When I open an article that is ostensibly about strategies to get Millennials more politically engaged, I do not want to read about efforts to get the next generation of Rockefellers, Pritzkers, and Marriotts to think philanthropically. They will inherit their billions and do with it what they will. I do not give a fuck.
What I care about are ordinary Millennials who have correctly noticed that our politics are ridiculous and have tuned out, often blaming the left and the right in equal measure.
Please write the article I want to read.
Unfortunately, what the next generation of oligarchs want is much more important than what the next generation of their servants will want.
I hope I’m wrong.
The MSM has already decided that the future of the USA will be a form of Corporate Feudalism. Thus why would they waste manpower hours on writing articles about getting average Americans to engage politically? Also do you really think that their Corporate masters want them to write articles that might encourage political activism? That would be against the Corporate masters best interests.
Would you settle for one about how dope, drones, and domestic surveillance will swing the Millennial vote for President Rand Paul?
Hey Booman, I think you’ve written about this before (was it during the ’08 campaign and HRC statement about LBJ and MLK?). So I’d like to hear your take on this:
So I’ve been following the news around the new Selma movie. So far it’s gotten nothing but rave reviews from critics and the like. Yet, I’ve noticed of late a number of articles (primary in the Conserv press) criticizing the film for his treatment of LBJ.
Now, I see this as the partisan press trying to find a reason to critic the film. Because what I’ve read elsewhere, the film has pretty much been wowing audiences and critics alike. Essentially I guess, the critic is that the film doesn’t give LBJ enough credit for the civil rights movement?
BTW, the “critic” has reached the director of the film and she responded on twitter with this:
Califano is a self-serving Beltway figure dancing on the graves of the people who died in Freedom Summer and confronted LBJ at the 1964 Democratic Convention over seating the segregationist Mississippi state Democratic Party.
Maybe by 1965, LBJ was willing to play out a scenario to put Wallace on the spot (LBJ was that cynical) but as Watts and Newark proved, it was too little, too late. And it put a lot of unaware and innocent people in more needless danger.
John Lewis could have been spared a fractured skull if LBJ was interested in in enforcing the law.
Califano is arguing that LBJ was playing the non-Southern liberals to force a Congressional vote. Too bad that only blood in the streets moves politicians to justice.
I am not surprised at the media schizophrenia over Millennials. Smack dab in the biggest youth political activism in 50 years, a movement that has been roiling for almost three years, there is this article.
We finally got a Boomer Congress when it was sclerotic and we still have a Boomer Congress. Just not the Boomers who showed so much promise in the 1960s, the folks that the media enthused about offering new ways forward. What we got were the kids who pursued the life of the 1950s as if it never should go away. And the kids who were about being successful and made sure not to screw that up with activism. What has that given us in policy over the past forty years?
We will have a Millennial Congress worthy of the name when the transformation of the American political culture is complete and not before. Until then we will have the younger brothers of Tom Cotton.
And those who are actually politically engaged instead of professionally engaged will continue to get tear gassed and arrested and beaten while those who claim to want their engagement make excuses. And the DC consultants work their new marketing space of “Millennial engagement”.
What we got were the kids who pursued the fantasy version of the 1950s as if it never should go away.
A fantasy absorbed from TV and the experience of children consuming more than their older siblings and parents had. Their direct lived political experiences mostly began with the landing on the moon. IOW, they didn’t “live” the 1950s or 1960s through adult eyes.
Of course relative to expectations of what “normal” is you are right. Reality got validated by television. Because my town didn’t show up on the roll of weather on the Today show it was almost like we didn’t exist. And ACC sports teams were ignored for Colgate and Amherst and Fordham.
As for living through adult eyes, too many of my friends first experience of that was in Vietnam. And they still feel betrayed by the home front from having their victorious war like their dads.
It was the young adult eyes in Vietnam that began to wake up this nation. Too bad your friends denied the reality of their experience in favor of a fantasy version of WWII that they absorbed as children from all the WWII propaganda movies. Pathetic that as old men they’re still whining that Santa didn’t bring them their goodies.
Pathetic indeed.
“Just not the Boomers who showed so much promise in the 1960s, the folks that the media enthused about offering new ways forward. What we got were the kids who pursued the life of the 1950s as if it never should go away. And the kids who were about being successful and made sure not to screw that up with activism.”
Ain’t that the truth. Nowadays they talk about “the Boomers” as if they were and are one homogeneous group. In reality there are Boomers and Boomers.
I hear ya, BooMan!
Obama.
When is the last time you heard “We need a job for every American kid who graduates from college?” We do not hear that.
We hear about more H-1Bs, more green cards, more foreign students. Our students amass huge debt, and get jobs as barristas, or unpaid internships with no guarantee of a full-time position. This is a dreadful situation, and is totally unfair and wrong.
Millennials see the US as a country that accomplishes almost nothing, and a place where you either make it big, or you go home. Possibly to mom and dad. If you remove the ability for people to substantially improve their lives by working hard or going to school, then you slowly accept the fact that this is it. All of it. You might as well accept it, go buy a new iPhone, and go out drinking with friends while posting pictures on facebook.
Over the past 30+ years, what, exactly, could you point to in the US that would give Millenials any inkling that they should expect politicians of either party to actually make their lives better? To improve the country in a noticeable way? Republicans obviously benefit from stalling any improvement, but Democrats refuse to call this out 24/7 to their and the country’s detriment. And this is where the “both sides” thing works wonders.
The Republicans clearly want this country to fail, but the Democrats just play the opposition party rather than a party that has discernible, progressive goals. And that is a problem.
We’ve literally grown up in a country where wages and salaries do not follow the increasing productivity and wealth that we generate. Never mind the college debt we accrue that doesn’t necessarily mean we’ll make any more money, overall, than someone else who snags a decent job without debt.
We look at our family and friends who we see working hard while falling further and further behind the “middle class” curve. And between jobs being outsourced and insourced, and wages that, again, don’t really match with the wealth that is generated, it doesn’t seem like there’s a real reason to try any harder than what is necessary to keep your ahead above water.
And the media, not to belabor this point, has become nothing but an oligarch cheerleading squad. It’s entertainment mixed with “both sides”. So, we’re entertained with phones and apps and tablets and thousands of tv channels. Plus, free wifi! Most people are trained that all politicians suck, so that even though we know that Republicans are trashbags, the Democrats aren’t any better, because if they were, they’d be claiming so, and they don’t.
Hey, Democratic-candidate for Senator, who did you vote for in 2012 for President?
Answer: No comment. Obama is a Democrat, and I might not have voted for him.
Great fucking message.
Hey, Democratic-candidate for Senator, do you support Obamacare?
Answer: No.
Great fucking message.
So, basically, the Democratic party doesn’t believe it’s own candidates and policies are worth voting for.
Great fucking message.
And the majority of the Democratic party is nothing but centrists and cowards afraid to be liberal anyway. Afraid to call any of this shit out. Millenials in my estimation are a lot more progressive than the Democratic party is. Most of us are already cool with all of the social issues, so speak economically, or shut up. We know gay people aren’t evil. We know black people aren’t evil. We’re tired of identity politics in the sense that we have to vote Democratic or gay people and black people are going to be sent to camps.
Yes, the Republican party fights these issues still, but when that is the major talking points for voting Democratic over Republican, we’ll post on Facebook to support the issue, but for 99.9%, the issues aren’t personally relevant, and Tuesdays are as good a day as any to run some errands, drink with friends, while posting pictures on facebook. Why am I supposed to go stand in line?
Economics would be a great starting point for Democrats to get progressive but like I said, most of the Democrats out there aren’t progressive. And, without giving me a 4 page brochure, what is Democratic party economic policy? Slightly more money for the people who do the work? Slightly better tax policy for the people who do the work. Great. Exciting. Awesome.
Taxes matter to the rich. For the rest of us, it’s mostly irrelevant, except that it’s just one more cost of living. Yes, up the tax rate on the oligarchs so they can’t outright purchase this country, but if that is the bulk of economic policy, don’t expect a whole lot of voters to turn out for that. Very few of us think that if you up the tax rate on the ultra wealthy that it is going to necessarily improve anything for us. More roads and bridges? Bullshit. High-speed rail? Bullshit. None of this is going to do a damn thing for any of us this week or this month. And we know it. We know that we’re the first generation that won’t be better off than our parents, in general. Life spans, wealth, you name it. This country is falling apart, and if all the Democratic party has going for it is turning out to support minority rights and higher taxes, keep on counting on mid-term drubbings.
Our society is a fucking commercial for buying shit while trying to stay afloat. While I and others can use and appreciate easier-to-acquire health insurance, point to something tangible that this country has done that would inspire someone under 35 to give a shit about politics. I guarantee you can’t. Wars, making rich people richer, more wars, and that’s it.
Abstract admonitions to vote or else aren’t going to work, as you’ve noticed by turn out. You can blame it on Democratic party leadership sticking centrists into races to ensure that the rich keep getting richer. You can blame Republicans for stalling and breaking everything. You can blame the media for selling the narrative that “both sides” do it. But I’ll keep on saying it, until the Democratic party acts like a liberal, progressive party, just saying “vote or else” isn’t going to do it.
And as I’ve discussed with other people here and elsewhere, I have a valid passport and will shortly have a degree and license that puts me on the fast track to resident alien in pretty much every country on the planet. My backup plan is getting the fuck out, because while most of my peers who are Millenials are fine with Facebook and drinking, I’m not. If need be, I’ll start over somewhere that actually has a future that isn’t just a neo-feudal police state with the best propaganda that money can buy. It’s my last resort, and I don’t feel like we’re quite there yet. But look around and tell me you don’t feel like something is brewing.
“We’re tired of identity politics in the sense that we have to vote Democratic or gay people and black people are going to be sent to camps.”
I can understand why you’re tired of it, older people like me are even more tired of it, but damn it, you do have to do this, and unfortunately too many young people don’t seem to realize that. “If it isn’t love, it’ll just have to do, until the real thing comes along … ” Or it never will come along.
Oh, and by the way, there are some good people in the Democratic Party. Just not enough of them. If Millennials ae lot more progressive, then make your influence felt.
Well, I’m a dependable voter, and have been since turning 18. I’ve been the youngest election judge in Hamilton County, Ohio a few times. It’s not me you have to worry about. Nor am I the subject of any post involving the problem of Millenials being politically agnostic.
The problem is getting Millenials who aren’t tuned in to politics to vote, which is probably like 85% of them. And as much as minority rights are important, it is not going to get them to tune in and come out to vote. Which is my point. Oligarchs are generally clever people, if not intelligent. You think the Koch boys and their ilk are always going to oppose minority rights? Sooner or later they will all come around, and then you’re left with Democrats that are only slightly better than Republicans on issues like taxes, which, again, isn’t going to bring in Millenials.
Our culture is pretty awful, in that image is everything. This means that people will take ice bucket challenges and post solidarity with people on Facebook, while ignoring politics. Because politicians aren’t helping them with their issues. Minority rights are important. But the rights that might get some people out to vote now won’t be around forever – which is a good thing for minorities and the oligarchs who are trying to buy this country.
Real progressivism would pair economic populism with minority rights. Right now,the Democratic party is only really serious about one of the two. And that is going to continue to be a problem.