Indeed so. Not elderly, but rather experienced elders who are also pragmatically seasoned and compassionate, without mentioning bright and humanly resonant. The new wave, next wave, in Congress are young and certainly not boomers. What's in a generational cohort label? Much, one can argue, but the youth are the future, and their reps in Congress are on the front end of vibrant legislative careers that mark a shifting--wrestling, really--away from the traditionally more Capitalistic frame of politics toward actual reform and progressive policy actualization, as is possible. This boomer's hopeful, inspired and encouraged.
Biden got shafted by the press, by time, by his own party, everything. That said, his transfer of candidacy to Harris was masterful, and I am so glad there is enthusiasm. Am also looking forward to a shift with Harris.
I really think she will be less hampered in the Senate, hopefully the majority will be kept, because the filibuster cudgel will finally stop being a thing what with Manchin and Sinema being gone finally. I’m quite embarrassed for them. I am also hopeful for DC and Puerto Rico to become states finally, to help balance out the representation problem.
Am so looking forward to how we can begin to repair the country. Biden was transformative beyond all expectations. Even so. Harris will be more so.
I was born in 1946 in the first wave of baby Boomers. While I continue to be active physically and intellectually, I know that as Joe Biden said, it’s time to pass the torch to a younger generation.
I’m working on the same thing. I’m the last living historian who not only interviewed, but got to know quite well all the families and many friends of White Rose resistance. I don’t want my work to die with me.
Not planning on dying any time soon. Just passing the torch to the next gen.
I abhor it. There are actually two anti-abortion groups that have paraded their views falsely under the White Rose name. The first has been around for several decades and awards a WR “prize” to people who murder abortion doctors.
I have a Substack post in draft form on this topic for my WR Substack, WHY THIS MATTERS (deniseelaineheap.substack.com). I will cross-post it here.
Also anti-vaxxers. There’s even a Pentecostal pastor here in the USA who claims, again falsely, that they were Pentecostal.
All through the adult years in my life, as well a wee bit prior to them, I consciously experienced many "points of inflection". Some proved with time to be not what was hoped for at the time, while others surprisingly eventuated in true evolutionary back-stepping and profound disenchantment. I need not specify them, other than to say that I DO recall the tumultuous and idealistic sixties and observed our slow roll to the present increasingly codified avarice-soaked sess-pool of a socio/economic perversion of our political process.
After so many of these "inflection points", it's important to recognize and appreciate a true "tectonic shift". As it happens. And I'm hoping, wishing, working to see this new direction prevailing as more than a hopeful way forward, but a road map we're already writing, heeding and actualizing. Of the people. By the people. For the people. There are SO MANY more of us who root and work for each other. I agree with most all of Davis Rothkopf's perspective's here. He's a seemingly solid heart, mind and soul.
I like Jonathan Pontell’s addition to the generational discussion. He coined the term “Generation Jones” for those of us born between 1954 and 1965. We Joneses are comfortable with technology. We tend to be progressive, especially in contrast to older Boomers. We lived through a more nomadic, less stable childhood, as our parents were far more likely to relocate - multiple times - for better-paying jobs.
Even if we were raised religious, we tend to be far less so. We were also the first generation where it was almost expected that we would go to university, and earn at least a Bachelor’s degree. Which tended to make us even more progressive.
You mention many of the big picture items that a Harris administration would redefine, but I see some more domestic issues as well. My son (31, urban) is making good money but can’t think of buying a home due to student loan debt. The boomer generation had loans, but my loan was less than $2000, total. Today, that’s a monthly payment. Yet even entry level positions demand a Bachelors or better. I see the Harris admin as addressing this issue if for no other reason than her step-kids and their friends are living it. Hopefully they will address the root causes (job description inflation/inclassroom costs vs online/astronomical textbook prices) that are the main reason for the crisis.
ten or twelve years ago it was, I think, I was watching senate hearings with social media titans. some old coot asked Zuckerberg how to do something when he was using Facebook (not making this up). another said skeptically, "How do you make money if you don't charge users?" and Zuck answered incredulously, "We sell ads, senator."
with people like that making tech policy, I thought, we're doomed.
perhaps had Trump not entered politics and derailed so much, this generational transfer would have happened sooner, which might have made a world of difference in how we deal with these issues that were simply incomprehensible to the gray beards of House and Senate.
anyway, I'm with you, David: onward!, and not a second too soon.
No matter what generation you belong, get involved to register voters & write postcards to swing states. I'm doing it with my 2 granddaughters, age 14 & 20 years old, during our vacation time. They were involved in Biden's 2020 campaign, as well as Senators Ossoff and Warnock. Winning takes work by all of us, no matter our generation.
Let's save this great nation of ours, the United States of America.
'Unite rather than divide' must be every generation's motto to save this republic of ours. 🇺🇸💙🇺🇸
While I wouldn’t overthink these things in terms of birth year, I think Harris in many ways represents a continuation of the departure America started with Obama, opening the pinnacle of American leadership up to groups who have been too long excluded and overlooked.
I posted this response to someone above, but here it is again. A new-ish designation for those born 1954-1965: generation Jones. We don’t fit with the older boomers, as many have noted. But I don’t know how much credence has been given to this. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generation_Jones
As somebody firmly located mid-Silent Generation, I've never known quite where to place my kid brother, born the same year Joe Biden joined in on Bobby Kennedy's, WV Bobby Byrd's, and my birthday in 1942. Maybe bridge-generation WWII babies should be so designated. The Depression was over and the post-war economic boom was yet to come. Winning the war was all-consuming.
I’m a trad boomer (‘51) and it’s about time we handed the reins over to younger people. For the first time in a while, I feel hopeful and energized for this upcoming election! 💙
I tend to think the generational influences are overrated and want to focus more on the events and this tides of different eras: so Biden growing up in the 50’s and 60’s vs Kamala growing up during 70’s and 80’s (stagflation, Ronald Reagan etc). That said i still identify as a boomer because i too was born in 1964 right on the cut off line: like Kamala and Michelle Obama…and (fun fact) Sarah Palin
Agree fully. The change in this short time period is palpable and a little disconcerting. Disconcerting is the realization of being pushed aside except for requests for money--even when that's the right thing to happen. They don't warn you nearly enough in the School of Getting Old, you won't actually feel old, someone just keeps smacking you with it until you get it, or you will die and never have had the chance to be actually old.
I am so impressed with the fact that you understand things so broadly. It does reveal that great changes are coming and it is right on time. A 92 year old lady is very happy that I have lived long enough to see it.
👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻Great piece. As a Middle Boomer (b. ‘54), I happily pass the torch to the next generation with high hopes that they lead us, and the world, into a brilliant future. (Also with apologies for all the mistakes we Boomers made😔)
Hate to tell you but Harris and Walz are boomers.
Indeed so. Not elderly, but rather experienced elders who are also pragmatically seasoned and compassionate, without mentioning bright and humanly resonant. The new wave, next wave, in Congress are young and certainly not boomers. What's in a generational cohort label? Much, one can argue, but the youth are the future, and their reps in Congress are on the front end of vibrant legislative careers that mark a shifting--wrestling, really--away from the traditionally more Capitalistic frame of politics toward actual reform and progressive policy actualization, as is possible. This boomer's hopeful, inspired and encouraged.
Biden got shafted by the press, by time, by his own party, everything. That said, his transfer of candidacy to Harris was masterful, and I am so glad there is enthusiasm. Am also looking forward to a shift with Harris.
I really think she will be less hampered in the Senate, hopefully the majority will be kept, because the filibuster cudgel will finally stop being a thing what with Manchin and Sinema being gone finally. I’m quite embarrassed for them. I am also hopeful for DC and Puerto Rico to become states finally, to help balance out the representation problem.
Am so looking forward to how we can begin to repair the country. Biden was transformative beyond all expectations. Even so. Harris will be more so.
I was born in 1946 in the first wave of baby Boomers. While I continue to be active physically and intellectually, I know that as Joe Biden said, it’s time to pass the torch to a younger generation.
I’m working on the same thing. I’m the last living historian who not only interviewed, but got to know quite well all the families and many friends of White Rose resistance. I don’t want my work to die with me.
Not planning on dying any time soon. Just passing the torch to the next gen.
How do you feel about U.S. anti-Roe-v-Wade activists hijacking the White Rose resistance name? Unless you condone that, what can be done sbout it?
I abhor it. There are actually two anti-abortion groups that have paraded their views falsely under the White Rose name. The first has been around for several decades and awards a WR “prize” to people who murder abortion doctors.
I have a Substack post in draft form on this topic for my WR Substack, WHY THIS MATTERS (deniseelaineheap.substack.com). I will cross-post it here.
Also anti-vaxxers. There’s even a Pentecostal pastor here in the USA who claims, again falsely, that they were Pentecostal.
Drives me nuts.
They all have an evil genius for outrageous performance that keeps them just beyond reach.
I don’t consider them beyond reach. I’m going after them.
Good on you! Here's wishing you all the strength and resources you''ll need. I assume that anyone who can't join you can follow online.
All through the adult years in my life, as well a wee bit prior to them, I consciously experienced many "points of inflection". Some proved with time to be not what was hoped for at the time, while others surprisingly eventuated in true evolutionary back-stepping and profound disenchantment. I need not specify them, other than to say that I DO recall the tumultuous and idealistic sixties and observed our slow roll to the present increasingly codified avarice-soaked sess-pool of a socio/economic perversion of our political process.
After so many of these "inflection points", it's important to recognize and appreciate a true "tectonic shift". As it happens. And I'm hoping, wishing, working to see this new direction prevailing as more than a hopeful way forward, but a road map we're already writing, heeding and actualizing. Of the people. By the people. For the people. There are SO MANY more of us who root and work for each other. I agree with most all of Davis Rothkopf's perspective's here. He's a seemingly solid heart, mind and soul.
I like Jonathan Pontell’s addition to the generational discussion. He coined the term “Generation Jones” for those of us born between 1954 and 1965. We Joneses are comfortable with technology. We tend to be progressive, especially in contrast to older Boomers. We lived through a more nomadic, less stable childhood, as our parents were far more likely to relocate - multiple times - for better-paying jobs.
Even if we were raised religious, we tend to be far less so. We were also the first generation where it was almost expected that we would go to university, and earn at least a Bachelor’s degree. Which tended to make us even more progressive.
You mention many of the big picture items that a Harris administration would redefine, but I see some more domestic issues as well. My son (31, urban) is making good money but can’t think of buying a home due to student loan debt. The boomer generation had loans, but my loan was less than $2000, total. Today, that’s a monthly payment. Yet even entry level positions demand a Bachelors or better. I see the Harris admin as addressing this issue if for no other reason than her step-kids and their friends are living it. Hopefully they will address the root causes (job description inflation/inclassroom costs vs online/astronomical textbook prices) that are the main reason for the crisis.
The durability of (we) Boomers has led to the gerontocracy. Away with us -- we've served our turn, honorably and foolishly. It's other peoples' time.
ten or twelve years ago it was, I think, I was watching senate hearings with social media titans. some old coot asked Zuckerberg how to do something when he was using Facebook (not making this up). another said skeptically, "How do you make money if you don't charge users?" and Zuck answered incredulously, "We sell ads, senator."
with people like that making tech policy, I thought, we're doomed.
perhaps had Trump not entered politics and derailed so much, this generational transfer would have happened sooner, which might have made a world of difference in how we deal with these issues that were simply incomprehensible to the gray beards of House and Senate.
anyway, I'm with you, David: onward!, and not a second too soon.
No matter what generation you belong, get involved to register voters & write postcards to swing states. I'm doing it with my 2 granddaughters, age 14 & 20 years old, during our vacation time. They were involved in Biden's 2020 campaign, as well as Senators Ossoff and Warnock. Winning takes work by all of us, no matter our generation.
Let's save this great nation of ours, the United States of America.
'Unite rather than divide' must be every generation's motto to save this republic of ours. 🇺🇸💙🇺🇸
🏆🏆🏆🥂
While I wouldn’t overthink these things in terms of birth year, I think Harris in many ways represents a continuation of the departure America started with Obama, opening the pinnacle of American leadership up to groups who have been too long excluded and overlooked.
I posted this response to someone above, but here it is again. A new-ish designation for those born 1954-1965: generation Jones. We don’t fit with the older boomers, as many have noted. But I don’t know how much credence has been given to this. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generation_Jones
As somebody firmly located mid-Silent Generation, I've never known quite where to place my kid brother, born the same year Joe Biden joined in on Bobby Kennedy's, WV Bobby Byrd's, and my birthday in 1942. Maybe bridge-generation WWII babies should be so designated. The Depression was over and the post-war economic boom was yet to come. Winning the war was all-consuming.
I’m a trad boomer (‘51) and it’s about time we handed the reins over to younger people. For the first time in a while, I feel hopeful and energized for this upcoming election! 💙
I tend to think the generational influences are overrated and want to focus more on the events and this tides of different eras: so Biden growing up in the 50’s and 60’s vs Kamala growing up during 70’s and 80’s (stagflation, Ronald Reagan etc). That said i still identify as a boomer because i too was born in 1964 right on the cut off line: like Kamala and Michelle Obama…and (fun fact) Sarah Palin
Agree fully. The change in this short time period is palpable and a little disconcerting. Disconcerting is the realization of being pushed aside except for requests for money--even when that's the right thing to happen. They don't warn you nearly enough in the School of Getting Old, you won't actually feel old, someone just keeps smacking you with it until you get it, or you will die and never have had the chance to be actually old.
I am so impressed with the fact that you understand things so broadly. It does reveal that great changes are coming and it is right on time. A 92 year old lady is very happy that I have lived long enough to see it.
👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻Great piece. As a Middle Boomer (b. ‘54), I happily pass the torch to the next generation with high hopes that they lead us, and the world, into a brilliant future. (Also with apologies for all the mistakes we Boomers made😔)