Election Reinforces Divide Between Millennials, Baby Boomers

Romney's Defeat Spotlights Clash Of Generations

There was no exit sign, no milepost. But in this week’s election, America unmistakably turned onto the road of sustained competition and conflict between the brown and the gray.

That’s the phrase I coined, drawing on the work of demographer William Frey, to describe the two giant generations reshaping American life. The brown is centered on the 95 million-member millennial generation, born from 1982 to 2002 and now moving into the workforce and the electorate. The gray revolves around the 85 million-member baby-boom generation born from 1946 to 1964, which is steadily moving out of the workforce into retirement but remains a huge voting presence.

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