Republicans need to cease and desist with their ongoing hate campaigns against everything decent and American.

Poor babies got their feelings hurt.

Straight to the greatest page with thee, from the mother of three daughters. (17, 26 & 29 years old)

All the talk about lack of enthusiasm turned out to be just that - talk. The Repub party has turned off a good chunk of an entire generation, imo. Don't see that changing, either. Yet enthusiasm was there this election, decidedly. And it was for Dems.

...becoming cynical and losing interest in politics.

I first voted in the 92 election. I followed politics and basically became apathetic during the Bush years. But that was before Katrina. Once that nightmare began to unfold, I became active. I registered here, I began donating money, became more active in charities, got a union job, etc. I may have been one of the apathetic, cynical GenXers before, but not anymore.

It's sad that so many Gen-Xers, like Paul Ryan, worship at the foot of Ayn Rand.

And lots more with my POV. We fought some of the same fights back in the 60's and 70's and I, for one, am appalled that we have to re-fight them. On topic though, I, too, blame the hoards of ordinary people who believed the (R) bullshit. It actually makes me sick. But back in the day we had a battle cry: "POWER TO THE PEOPLE." It still holds.

This needs to be reigned in. At some point only the very wealthy will even be able to consider college. This is a self-destructive spiral of greed must be stopped.

And the next time some self-righteous RW pundit trots out and starts complaining that people need to re-educate themselves for the "new economy" I am going to puke. No - bankers need to get their mitts off college loan programs. They are strangling the ability of our country to educate itself.

We tend not to show it because we tend towards being cool, calm, and collected (cue Lady Gaga's song "Poker Face&quot , Especially with Millennials from more Middle Class backgrounds, but the anger is there.

We are like the Greatest Generation in the 30s, many of whom joined the Communist Party.

Us oldsters really, REALLY do not want to be the last generation of Americans who can retire. Unless econonic inequality gets turned around, we are all screwn.

about many of the same issues and the fact the our so called MSM acted like nothing was wrong and even pretend that the President was lying when it was the lying Bishop Romney lying day in and day out.

What did they expect to get from Mitt if he would have won? I guess they would have said"Both sides do it' I kept screaming at the tv prove it. This media said the President was doing it when he defended his own record or if he spill out some facts about lying romney..

Like the Dutch boy sticking his fingers in the leaks of a levy.


For every demographic group they make a belated attempt to bring to their side, they whack on two others.


As they attempt to appeal to hispanics, a young generation of whites becomes disenchanted.

the women of this country and these kids take over, marginalize the greedy, self righteous tools that take, take, take, from workers, the environment, etc. giving little back.

I think the work has just begun.

My hope is that we all see what's possible now and work to steamroll these selfish fools to a small minority by 2016...

Has the makings of a future politician, and he will be a great one should he decide to put his foot in that cesspool. He can argue politics from a democratic perspective with adults and it floors them. Of course, I've made sure they are AWARE and AWAKENED to the needs of our country and our world. I also show them the lies being told and guide them to find the Truth.

It really is up to us to secure the future through our children. If we don't teach them, somebody else (GOP) might.

I'm really glad to hear a first hand report. In my days of housesharing (13 names on the mailbox) the issue was the Vietnam war, civil rights of all kinds, the environment, freedom from dogma, etc. We did not have an electoral victory to celebrate, however, just kept on organizing and working wherever we could as we went to school or sought union jobs in the private sector to lift ourselves out of our situation. In a way, I miss those days very much.

in a rare moment of GOP candor on CNN, there were several strategists talking about what was the biggest reason for the loss. One strategist popped in and said, paraphrasing, that the GOP has to start planning to regroup and concentrate on the next generation, because the current generation of young votes are already lost to the GOP, for good. She said those young adults will never vote GOP in their lifetime and you can count on that. She said the Republicans have completely lost a whole generation of voters because of their campaign against women, gay people, hispanics etc. I think there are some out there who see the anger among young people, but in true Republican fashion, sooner or later their wishful thinking will take over and they'll forget they ever said that.

They can't start embracing a liberal social agenda without losing their current base. They can't count on Sixties-style social upheaval to scare a younger generation into embracing law and order. In an era of declining expectations, they can't sell material acquisition to the post-Millennials the way they did to the Reagan-era Yuppies.

So even if that one lone strategist got her wish, what would the come-on be?

I suspect the truth of the matter is that the supposed conservatism of Americans over the last 40 years was based on prosperity with a bit of anxiety around the edges. And in a near future where prosperity, if we ever get it back, will be associated with the Democrats, the GOP's got nothing -- which may be why they're sneering so hard at people wanting "stuff." They know they have nothing of their own to offer except suffering and resentment.

"One strategist popped in and said, paraphrasing, that the GOP has to start planning to regroup and concentrate on the next generation, because the current generation of young votes are already lost to the GOP, for good. She said those young adults will never vote GOP in their lifetime and you can count on that. She said the Republicans have completely lost a whole generation of voters because of their campaign against women, gay people, hispanics etc."

Well worth contemplating at length. Thanks for posting, laundry_queen! I LOVE hearing how the bad guys fear they've lost a whole generation. Just written it off already. Well, isn't that their thing? Wrote off blacks and Latinos and women in general as not worth their time?

Well, MY KIDS are in that Millennial generation, and they know what to do, and what they need to fix and finish off completely.

I am skeptical of this.

I mean, I know a lot of old "Down with the establishment" hippies who are now Fox News drugged repugs!

I mean like guys who had hair to their ass, sold pot and lived in communal houses and stuff who now think Obama's gonna come take their guns away.

You simply can't predict the future of complicated events.

You grow up in a Republican household, you'll either tow the line and become a good little Republican youngun or you'll rebel against the BS. Same on the other side.

apparently youve done a fine job raising your girl

of the Women's Movement that occurred at the same time as the Civil Rights Movement, PLEASE refer to 'girls' who are over the age of 12 as YOUNG WOMEN. When you say 'girl,' I, for one, see a girl, you know, an 8 year-old girl in my mind.

This so reminds me of the 'Mad Men' referring to their secretaries as 'my/your girl.' Can't we get past this?? His 'girl' is 21 years old. She is a woman. What is so damn scary about the word, "WOMAN?"

We no longer refer to Black Men as 'boy' any longer, do we?

I've complained about this before and never seemed to get anywhere. But if you dudes didn't have SINGLE WOMEN VOTING, you'd be saying, "President RobMe." Can we please get a bit of RESPECT?

Please. I mean it. Really. (to quote a couple of cool women).

It's a bad habit you really need to break.

for agreeing....I was expecting something nasty.

Maybe the paradigm is shifting and Life will get better....!!!

such nice replies. Thank you!

she was a "girl" as in under 8 years old. And this comment is coming from a 72-yr old woman who never had children, but I know from other mothers that they still think of their daughters as "girls" sometimes. It's not really an evil word.

n/t

--out of the rain. Remember, parents are the people who remember when we needed our asses wiped on a regular baisis.

I'm sure you've posted it before, as others have but I just don't remember seeing it before (no surprise there! :chuckle .

I worked for MS magazine when both it and I were in our youths. I was 16 (between my junior & senior years in HS) and the magazine was only really nearing the end of its first year in print. I lived in NYC and had a couple of cool summer jobs like that. The job that summer ended up being very cool -- I got to read and select unsolicited LTEs for the editors to then go over and select for printing. I started in a simpler job but was rapidly promoted to that after they trusted my intellect & judgment.

It was when the founders and original editors were there on a regular basis. The only two I remember well were Gloria Steinem and Patricia Carbine.

Anyway, we'd gone to Jones Beach on a staff fun day and I'll never forget Gloria Steinem correcting a staffer next to me who'd referred to a 15-year-old as a "girl," telling her that a 15 yo is a "woman." I don't recall the age she set as a shift from "girl," but I never forgot the lesson of calling females after a certain age "women." I tend to refer to females over 10 and teens as "young women" and anyone over 18 as a woman.

It bothers me that I increasingly hear "girl" for women of all ages all over the place these days, with television being the most guilty (be it news media or entertainment). Glad to see someone add a reminder here -- I'll have to be better about doing so myself.

Ms. Magazine. Thanks for telling that story. I am so in awe of Gloria Steinem. What a strong and yet so kind woman. I've been lucky enough to have 2 short conversations with her.

I truly believe that the Television MSM (as ruled by the Media branch of the Business Roundtable) dictated that women will now and forever by either 'Girl' or 'Old Woman.' That's pretty easy to do given the 85% of the MSM is ruled by 5 rich white dudes. I can't watch any of today's sitcoms because of the outright sexism. I feel very sorry for the young women and girls of today having to deal with such a slap in the face.

Someone referred to me as a 'girl' the other day. I started looking around for the 'girl.' I asked where's the 'girl?' So another lesson was given.

I remember working so hard as a young woman in my twenties and thirties to get the Corporate boyz to refer to me as a woman and not a girl. It absolutely infuriated me. Now it's a pet peeve. Sometimes I feel that I'm back in time before the Women's Movement occurred.

I wish my generation would have been more like yours. I am 37 years old (hence the 1975 in my user name) and I didn't vote in 2000. My attitude was one of apathy that masqueraded as wisdom. I thought at the time that both parties were equally owned by the corporations and that my vote did not matter, I flirted with voting for Nader but I knew there was no chance he would win so like many in my age group I just didn't vote. Of course I wanted Gore to win and was really pissed at what happened subsequently in Florida, but I did not consider at the time (nor did most, to be fair) the very real and disastrous consequences that election would have on our country. But then again, the economy I had experienced up that point was vibrant, jobs were plentiful and it had been that way most of my working life. For me who was born in the seventies, and others like me who voted for Nader or not at all the Bush administration is a catastrophic reminder that complacency and apathy are the true enemies of freedom. I remember a long article in the Onion right before the election, basically predicting with scary accuracy what would happen under a Bush administration. It was full of "jokes" like he was going to "save" us from prosperity and peace since the Republicans were running on a campaign of bringing decency back the Whitehouse, as it turned out Bush really save us from these two things. I don't pretend to speak for my generation, and I know for a fact there were many people my age who campaigned and were heavily involved in that election, but as a generation we turned up in small numbers. Had we managed to turnout even 85 percent of what you guys do there is no doubt Gore would have won. Our turn out in 2000 was less than 40 percent, in the last two elections the youth vote has turned out more than 50 percent. Obama is President because you voted, Bush was president because we did not.

Happy to have you here!!!

I love our Millennials! My kids are among them. This anecdote in the OP made me think of our daughter who's 23, and she lives in Seattle, and she's lived in those houses with lots of roommates pooling their resources - and she assured me that ALL her friends were voting, and ALL her friends (female and otherwise) "got it" - about how the GOP sees women. We were texting excitedly on Election Night about her states marijuana measure and the marriage equality measure that finally passed also. She reported to me, proudly, that "yes, Mom! We did our part!" SOOOOOOOO proud!!!!!!

I think they really do get it. I think it's because they have grown up seeing, and going to school with, and going to playdates with, and having sleepovers with, EVERY KIND OF AMERICAN and American family set-up. They had total immersion with the "'Modern Family' world" as it's being called. They had friends and classmates and knew the parents and guardians of same - who were black, brown, red, yellow, white, Catholic, Protestant, Muslim, Jewish, Greek Orthodox, Buddhist, atheist, agnostic, mixed-race, Latino, Persian, Polynesian, Indian/Pakistani, Armenian, Australian, European, African, Central and South American, gay, straight, legal, undocumented, rich, poor, middle-income, the works. THE WORKS! They saw it all. They learned that people who didn't look like them or believe exactly the same way they or their parents did, who spoke with different accents or languages - were NOT the Devil, were NOT evil, were NOT un-American or unpatriotic, were NOT terrorist sympathizers or Commies or Nazis or fascists or baby-killers. Growing up with that kind of exposure leads to open-mindedness. And it leads to the conclusion that a lot of what they're hearing from the other side SIMPLY DOES NOT COMPUTE. The republi-CON brand, with them, is SEVERELY damaged (in perpetuity, I hope!).

I've had many conversations with my daughter and son along the lines of "I'm sorry our generation, the Baby Boomers, didn't do better and that we've left so many messes behind. But I think your generation just might be able to fix some of those problems." And they both, each, have told me - "don't worry, Mom - we're gonna do it." And I tell them they have to save the polar bears - something they are SO on! YES, they take global warming seriously and accept the human causes of same. They don't understand what the deal is about people thinking the Earth is only 6,000 years old - it makes no sense to them in the real, scientifically-based world they studied in school. Our kids both went to Catholic school. And in science class, they learned SCIENCE. They learned about Genesis in religion class. And everything was kept separate - thank God!

I have great faith in our kids. In my kids. I think they just might set a few things straight in ways our generation could not.

And WE, in turn, MUST MAKE SURE THAT THIS POSITIVE CHANGE IS PROTECTED AND ENABLED! We CANNOT afford to relax and roll over and go back to sleep just 'cause we won this one. Remember, the other side won't. SO WE CAN'T!!!!!!!! We have to protect what we've gained, AND BUILD UPON IT!!! We can't afford to let the bad guys capture the hearts and minds of the next generation behind our Millennials!

We can't risk ANY backsliding, now, OR two generations from now!!!!! America has to keep moving FORWARD.

And I agree we have to keep the pressure on, then double down, and triple down if necessary. My parents are baby boomers, and as a generation the baby boomers fell pray to the same error in judgment we Generation X voters did. We can never allow ourselves to believe that the gains we make cannot be taken away. We cannot ever forget for even one day that there are forces in our society who are constantly scheming and plotting to unravel every major gain we, the regular people of America have fought so hard to achieve for ourselves and our families.

The far right has launched an all out assault on every major gain that has been fought for and won with the blood sweat and the tears of four generations of people. Unions are being busted, basic principles of collective bargaining, gender equality and civil rights are now under fire. We cannot afford to budge even an inch, we have to take back the discourse in this country. We have to put an end to the insidious movement of moving the "goal posts" further and further to the right (Nixon and Eisenhower would be RINOs in today's political land scape). We have to stand up and unlike the 1960's when cultural chasms existed between generations that prevented them from working in unison towards a common goal we have a unique opportunity here. We have the chance to rise up as a multi generational block of individuals and fight to take back all the ground the one percent has been systematically conquering for the past 30 years.

I think we can do it, we need to. Because if we do not, we will all be living in the same kind of Plutocratic nightmare regime we used to live in 120 years ago.

--real science. I got As for papers on evolution. Not all social conservatives are anti-science. And not all Catholics are social conservatives either.

I completely join them in all they say ESPECIALLY my huge consternation how anyone could vote for him. Yes it's also lots of anger at hte stupid.

out of the race...makes me worry for the future (and my two boys). Your post gives me a bit of hope.

'60's and '70's. And I think I was born angry...angry at INJUSTICES.

Before the election, I would drive around and see RobMe signs, I would give them the finger, hoping they would be looking outside at the time. I know this is childish, but it helped release my frustration and anger.

After we won the election, I drove around with my windows down and yelled "LOSER" at every house w/ their RobMe signs.

The people in the cars around me must have thought I was nuts...I didn't care. I don't see how they could vote for that rich, self-centered, lying asshole either. And they live in these puny pathetic houses barely holding onto The Former Middle Class.

My uncle and his entire brood had their 'RobMe' signs out...most of my family are bible thumping wackos. And it just burned my ass every time I visited my mom who lives across the street from him. Of course I had her yard covered with every Dem running in Ohio!

So damn sweet that OH put Obama over the top and fried KKKarl's brains. I just want to shove that into the faces of the RobMe voters....who are either stupid, selfish, greedy, hateful, racists, sexists, or all of that put together.

And don't get me started about this election and RAPE. I could still spit nails over that. I plan on pushing women's groups to take that issue and OWN IT. Instead of spending all this time legislating about whether a woman is FREE or NOT, why don't these legislatures go out and put these f*cking criminals behind bars and stop bugging someone w/ a bit of marijuana.

I think I need to take a vacation to CO.

Please thank your daughter and her friends for understanding and recognizing the Romney/Ryan lies...

And giving voice to their anger...

If they can raise awareness with their friends.... Then I have greater hope for 2014...

For your daughter and her friends.

I was lucky enough to go to college and get a degree in the medical field. One of the few degrees that (almost) guarantees employment. But I catch up on all of my friends in high school that went to great colleges...they really aren't doing so great. A friend that went to Princeton is back home with his parents, working at Best Buy. Another friend that went to Johns Hopkins for undergrad is back home, living with her parents. And my friends that didn't go to college, honestly, they are basically better off. They might have gotten jobs in the trades if they were lucky..or maybe a job at Staples or something...but they are better off because they don't have $150,000 in student loans killing them. This service economy is killer for my generation. It's not like back in the boomers' day when you could graduate high school and get a job down at the factory/mill/whatever else. My dad supported two kids, had two cars, a house, and took a summer vacation every year working at Kroger in a non-managerial position in West Virginia. When I see a guy at Kroger or Walmart stocking shelves today and imagine him being married, owning a house, and taking a vacation in Florida with his two kids I really don't know whether I should laugh or cry. The people ding the same thing my pop did 40 years ago can barely afford to pay rent with his other 2 bachelor buddies in their 2 bedroom apartment.

Honestly, pretty soon I think there will be a pretty strong anti-boomer sentiment begin to take hold in generation Y. Pretty much every economic directive is targeted at them. Why do you think the Republicans are so for a strong dollar? A weak dollar might actually bring back something resembling real work. A strong dollar would dilute all that wealth the boomers have built.

The baby boomers shit the bed as a generation when they voted for Reagan and allowed that slimy piece of shit to begin the pocess of desroying all the major social gains of the previous fifty years. But let's not forget, they also made it near impossible for there to ever be another draft in this country, and they were, as a generation allies of the civil rights movement. And almost the entire women's liberation movement is their doing.

And they paid, paid into all the "Entitlement" programs (I put it in quotes because in my view these programs constitute rights, not entitlements) the one percent is licking their chops to board with their corporate pirate ship. They deserve to be protected, and I for one will fight for their right to collect as much as I hope the children of today fight for my right to collect when my time comes.

for Reagan were older social conservatives and late Boomers/early Xers. As an early Boomer, I've never voted for a Republican.

This is hard to parse because people have different definitions of what constitutes a "baby boomer" if we put the range at people born between 1945 through 1955 the numbers are clear. Reagan split the 22-29 vote 44 to 44 and he won the 30-44 vote 55-38. No matter how you break down these numbers, or how you define "baby boomer" it is clear the majority of them voted for Reagan.

situation were the Silent Generation, born from around 1920-1945. None of my friends got a decent job for about 5 years--so please don't go ragging on the Boomers.

their party thought they could go out and say 47% of the people are lazy and couch potatoes, let's give a tax cut to the rich, let's only care about white people and then go vote for us!

No wonder these kids are angry! A good chunk of the country is angry…I don't think the kids understand all the people blindly voting for who ever their pastor tells them to…

Also mentioned in what I read was republicans being followers and that makes sense to me about how when they decide something no matter how outrageous everyone goes along with it.

This millennial generation is very angry and rightly so.

it's no wonder their views/listeners/readers never leave the confines of that bubble.

and I share the same anger as these kids. And I'm in my mid 50's! I have had to work really hard to be civil to thee people who supported Romney.

Thanks for sharing it all with us. Great responses up thread as well. Thanks!

I can't imagine how hard it must be, to be young and starting out already behind, with a lifetime of debt in front of you.
Like an old song says, "I owe my soul to the company store."

" To them, this election just sealed the idea that there are the rich, the very rich, and then there are the rest of us, making under $25,000 yearly. There was much more, but you get the idea. "

I would be careful with that. They say 65% of millionaires voted Obama. They are obcviously smart enough to realize that a strong nation needs better schools, less student debt so more can go to college, infrastrucure and global warming is real.
They are the rich who dont want to be a rich man in a poor country.

and my federal job. in my mother's day we'd be considered solidly middle class, now we're up there. but i digress...

hubby had the same feelings, he was PISSED at the Republicans. this from a man who voted for his first Democrat in 1996 (Clinton's 2nd term)

he still proudly describes his politics as 'an Eisenhower republican' and says he'll never vote for another republican in his life

PS we are boomers in our mid 50s

It was easier to cover the expenses.

And you can see how much people were disgusted by the lower turnout...

First post here, and I just want to say don't get to excited.

I'm 24, from Massachusetts in New Jersey going to grad school. (original plan was to go to Vancouver or Seattle but oh well)

Don't get to optimistic about us. I say this as someone who is well, well to left of the democratic party on pretty much everything and voted for Jill Stein and am in Occupy.

For every house like the OP mentioned, there are other situations.

Easily 1/2 of my "friends" from high school are at least conservatives. A select few are borderline An-caps or fascists.

Easily 1/2 of the people I knew in college are apathetic. Another 1/5 or so are conservatives if not Tea-Party types.

Out of those in my building who are citizens (about half of my building)In my building (all grad students) half are apathetic. Most of the rest are liberal, but there are several Ron Paul fanboys and Tea Partiers. There are A LOT of Paul fans my age, A LOT. These are doctoral/Masters students

Welcome to Democratic Underground.

I'd consider myself a social democrat.

I think drastic changes in the economy and society need to have been started yesterday in regards to climate change.

Drones. Wars. "offense" spending in general and naked Imperialism.

I think student debt should be at the least 0% interest. Better still would be 5 year forgiveness. I shouldn't have to base my education on money.

NDAA. Internet/Information freedom. Guantanamo. Torture.

Bradley Manning. Wikileaks. Again, information freedom.

I heard nothing about the poor in the debates. I also heard a lot about how corporate taxes are still to high. Nope.

My God! I've sprained a paradigm! Oh, wait.

I didn't care about much of anything towards the last third of my MA, or during the tail end of my BA juggling a thesis and multiple seminar papers at the same time. Doesn't mean that's all that I was, or that that's all there is to my colleagues in either program.

Also, if you're worried that ten percent of the people you knew in college are conservative, I think you're accentuating the negative a little too much there. That kind of ratio doesn't bother me, especially in environments where there are always going to be for-their-own-sake iconoclasts and contrarians.

the sheer uglyness of the mittLies campaign, lifesbeartifulmagic!

I'm glad how Disgusting willard romney's campaign was.. got through to these kids. I'm thinking the whole of the Democratic Voters saw the nasty slime..



http://theobamadiary.com/

That worries me.

"Jonesers" are the late Boomers and the early Gen-Xers. The younger Gen-Xers lean left (see Seattle in 1999, those were younger Xers).

?

We later GenXers, ones like me born between 1970-1980, may have been stupidly apathetic, but we were never right-wing. We embraced diversity, gender equality, sexual orientation and have an disgust for corporate culture; until late, we didn't participate in politics (I did but I was alone) but socially we affect change.

Even members of my generation who buy into RW economic beliefs hold liberal social ones--many are libertarians, a movement that grew in the early 1990. Even I dabbled with my colleges libertarian groups at that time, because of social issues, though I stepped out because their economic stances are disgusting to my union family background.

making less than $350K or so could vote for Republicans.

VERY well written.

Nicely done, interesting and poignant story.

And this demo represents the future of the Repub Party (=NOT) The Pukes already know that they are doomed because they have sold out future generations to buy more yachts. Young people cannot identify with them because most young voters are HaveNots rather than Haves and they believe that they WillNeverHave if the Repuke platform takes hold any more than it already has.

The RW will have to steal any major election going forward, because even though they know they do not appeal to young Americans, they continue to expect their constituents to represent their ideals rather than the other way around. Let their greedy party die a painful death.

I am 32 (born in 1980) so am right on the cusp between gen Y and gen X. And yes I have much of the same feelings about what the Rs are trying to do to young people, brown people, african americans, asians, women, LGBT people, atheists/agnostics etc.