Obama's Generation X Factor

The Nation: Democrat Is No Boomer, But Will Thirtysomethings Back Him?

(The Nation)  There's no better example of a "new progressive" than Jerome Armstrong. Born in 1964, he long identified as an independent, working for environmental groups or public-service organizations like the Peace Corps while remaining wary of party politics. "My view was, Well, if I was in politics, boy, would it be different. It would be something very idealistic. But that didn't really seem possible at the time, so why start down that path," he says.

Bill Clinton was at least partly responsible for the lack of political engagement that characterized the '90s. His election in 1992, when he pulled in 52 percent of the under-25 vote, marked a hope-stirring thaw during a long winter of conservative dominance. Gordinier says Clinton was in many ways "our first political love who broke our hearts. We've never been able to trust any politician quite in that same way again." The sense of betrayal combined with the ugly partisan politics of the era reinforced the sense of disillusionment. Gary Ruskin, who directed the Congressional Accountability Project at the time, told The Atlantic Monthly, "Republicans and Democrats have become one and the same -- they are both corrupt at the core and behave like children who are more interested in fighting with each other than in getting anything accomplished."

But then came a governor from Texas who changed everything. "In 2000, there was this realization for people my age: Hell, there is a difference between Democrats and Republicans. George Bush proved that," Armstrong says. It was also clear that the only force that could stop the Bush bandwagon was, for better or worse, the Democratic Party. Third parties were no longer the answer -- even though many X-ers had voted for Ralph Nader in the past -- and X-ers had never embraced street protests like the boomers. So they turned to the medium most of them knew best: the Internet.

If George Bush introduced X-ers to the value of partisanship, the Internet offered something just as valuable in the jittery aftermath of 9/11: community. "It's easy to forget how amazing this felt back then. But for many of us there was a feeling of being lost and politically isolated," Armstrong says. The feeling was not limited to X-ers, but they were a generation that had long been defined by an aversion to groups. "It was more anti-fake community," says Armstrong. "We didn't like being controlled or defined by an association with these fake communities like nationality, or religion or [corporate] brands." The Internet always carried the potential for connection, but X-ers would use it to create a vast array of political and purely social blogs, networking sites and other forms of community, which we now refer to as Web 2.0.

As the "stolen" elections were quickly followed by 9/11, its aftermath and then the invasion of Iraq, X-ers were uniquely situated to create a new form of activism that blended technology with political resistance. "The Millennials were too young to be heavily into politics at the time," says Armstrong. "But we also understood the technology in a way that baby boomers did not." X-ers were better able to develop the potential of online activism -- from raising money to organizing meet-ups -- having been present and intimately involved in the development of the web during the dot-com heyday. To be clear, the X-ers are not the netroots -- which includes progressives of all ages -- but they are indisputably its creators.

By 2002 Armstrong had embraced his newfound identity as a Democrat and joined the Howard Dean campaign, where, along with fellow X-ers like Markos Moulitsas and Zephyr Teachout, he helped shape the first netroots-driven presidential candidacy. "Technology gave people of my generation the revolutionary opportunity to get involved in politics so late in our life, and enter it at a fairly high level," he says.

The "new progressive" sensibility, however, extends far beyond the netroots. It includes leaders like Andrea Batista Schlesinger, the 31-year-old executive director of the Drum Major Institute (DMI), who is helping transform the civil rights-era foundation into a progressive public policy organization. Or David Callahan, who started his political career protesting a local nuclear power plant as a 14-year-old, and went on to establish the think tank Demos. While members of this new generation of activist leaders are likely to hold different opinions on specific political issues, what binds them together is a political orientation that is distinct from boomer politics.

"My generation has more of an interest in rethinking ideas," Callahan says -- figuring out "whether the big liberal ideas of the twentieth century are in fact appropriate for the twenty-first." While much of the media attention is given to establishment-baiters like Ted Nordhaus and Michael Shellenberger, authors of Break Through: From the Death of Environmentalism to the Politics of Possibility, a better example of a Gen X challenge to liberal credo is 40-year-old Majora Carter, whose Sustainable South Bronx is re-envisioning environmental and racial justice not "as a moral crusade but as an economic-development" issue. Carter's activism has all the hallmarks of Gen X politics: from her outsider status in the green movement to her entrepreneurial spirit, community-based focus and emphasis on fiscal responsibility and real-life outcomes.

[antihysteria]

My God, does this sort of article bug me. Every time someone discusses the generation gap, it's always from the perspective of the younger generation. Is it ever tiring. There is nothing special about Generation X and there was nothing especially disappointing about the so-called Baby Boom generation, other than the fact that they have yet to live up to their promising potential and were forcibly kept down by the WWII generation, a tough act to follow in many respects. There were lost souls among the Baby Boomers but it has become difficult to tell the lost souls from the best of the breed because so many of them conformed to our rather rigid society's very narrow idea of what is an acceptable way to live your life while others ran from the modern world and never tried to make anything of themselves at all. Between those two extremes are a relative handful of beautiful people. They are few and far between, that much is certain. They have well developed talents, they work long and hard, and they have attained a fair deal of relative wisdom. Finding one of them is a real task because they are difficult to recognize. To say that the leaders of that generation, whether in politics, business, or academia, have somehow let down the nation, is to fail to recognize who the real leaders of the older generation are. Not a group to worship achievements that appear more impressive than they really are, unlike Generation X and the WWII generation, nor to wear their medals on their chests, you aren't about to meet them by asking your local young person, who thinks he or she knows all.
As for Generation X, so many of them do seem lost, shallow, soulless, given to mutilating themselves with abandon, drinking themselves sick, whining, complaining, and spending money on foolish pursuits and ephemeral goals. But they're not all that way. Although you will almost never find one without his trusty cell phone, Ipod, notebook computer, or a host of other gadgets (while to watch them have personal conversations on the horn right in public is truly depressing), there are Gen Xers who are artistic, serious, believe in the pursuit of excellence, and possess a healthy skepticism about the capitalistic excesses of the modern world. There are? Where, praytell, are they? Once again, however, these relatively enlightened young people are few and far between and hard to meet. Since they have such trouble linking up with the handful of elders who can really impart something of value that they don't already know (or think they know), they fall into the easy trap of thinking the entire older generation (ha ha ha) are just like their parents. Hey, kids, not every Boomer even had brats like you. Don't lump them all under the same umbrella. It just ain't so.
Getting to Obama, he strikes me as smart, thoughtful, and confident. But he is still very young for a president and vulnerable to being manipulated by those who will try to mislead him. Already, he is handing out welfare by the hundreds of billions to the richest Americans. Where did he get the idea that such a policy is going to help us out of a deepening recession? How will he have money to spare for the idealistic reforms he envisioned and spoke about in his campaign that we truly need? Most disturbing of all, what the heck is he doing increasing the FBI budget and using the FBI to scrutinize the backgrounds of even the lowest level applicants for jobs in the Executive Branch? No, I don't see an entirely rosy picture with Barack at the helm, even though I wish him the best, that is, until I can see what he is really all about. So far, we're getting some very mixed messages. And if the author truly believes that one exceptionally young president signals the end of an entire generation's influence and power, that writer is sadly mistaken. The best of them have yet to be acknowledged. Will they ever be? Time will tell.

[marytnurse-2009]

Commenters; DO YOUR HOMEWORK before you spout half truths! Research ethics, research voting records. Read his proposals in as much detail as you want at his website. The people of Illinois LOVE Obama. He IS one who will unite this tragically divided country again.

[jowand]

You''''re right! Bushit has done an incredible amount of damage. The deserter, drunk driver, coke snortering pimple punk from Yale who got ahead only because his Daddy has money and power is hardly the exemplar of the American Dream!
Posted by gkc99 at 05:26 PM : Nov 23, 2007

You could be speaking of more than half the members of Congress, 3 generations of the Kenndys, most all of the Hollywood role models. Oh and you have a foul mouth too, his name is Bush.

[gkc99]

If it weren''t for the "boomers", the message to Obama would be "get back to de cotton field, boy!" Or he might be called "the Nigra candidate".

Oh wait, Romnuts still calls him that!

[gkc99]

"A president is supposed to be a role model. A former illegal substance abuser, drunkard, and goof-of has no right being president. His being president would only foster similar conduct among kids. "--Posted by denn034


You''re right! Bushit has done an incredible amount of damage. The deserter, drunk driver, coke snortering pimple punk from Yale who got ahead only because his Daddy has money and power is hardly the exemplar of the American Dream!

[omega39-2009]

On Obama - Little by little, his past is coming out - death of a thousand cuts.
Posted by ramos937

And of course the GOP is right there to ignore it''s own little drunk driving, coke snorting thug in the WH while playing on anything that can "damage" the dems.

Hillary, oh she''s a socialist and married to BJ Bill
Obama, he did drugs and his middle name is Hussein
Edwards, what can you say about the breck girl except he''s a trial lawyer.

[bill1fj]

Obama is a talker and an actor.
He doesn''t do anything.
Look at his record in Congress. NOthing but talk.
To be a real leader you need to talk and then follow up with action.
As the people in Illinois say: "Wheres Obama?"

[ramos937]

My candidate is Bill Richardson. The more I learn about Clinton and Obama, the more convinced I am that Bill is the better choice. He might not look as pretty; he might not have the money the other guys do but he has not done drugs, he has extensive experience in and out of government and can get along well with both Republicans and Democrats. Provided he stays in the race, more folks will see him as I do and vote for him.

On Clinton - You like her or you hate her. Very few folks in between. Also, should she win, we can look forward to the tabloids and right wing talk show hosts making a career off her.

On Obama - Little by little, his past is coming out - death of a thousand cuts. I never knew he did drugs while a young man. Also, he is unable to handle awkward questions in a competent manner - too easy to rattle.

[rowdytexan2]

Before Mr. Obama runs for president again, he needs to take training in extemperaneous speaking. He tends to flop on questions that he hasn''t ''prepared''. Being the nationa''s president is a whole lot different than teaching a law course or organizing neighborhoods in an already free world.

His appeal to the X generations and the Millinea generations, but boomers are still very much in charge of the country and hold the money. I don''t know what he thinks those generations can do for him, or what he intends to gain by telling them he was a druggie, alkie, and goof off. We already know no one is perfect. It''s not a new concept.

I''ve read most of his proposals for change and they don''t tell me much. He''s just proposing propping up the same old programs in a different way. We need to hear new ideas on how to phase old programs into something much better.

We need a health program, not that allows us more fricking money to buy health insurance. We need a way to get health insurers out of the picture altogether. I don''t like having a middle man decide on my health care. The only thing these companies do is suck off the people for gains for their shareholders.

We need a program that directly provides health care for our people. One that holds them to cost without profiteering. These people are making millions off the suffering of the ill. Who the hell gave them permission to do THAT?

Why don''t you whack on that idea for awhile, Mr. Obama??

[marytnurse-2009]

While it appears many of you read your emails as if they are your religious doctrine, you clearly have not informed yourselves on the truth. Senator Barack Obama has been a political activist, starting on the ground at 23 years of age as a community organizer in Chicago''s inner city to unite the communities for their betterment. He returned to graduate school and become President of the Harvard Law review, where he made appointments to editorial positions from all factions at Harvard, thus uniting them to produce some of the best Reviews still. He has taught constitutional law while continuing to work for Chicago and for Illinois in the state Senate and the US Senate. He and I were born ''between'' generations, sometimes claimed by and sometimes renounced by both the Boomers and the GenXers.

His willingness to be a solid role model for our nation''s youth about how to overcome a troubled past, his understanding of the issues facing our public school systems, his ability to consistently cross the aisles and unite will serve this nation well in a time of moral crisis.

If you want to engage in dialog, let''s do so. Telling lies is not dialog.

[a8151947]

PRESIDENT Hillary Clinton.
Yes Yes Yes

[omega39-2009]

He is not a Boomer,
Posted by A8151947

Most of the sources I can find say the boomer generation went from 1946 - 1964, at 46 Obama would be a baby boomer.

[a8151947]

He is not a Boomer, and he should not be the next president. He should stay home and go back to school and learn something. Not run around taking/ being a illegal substance abuser, drunkard, and goof-of. He has no right being president. His being president would only foster similar conduct among kids.

[denn034]

A president is supposed to be a role model. A former illegal substance abuser, drunkard, and goof-of has no right being president. His being president would only foster similar conduct among kids.

[omega39-2009]

e often speaks to the Millennials, recently telling cheering college kids in South Carolina, "It''s your generation''s turn." But rarely mentioned is Obama''s own generation, i.e., Generation X, the Lost Generation, whose name has been virtually erased from the national conversation.

I thought I read once that the boomers went all the way to 1964.