Will Millennials Usher in a New Era of Liberalism?

[babylonsister]

and good riddance!!

http://politicalwire.com/archives/2012/11/27/will_millennials_usher_in_a_new_era_of_liberalism.html

Will Millennials Usher in a New Era of Liberalism?

Jonathan Chait: "How doomed are conservatives? Pretty doomed, if you look carefully at the Pew Research Survey's close analysis of the youth vote in the 2012 elections. The Republicans' long-term dilemma has generally been framed in racial terms, but it's mainly a generational one. The youngest generation of voters contains a much smaller proportion of white voters than previous generations, and those whites in that generation vote Republican by a much smaller margin than their elders. What's more, younger voters supported President Obama during the last two election cycles for reasons that seem to go beyond the usual reasons -- social issues like gay marriage and feminism, immigration policy, or Obama's personal appeal -- and suggest a deeper attachment to liberalism. The proclivities of younger voters may actually portend a full-scale sea change in American politics."

Chait's article here:

http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2012/11/generation-d-americas-liberal-future.html

The Millennial Generation: Our Liberal Future

[dmallind]

1. Unfortunately not really

Just like Hippies did not usher in a new era of peace and drug-friendly laws.

I remember stories like this when I was in the cohort that was supposed to do it. Many of my generation became more conservative as they aged. Many of this one will too. It's not like this is new. My dad at 30 in the early 70's was a union shop steward in the last great era of Bristish socialism. At 70 he is a BNP voter. I grew up with people who spat at Thatcher posters, and now vote for Cameron. In the U.S. I remember people thinking Reagan was one step from Hitler, who now echo lines from AM radio and Fox talking heads who would call his positions Marxist.

It's not all for naught. The social culture wars will drift into better waters slowly as ever. Just like homosexuality was a verboten topic in my youth and grudgingly accepted - sort of - now, it will eventually become as little worth mentioning as unwed parents are today and unchaperoned dating was 50 years ago. God knows what the fundy loons will blame for hurricanes 30 years hence. Polygamists? Furries? Nudity in public?

But outside the ever-shrinking grasp of prudery, conservatism will wax amongst this generation as it ages. They will blame different minorities than we do for scarce jobs and low wages, just like we no longer blame the Irish or Italians, but they will blame some group or other. They will as a whole become less accepting of taxes and welfare as they get older and see less and less chance of them needing what it provides. They will get more and more militaristic and xenophobic. THey always do.

Youth always ages.

[JaneyVee]

2. Quick story...

I'm 31 and went to my Brooklyn neighborhood where my mother lives for a family Thanksgiving and was talking to some neighbors kids and friends outside before our dinner, all about 17 to 20 years old, we started talking politics when they asked who I voted for. To make a long (boring) story short, apparently the fact that the GOP calls Obama a 'Socialist' is making Socialism cool. The theory is that the younger generation loves Obama so much, and they (certain media types) keep referring to him as a 'Socialist' that they equate Socialism as positive, even...hip. The GOP has reaped what they have sowed....Kinda like the term 'Obamacare', they tried to make it a dirty word, Obama embraced it, now it's cool. You can't make it through one of these young Hipsters Tumblr/blogs without a photo of Obama in there.

Who knows how these kids political views will transform in the future but I found it LOL-worthy that the GOPs plan is back-firing on them. Of course this isn't a scientific study because 1- my old neighborhood of Williamsburg Brooklyn is now a quasi-socialist Hipster mecca, and 2- Obama isn't a Socialist.

Edit: My neighborhood was so working class poor while I was growing up that I was so proud I went to college, got a job, moved to Manhattan (to be closer to work) and now that I left it has become so expensive in Williamsburg that I can't even afford to move back there.

[TheKentuckian]

3. I hope so but I'm not so sure they just aren't as bigoted which is a wonderful thing

but that isn't liberal, just decent and human.

They also worry me some because they seem to be overly trusting of "authority" which makes them easily played.