors that were closed in other industries by Boomers hanging and holding us down. That was me, were it not for the tech boom, I'd still be washing dishes at a pub. But there are a lot of GenXers I know that are still spinning wheels in the muck and never found traction, just like millennials today.

We're all in the same boat, and the goddamn yuppies put us there.

[Kentonio]

11. Nope, no-one gave a shit.

We didn't have the internet to make our voices heard, politics was incredibly establishment, and there were rules for how everything was supposed to work that somehow never seemed to help us particularly.

I'm actually pleased for the millenials now, they have opportunities we never had. It's hard to shake off the apathy that those years ingrained in me though.

[SDJay]

13. We Were Latchkey Kids

Now parents can get arrested for that sort of thing.

We're essentially latchkey kids in the political world as well.

[Kentonio]

16. I think the music we got is very telling. We got Nirvana, they get Kanye.

[JudyM]

15. I'm a late-late Boomer and the answer's no, and no re: Boomers either. Because it's a voter bloc

with millenials in this election. There's a defined differentiation between the way most of them are voting. There wasn't anything like that before, except maybe when Nixon was running. That's my take on it.

[loyalsister]

17. Selling the potential for wealth was Gen X pandering

from both Clinton and Bush. My fomer classmates and current age peers are sickeningly money obsessed. I firmly believe it comes out of growing up under Reagan. It was a value many boomers grapped onto (yuppies) and passed it on to their Gen X kids.

[BreakfastClub]

18. We've always been ignored. I mean, that's why we're called Gen X. They

named us that because they didn't know anything about us. I guess they never bothered to learn and found us unimportant.

[fun n serious]

19. I am a Gen X'er

Proud Hillary supporter. Voted for Bill Clinton my first time as a voter. It's true, I was a latch key kid. My parents worked so much there was ever any time. I was in 2nd grade setting my alarm to get up and take my baby sister to the babysitters and myself to school. After school I picked up my sister and went home. ALONE and in LOS ANGELES. I saw knife and gun fights at my elementary school. " Meet me at the monkey bars" did NOT mean fist. It meant DEATH by knives and guns. I was 13 when we moved to Portland OR.

[Warren DeMontague]

20. No, because we don't have the numbers.

We got lectured hypocritically to "just say no" to drugs and sex by the people who were coming off of a herpes and cocaine hangover.