Millennial Politics
2013-09-26 - by
Today I suspend Republican-bashing to recommend a provocative political analysis.
Titled “Will Disillusioned Millennials Bring an End to the Reagan-Clinton Era?,” it’s from a professor and Daily Beast contributor named Peter Beinart. It’s long, and it’s worth reading.
Here’s my best shot at a short recap:
For decades now, politics has been dominated by the children of Reagan and children of Clinton. But the Millennials – the generation born between 1980 and 2000 – are very different. And they are going to make American politics very different – maybe, very soon.
Beinart: “Millennials are entering adulthood in an America where government provides much less economic security. And their economic experience in this newly deregulated America has been horrendous….The Millennials are unlikely to play out their political conflicts between the yard lines Reagan and Clinton set out.”
They lean much farther to the left – cultural, economically and politically. They are secular and socially tolerant. And they can be decidedly anti-corporate.
Beinart: “If Millennials remain on the left, the consequences for American politics over the next two decades could be profound. In the 2008 presidential election, Millennials constituted one-fifth of America’s voters. In 2012, they were one-quarter. In 2016, according to predictions by political demographer Ruy Teixeira, they will be one-third. And they will go on constituting between one-third and two-fifths of America’s voters through at least 2028.”
The politician who may be most vulnerable to this generational cohort? Hillary Clinton. Specially, an anti-Wall Street candidate like Senator Elizabeth Warren could do to her what RFK and Gene McCarthy did to LBJ in 1968.
Forgot for a while DHHS scandals and federal government shutdowns. Ponder the coming Millennium.
Millennial Politics
2013-09-26/
Today I suspend Republican-bashing to recommend a provocative political analysis.
Titled “Will Disillusioned Millennials Bring an End to the Reagan-Clinton Era?,” it’s from a professor and Daily Beast contributor named Peter Beinart. It’s long, and it’s worth reading.
Here’s my best shot at a short recap:
For decades now, politics has been dominated by the children of Reagan and children of Clinton. But the Millennials – the generation born between 1980 and 2000 – are very different. And they are going to make American politics very different – maybe, very soon.
Beinart: “Millennials are entering adulthood in an America where government provides much less economic security. And their economic experience in this newly deregulated America has been horrendous….The Millennials are unlikely to play out their political conflicts between the yard lines Reagan and Clinton set out.”
They lean much farther to the left – cultural, economically and politically. They are secular and socially tolerant. And they can be decidedly anti-corporate.
Beinart: “If Millennials remain on the left, the consequences for American politics over the next two decades could be profound. In the 2008 presidential election, Millennials constituted one-fifth of America’s voters. In 2012, they were one-quarter. In 2016, according to predictions by political demographer Ruy Teixeira, they will be one-third. And they will go on constituting between one-third and two-fifths of America’s voters through at least 2028.”
The politician who may be most vulnerable to this generational cohort? Hillary Clinton. Specially, an anti-Wall Street candidate like Senator Elizabeth Warren could do to her what RFK and Gene McCarthy did to LBJ in 1968.
Forgot for a while DHHS scandals and federal government shutdowns. Ponder the coming Millennium.