Attention GenY'ers! Talk To Your Parents! Don't Let GenJonesers Vote Against Themselves!
The biggest threat to a Barack Obama victory ironically comes from his own generation, your parents' generation - Generation Jones - born between the Boomers and the X'ers.
Before we start releasing victory balloons, we need to pay some attention to the election of '04. Bush's Karl Rove, a Baby Boomer himself, recognized something the Democrats didn't. He realized that those born just after he (whom many had been considering as late Boomers too) had interests that were in fact quite different. He took careful aim at this group and brought them in for Bush in the final days of the election, even though they'd been leaning toward Kerry.
It's important to understand that these 1954 to 1965er's, coined Generation Jonesers by the political commentator, Jonathan Pontell, tend to lean more to the right than the left. The group is the most GOP-voting generational group in America. Plus they contain the highest percentage of undecideds - particularly among women since, despite their being GenJonesers, women more often lean Democratic. This is a danger for Obama. In 2004 the GOP frightened the group into believing that only the Republicans were strong enough to protect America. They convinced them that Iraq was still possible to 'win," that the economy was solid, that housing would forever rise, and that everyone could and should own a home. Rove hit them with his batch of cultural issues, playing up their so-called "Conservative" values (that's short for being anti-Gay and anti-abortion, an issue this group has not fully appreciated, having never suffered the personal price that earlier generations had paid.)
Now, however, the issues are not so cultural. And your folks, GenY'ers, need to be reminded! The war is mostly off the table - even Iraq's Prime Minister has been insisting that America go home. Today, as in '92, when Bush's father was being voted out of office, it's the economy! The Economy! Because the same stupid, selfish and greedy people have been running it into the ground. People like Phil Gramm, John McCain's co-economic strategist - he's been touted as a possible McCain Treasury Secretary. Remember Phil Gramm? Ex head of the Senate Banking Committee who, according to Mother Jones, pulled a sly and sleazy legislative maneuver that opened the door for the current subprime meltdown? Gramm is now a hugely paid executive and lobbyist at UBS Financial Services, a beneficiary of the current bailout. Then there's Wendy, Gramm's wife. Wendy was instrumental in helping Enron evade the oversight that eventually cost our nation billions. The Gramm family was one of the few who profited from the Enron debacle. As for our current meltdown, the McCain camp likes to blame it on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Well, sure there's blame to be smeared around, but they conveniently ignore the fact that McCain's own campaign manager, Rick Davis, was paid $2 million as president of a lobbying group set up by Fannie and Freddie. the guy's been pocketing $15,000 a month from F&F until the end of this summer. Are these the people we want to continue steering our economy?
Seriously, guys. You need to talk this up. Remind your parents to vote reality. Many Jonesers who started families late are still paying for kids in school. And even more are caring for aging parents of their own and health costs are weighing down hard. Press them to examine Obama's health plan - it is a good and comprehensive one, and his promise to cut taxes on virtually everyone earning less than $250,000 a year. McCain calls that socialism. Nonsense! It's simply making sure that 95% of working families get a piece of the kind of break that the Republicans have been saving for the wealthy. As for that scare they're promoting about Obama's readiness for being Commander in Chief, it's true he doesn't have a lobbyist for Georgia on his staff, but remind your elders that General Colin Powell, along with four star General Wesley Clark and dozens of other top ranking military officers, think Senator Obama's steady judgment and his backbone of steel make him ready to take command on Day One. Convince them, as the children of several former Republican Governors convinced their parents to come out for Obama, as GenJoneser Caroline Kennedy's GenY kids moved her from Hillary to Barack. There's a reason so many Republicans, even some in Bush's inner circle, have turned away from John McCain. Powell, Scott McClellan, Susan Eisenhower, Ron Reagan, Jr., Christopher Hitchens, the entire Buckley family; the list grows longer by the day. As does the list of newspapers that are coming out for Obama. Even Alaska's largest paper just gave him it's nod of approval.
We need to do everything we can, guys. This generation called Jones is nearly a third of all voters. It remains evenly divided with many still vacillating one way or the other. We dare not let the Rovians take them from us again.
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The following short video features some of America's top politicos discussing the
importance of the GenJones role in the coming election:
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Right now, 5 days out, and we haven't talked enough about this. Bennet Kelley talked about it in April, Jonathan Pontell forever and constantly and David's knowledgeable and just-in-time-to-do-something above article. I do hope people will take it to heart and do one more thing this weekend. Talk to Gen Jonesers. good music video on youtube about it. at generation jones music video (with a cantonese soundtrack of "YMCA".)
I heard a very interesting discussion on the radio today about exactly this topic---that Generation Jones is the only large electoral segment which still has a significant number of undecided's. The guests on the show were more or less split on whether Jonesers would swing to Obama or McCain on election day, although the feeling I got was that there was significant concern that they may swing to the right. GenY'ers---take David Paulsen's advice and get to your GenJones parents so that we avert possible catastrophe----ie. a McCain Presidency.
I personally will find it interesting to see how the international community responds to Obama when using the race card as he seems to use it consistently as a weapon of choice. Im sure we will see a divided country after Obama get done they we have ever seen with the civil war being the exception.
Obama does need to stop riding the fence on religion. Fact is America is a Christian country founded on Christian Values. that is why our country has moved forward and does not remain in the dark ages.
Mrs Obama would find this country far more friendlier if she spent as much time surrounding herself with Good people instead of Racist, Terrorist and Anti Americans. and shame on her for indoctrinating her children into a church like Rev. Wrights. No reasonble person can excuse this as "They didnt know".
I'm an X and my mom and dad are Joners. (They were teen parents obviously) It was kinda cool to have parents from that gen because they were disillusioned and somewhat non-conformist, but they had the desire to give us the sunny suburb that they had grown up watching on TV. They were raising gen X so they understood why we were afraid of the dreaded bomb because they had the same childhood fears. There is really no space between us and nothing to argue about since our generations blend into each others. They could have been older siblings.
My kids are millenials. There isnt much space between me and my kids. Im a 35 year old with a 16 year old son. We dont have much to disagree about. He seems to trust my judgment and rarely do I hear: "But you just dont underSTAND!". He knows if I put the eternal question to him: "What are you gonna do with your life?!" and he answers: "I WANNA ROCK!", I'll be ecstatic. "Well, you rock on then, boy!" He wants to rebel by being the president or something. Whatever, dude. Rock on.
Its probably best to be an older parent for economic reasons, but just in case you start early, there is something to be said for having kids in the generation directly following your own. You're practically the same.
interesting family dynamic you have...can be fascinating watching the sometimes complicated dynamic between family generations and historical generations
I am Gen Jones - 1957. Obama doesn't need to worry about me. It's about god#am time we got someone in the White House who actually resembles this country. My generational cohort - the Jones's - are not the sharpest tools in the shed, however. They never were. This is the generation who accepted the Monkees as a legitimate band, and Grand Funk Railroad as the equals of Cream. Not very surprising that many accept McCain as a patriot, or a leader.
LOL! My mother still raves about The Monkeys.
So I can blame`them for Hannah Montana?
Aw...c'mon---GFR wasn't that bad. But the Monkees, well, that's a different thing. I remember teen magazines in the late 60's with headlines like: "Who's the better band--the Beatles or The Monkees?". Even as a little kid, I aughed at that comparison.
I saw a segment about GEN JONES swing voters yesterday on CNN also; got my attention. There is something unnerving about a third of the electorate which is GOP-leaning and still with lots of undecided voters. I think Paulsen is on to something important here by encouraging the GEN Y kids to convince their GEN JONES parents to vote Democratic this year.
I saw Clarence Page this morning on The Chris Mathews Show talking about Generation Jones, and yesterday someone on CNN was giving a dire warning about the potential of Generation Jones to still swing the election to the GOP. Scary Stuff. Apparently, pollsters are seeing data in their internal numbers which are causing quite a few people to be concerned about the swinging of Generation Jones; I sure hope that Obama's people are paying attention to this.
i think you're right...with so many references lately to gen joneses being such important swing voters, the pollsters must be seeing some pretty strong numbers pointing to the fluidity of these jones voters...but so often the pollsters are wrong, esp. this election, that i take all polling numbers now with a grain of salt...
I work in a nursing home and had in interaction with the 60yr old son of a resident
today -he was wearing McCain/Palin hat and sporting a Vote Yes on 1 button
(Proposition 1 is to repeal the state income tax here in MA -over 40% of
our operating budget)
I so much wanted to be able to point out that just the fact that his dad is with us means
he'll be voting against his own best interests -so sad!
I have been saying for years and years that those of us born in the early 60s are not Boomers nor are we GenXers. I love the fact that we GenJonesers finally are going to have one of our own----Obama---in the White House (hopefully!).
This is the first time I've heard of GenJonesers - I've heard us called 'Tweeners' for years, though, because we're between the Boomers and X'ers.
tweeners is a common term for kids who are between childhood and adolescence...newsweek magazine did a cover story called "Tweeners!" all about kids in this age category, and ive heard the tweener term used many times this way...ive never heard gen jones called tweeners but it got me curious so i just did a google search and could only find one reference ever to the gen between boomers and xers called tweeners...but tweener is used a lot in the aforementioned 'between kid and teen' way... "generation jones" is the only term ive heard for years for our gen lost between boom and x...
i just heard someone talking about this on msnbc yesterday. this worries me that such a big repub segment has so many undecideds. what are the best ways for the dems to pull generation joneses to our side? i will be beyond upset if the repubs figure out how to get gen jonese on their side again.
I am a Generation Joneser and I have to say that most of the people close to my age are liberal/progressive/independents and are voting for Obama. It has been the clear choice since the beginning of the general election season. I am 53. I voted for Obama/Biden this past Thursday. I am hoping that we are going to make history. I am hoping that the Obama wave is so large that no amount of fraud, caging or machine tampering will matter. That their are so many votes for Obama/Biden that there is no way around it. YES WE CAN GO VOTE GO VOTE
Generation Jones is traditionally so Republican that you're right...they could still swing this election to the GOP. I've read a few articles this week about this specific concern about Generation Jones still having a lot of undecideds who could still swing Right. Here's one of the articles from this week--it's Clarence Page's column in the Chicago Tribune from a couple of days ago, titled:" Generation Jones is in play", and can be found here: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/columnists/chi-oped1022pageoct22,0,2775732.columnn
Oops...let me try that Clarence Page link again...
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/columnists/chi-oped1022pageoct22,0,2775732.column
your link still isn't working, but it works if you copy the whole thing and and paste it into the url field.
here is another article from this week about this topic of gen jones swinging, its by dem strategist peter fenn called 'Why the ‘Generation Jones’ Vote May Be Crucial in Election 2008'. here is the link to it... http://pundits.thehill.com/2008/10/23/why-the-%E2%80%98generation-jones%E2%80%99-vote-may-be-crucial-in-election-2008/
I guess GEN JONES is republican becasue we came of age politically with the rise of Ronald Reagan; I couldn't believe my college friends then in '80 were voting for Reagan---I saw flaws in Carter but I wouldn't have considered voting for Reagan.
I think Gen Jones leans gop because of the strong reaction many had to the boomers in the 60s/70s. Some Jonesers were hippy wannabe's, some loathed the hippies, few didn't have strong feelings one way or the other. It happened that there were more hippy-haters than hippy-lovers among Gen Jones and that formed this generational bias to the right.
This reminds me of Sarah Silverman's "Big Shlepp", but I think that is more directed at Boomers shlepping their elderly parents in Florida, while this is for GenY 20-somethings to shlepp their Gen Joneser parents. Both are strong ideas that should be supported. I didn't realize that Gen Jonesers were around 1 in 3 voters, but it makes sense because those were the biggest post-WWII boom in babies years. So don't just vote, GenY, but also get your parents to vote...for the Dems.
David Paulsen is, in effect, calling for "The GenJones Big Schlep". I like that. All of us who really care about the Dems winning this time should help get this message out there. Well done, David Paulsen.
I like Paulsen's approach here; I've already talked to a few GenY'ers about this...
i completely agree with this article...i am a part of generation jones, always thought it was ridiculous that people my age were lumped in with the boomers...i remember reading stuff about gen jones giving bush victory in 04...jonesers need to get out and vote for obama...there definitely is a danger that gen jones could swing this election to the gop, given how big a chunk of the electorate which gen jones is...
Great Post, Mr. Paulsen! I couldn't agree more...Generation Jones has been playing a big, but under-reported role in this election. We really need to get GenY'ers to help sell their GenJones parents on the importance of voting for Obama, because it really is in the economic self-interest of the vast majority of Jonesers to do so.
you're right, this is important and it doesnt get enough attention. of course gen joneses are used to not getting enough attention, been ignored collectively our whole lives in the shadow of the boomers.
I can't even begin to tell you how sick I am of being called a Boomer, when it's been obvious to me since I was about 14 years old that people my age were fundamentally different than Boomers. And we certainly aren't Xers either. Viva GenJones.
It's amazing to me that some Jonesers don't see how much our own pocketbooks are affected by the GOP's bogus economic policies.
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