The inescapable truth is that every generation faces an array of challenges and obstacles. Baby boomers, however, seem to have chosen a questionable course of action by throwing their support behind Vice President Kamala Harris, despite the questionable value-add she has for our nation. Likewise, the millennial crowd, who were the minds behind the sarcastic ‘OK Boomer’ trend, chose Harris over Trump with a margin of 51%. Although these numbers were simply a 1% dip from their previous support for Joe Biden in 2020, it’s alarming to see such a misguided alignment.
Echoing this sentiment, 55% of Gen Z voters also swooned for Harris, but an interesting shift was observed: a surprising 6% increment in their support for Trump. Uniquely, among all the generations, it was only the boomers who ramped up their support for Trump’s rivals by a minimal 3%. Rather than becoming entrenched in a pointless generational blame game, we must meet head-on the challenges that blight our democracy. This is not an excuse, however, to blindly accept the ideological persuasions of these generations.
By facilitating open debates that transcend generational boundaries and cultural orientations, we can address the shared problems that plague us. One significant dilemma that the young voters are confronted with these days bears an uncanny resemblance with what the boomers grappled with in the past – an incessant rise in economic disparities. The need of the hour is not to pass the buck but to address the elephant in the room – the failure of both boomers and subsequent generations to prop up our democratic rights.
Despite being born during the golden era, when the greatest economic boom in history blessed the world, boomers inexplicably fell short of protecting our democracy. It’s a widely held belief that they led the charge in anti-war, civil, women’s rights movements, and the sexual revolution, but the truth is far from it. Several boomers participated, but their contribution often gets blown out of proportion. Moreover, there seems to be a presumption that Oklahoma’s boomers lean towards the conservative end of the political spectrum. However, that’s hardly reflective of the diverse range of political beliefs that this group holds.
It’s worth noting that many boomers, like my friends, have been involved in campaigns tackling a plethora of issues, from the niches of global warming to the atrocities of genocide in Central America. Despite these contributions, there was an unexpected turn of events during the Reagan era that left many baffled.
The election of President Ronald Reagan in 1980 struck me as an unprecedented anomaly. Boomers rallied behind Reagan as eagerly as they supported Trump, displaying an unfathomable inclination towards such leadership. It was even more shocking when a significant 56% of the electorate, aged between 25 and 34, casted their votes in favor of Reagan in 1984. This percentage rose to an astonishing 67% among the young professional voters.
Around this time, my Central Park neighborhood underwent a dramatic transformation under the Reagan administration that came across as doomsday-like. The thriving blue-collar job market took a beating, with countless jobs vanishing overnight. Reagan’s deregulation measures were the death knell for numerous banks and savings and loans institutions.
The fallout was catastrophic – abandoned houses mushroomed across the neighborhood, predominantly affecting black families. Although I had earned a doctorate by then, I was forced to pick up multiple part-time jobs to make ends meet. The cherry on top of this miserable sundae was a whopping 16% mortgage rate on our house.
Most troubling of all, under this administration, the boomers seemed to surrender to the allure of commercialism. Television, with its seductive power, successfully veered us away from community values, pushing us instead towards a culture of self-centeredness. Even more troubling was the exploitation of the internet during the 1990s by some elite boomers, which gave a serious boost to the propagation of ‘fake news’.
As historian Max Boot asserts, Reaganism had paved the way for Trumpism. The devastating aftermath of Reagan’s tax policies resulted in rampant inflation of over 9% and unemployment spiking past 10%. Amid these tough times, school lunch funding was slashed by 45%, around 1.9 million jobs disappeared, and less than half of the jobless individuals received unemployment insurance. In short, the middle class was gutted, the wealthy got wealthier, and the poor suffered the most, but many continue to ignore these glaring flaws.
The wounds inflicted by Reagan’s policies still endure, as seen in the widened death gap between individuals with lower and higher incomes – a staggering 570% increase. Moreover, in 2020, we saw that our inequality gap dwarfed that of nearly every other developed nation. Despite these unfortunate circumstances, too many of our youth remain ignorant of this history. Instead of pointing fingers, we must evaluate the shortcomings of the older generations in passing down their experiences and knowledge.
Although corporate-led school reforms have a major part in the failure to provide substantial education, it is also due to educators who didn’t push back when history and civics were replaced with standardized test preparations. I’ve encountered non-voting Gen Z individuals who displayed a shocking level of disinterest and lack of knowledge about the democratic process. It brought to my mind the exhaustive curriculum that I was expected to teach within the confines of a single 55-minute class: from the rise of totalitarianism in the 1920’s and ’30s, to World War II, to the Cold War origins, and post-war colonialism.
The younger generations are being increasingly influenced by social media platforms. However, the older generations have also fallen short in inculcating the significance of critical thinking, digital literacy, and ethics among youth. The need for these discussions, that should have been initialized during the 1990s, is now more pertinent than ever.
The current discourse needs to shun focusing on individual political campaign errors and instead delve into the overarching changes over the past four decades that have exacerbated social inequalities, fueled right-wing propaganda, and instilled a feeling of resignation towards democracy in many Americans. The first step to accomplish this is for all individuals, irrespective of their political leanings or their generation, to accept that we harbor misconceptions and prejudices. This is a necessary condition for healing.