Had too many sleepless nights recently worrying about the Tea Party and its anti-Washington, media-pleasing antics? Mad at the Republicans at the President's Health Care Summit last week for playing to Tea Party rage against "Washington" when these Republicans are themselves also Washington?
Take a deep breath and read the Pew Foundation's new report on its ongoing study of the Millennial Generation (13-29 years old), because the Millennials are our future, while the Tea Party is, demographically speaking, well, D.O.A.
Tea Party members are white, mostly Christian, predominantly suburban and rural and, most importantly, overwhelmingly old -- older than 50, many older than 60. I'm no age-ist, I am pretty old myself, but the political truth is the Tea Party (along with the rest of my generation, even if we are progressive) is all but over. That's no doubt what bugs its members. Don't be fooled by their youthful poster-girls, the occasional teeny-Tory like Keti Carender -- described in a Sunday New York Times front page feature story as being an improv performer from Seattle with a pierced nose and a conviction that the Tea Party is the "party of now". Uh huh.
Except that the Tea Party movement is not really a new Yippie youth phenomenon but a sad if toxic exemplar of last-gasp politics by Americans who fear change, fear time, fear the future, because they will not be part of it. They fear the America the Millennials comprise and embrace, the "other" that is not them, the America they will soon be unable to define or control.
America is growing ever more multicultural, with states like California, Texas, Florida and New York, majority non-white (or about to become so). America's school age population is already majority non-white, and the nation looks more and more like the "outside" world Tea Party members fear as "the other" but which, in our new world of interdependence, is actually "us."
The Millennials are not only part of the new multiculturalism but celebrate it. Diversity is seen by them as a virtue rather than a threat, and they are at ease with more or less everyone whether religious or secular, gay or straight, English-speaking or Spanish-speaking, American or Chinese.
Pew reports they are far less religious than their elders -- the least religiously observant generation Pew ever surveyed -- and they also sleep with cell phones next to their beds -- preferring Facebook (networking with peers) to prayer ( networking with God)?
Most significantly from the point of view of the Tea Party attack on Washington, the Millennials are more comfortable with institutions generally and with government in particular, than their democracy-distrusting elders, and are far more progressive than any previous generation. They went 66% to 32% for Obama in last year's election, while 53% actually say government should do more to deal with our problems rather than less, as if government might actually belong to us (it's called democracy)!
So, young or old, as you face America's future, do you want to bet on the past or the future? On dying grandpa's fears, or growing granddaughter's hopes? I am an old guy, but I like seeing the world through my 19-year-old daughter's eyes and listening to its voices through the ears of my six grandchildren. The Tea Party may be around long enough to screw things up temporarily for the kids, and may even persuade a few of the kids that grandpa knows best. But the multicultural kids willing to give the people's government a chance to secure the people's public goods are America's future. That's bad news for the Tea Party, but good news for America.
Follow Benjamin R. Barber on Twitter: www.twitter.com/BenjaminRBarber
We get tagged for hating old people, not true! We hate their dying ideologies. I'm almost 38, and I clearly understand I'll be old someday, that's not the point. The fact is, we are being milked by a ruthless baby boomer generation that falsely has named itself "good americans". It's a total lie, they don't care about the future of america, all they've done is dump on us and call us whiners when we complain. They only care about getting theirs and keeping it, raw greed exemplified.
Ironically, they're the ones complaining now! And their collective misery will only become more real.
WE and our pals in Gen Y are stepping into the fold more and more. We don't want their kind of america.
Period.
This new civil war will be a cake walk. I hope they start shooting soon, so we can finally finish them.
Respect is earned, boomers.
You deserve dust. (not mr. barber ;).
http://yieldpig.blogspot.com/
Even flying under the radar, being un-involved, and law-abiding doesn't protect you anymore. Most loss of our rights are due to the Patriot Act. Some examples:
Expansion of the Executive branch means our representatives don't have to be informed of administrative antics.
There is less whistle-blower protection.
Degradation of the 4th amendment means search & seizure is easier for the gov't.
Probable cause is no longer necessary to look at your records, book check-out interests, club or organization affiliations. The FBI can carry out surveillance on domestic religious, civic and political groups, even when there is no suspicion of wrong-doing.
I hope you don't have any friends with arabic sounding names because you COULD be detained without charge until you are cleared by their investigation.
Universal identity cards are just around the corner.
Need I go on?
This group supported Bush's tax cuts to the top 2% which resulted in the top 2% shipping jobs overseas, downsizing, complaining about the cost of American labor but took the tax cuts anyway without providing jobs or reinvestment in America.
The "tea partiers" supported Bush's tax give aways with no strings attached. They also supported deregulation. This gave the top 2% everything leaving the other 98% of Americans behind.
If this group was about taxes they would have protested Bush's tax cuts, Bush deficit, & Bush deregulation. All of those policies crashed the economy.
They ignore that Bush came up with the bailout and Obama came up with the stimulus which has created jobs for Americans.
The GOP lies to them and takes credit for the Obama stimlus but avoids blame for the tax cuts to the top 2%.
They are pushing a religious agenda attempting to inject religion into politics.
The Founding Fathers allowed for the Separation of Church and State to ensure that politics doesn't interfere with freedom of religion and that religion stays out of politics.
We can only hope that this disjointed group with a fractured agenda will fade away.
Their anger should be directed at themselves for the policies they supported and who they voted for since the last 8 years of the GOP left us with 2 wars, a huge deficit, a crashed economy and no jobs.
Note that Tea Partiers always downplay the homogeneity of their movement. This is a calculated move. And don't think they don't have some ideas that can easily find favor with and pollute the young.
For instance, that very diversity-comfortable status of Millenials has the effect of making racism and inequality less visible. The success of government programs makes them easy take for granted for people who never had to fight for them, easy to imagine a world without as they have no idea what the programs do for them.
And let's also face that the diverse growth in anti-conservative demographics wil likely lead to more idea diversity, meaning a more cohesive conservative movement (like usual really).
And consider also that young people aren't very quick to think about things like health insurance and retirement... They're pretty easily won over by ideas like privatizing social security or not having to buy insurance if they don't want to (not thinking about future consequences or the effects on the risk pool).
Sometimes the Tea Party looks more like a movement to attract young people to backward ideas... and, let's face it... our generation (I'm between X and the Milennials) grew up on Reagan rhetoric.
Underestimating the enemy is never wise. We do it too much.
No matter how nasty or vicious they are, no matter how successful in the short-term, I take some solace in the fact that they have, all of them, eventually been consigned to the dustbin of history. Think of it -- so many of the very reactionairies in today's "Tea Party" are screaming about protecting MEDICARE and SOCIAL SECURITY! What would their arch-conservative forebearers think?
This too, shall pass.
Gen X has had to scratch and claw for ANY recognition. When my generation does something important it is always compared to the "achievments" of the Boomers. Instead of showing pride in thier children's generation, Boomers put down and compete with us at every turn. Now that the economy has crashed Boomers are not retiring which is pushing us Xers into the unemployment lines in numbers far greater than Boomers.
We should have done better.
I'm very progressive and despise the TeaBaggers (the description fits). I cannot relate to your description of me and I know many others of my generation who are like me.
Please beware of generalizing too much around your definitions of people.
I'm old (57) but educated, liberal and progressive. I've been dismayed by the political disasters of the last decade. Now that Obama appears not to be (pardon the pun, PLEASE) our Great White Hope for reclaiming our ideals of government OF the people, BY the people, FOR the people. . .
. . .been feeling hopeless, but I forgot, that barring apocalypse on 2012 or whenever, the youngsters ARE coming up. We will turn over the reins. We can hope they will avoid our sins, self-centeredness, prejudices, and obstructionism for something better.
We must offer our apologies for leaving the place a mess after the party, though.
Secondly, there are a growing number of clubs for conservative college students and college graduates.
If anything, people of all ages certainly appear to be against big government.
The "get off my lawn" generation is feeling left behind but true to their boomer style, won't go down w/out an obnoxious fight.
You need to remember who took us from a surplus to a deficit...it wasn't Obama. You need to remember why Obama is spending...to get us out of a huge mess created by our wonderful George W.
The tea-party is a fad...yes, worse than bell-bottoms, pet rocks and curly perms, but yet a fad. They can sell it while it's hot, but once it cools, people will just laugh at it...like they do bell-bottoms, curly perms and pet rocks now.
If anything, Obama's incompetence to date has disillusioned so many young voters. Be prepared to see a huge drop in their involvement in 2010. They have no job prospects, they will have to pay thousands for Obamacare, money they don't have. If they don't pay, they will go to jail.
It appears that you haven't read any polls since Obama got elected. You are insulting the intelligence of your readers regardless of parties. Man, just check any poll this afternoon and see how well the Legislators and Obama are doing. Pathetic ratings, and you act as if we've never been in better hands.
Keep deluding yourself about the Tea Party movement. Everybody saw the impact of Scott Brown,
perhaps the first true independent Senator in history. Now, imagine the kind of havoc a half dozen
tea-party independent, conservative minded Senator could wreak. Both Republicans and Democrats
would be hobbled and forced into voting for the people and not their continued tenure in the halls of power.
Americans trust their govt? You gotta be kiddin'.
HOWEVER, they do form public opinion which DOES influence politicians.
But, I agree with everything else you said.