The Paradigm Shifts--The Youth Vote and the Coming Culture War.

[MirrorAshes]

I had a thought earlier tonight. If Kerry wins the election, and the youth vote is widely credited for throwing Bush out of the White House, how will the republican party respond?

Now, perhaps my hunches are incorrect, and my generation really has been properly accounted for in the polls, and there will be no direct influence on the outcome of the election by the under 30 demographic. Perhaps we won't turn out like never before. Perhaps we're not going to be as overwhelmingly pro-Kerry as I think we are.

But I don't think so.

So if I'm right, and John Kerry wins the election handily, humiliating George W. Bush and the Republican party in the process, what next?

We already have people like Bill O'Reily comparing Eminem to Osama Bin Laden. How much further will it go? How deeply will the animosity, the resentment, the outright hatred burn? And where will it be directed?

And what will the reaction be?

If our generation proves itself to be a force at the voting booth, we will surely have to be taken seriously in the mainstream political arena. I believe we may only be beginning to see the inevitable reality of the future--This election has gotten young people involved, and from now on, they will be a part of the picture. The paradigm has shifted.

I predict that the hip-hop community will be at the focus of the fray in the beginning, but in time it will become more of a generational issue than a purely cultural issue. You will have an entire generation united in one voice. A tolerant, rational voice that will one day be the voice of the Democratic party.

So, if I may, a quick message to the older generation of Democrats. Please, please recognize a good thing when you see it and do not be afraid to embrace both the new culture and the new issues which we will bring to the table. We care about what you care about--but we also see our friends and neighbors facing absurd hardships that are not even so much as acknowledged by the mainstream leaders in today's political climate.

Don't worry, we don't hold it against you. We know that the reality of the situation is that any candidate who even made mention of issues like, say, the insanity of the drug war, would be defeated in a landslide as a result of the red state's fragile mindset and our media's incompetance in delivering the sensibilities of the message to them.

But we will be working to change this. That will be our crusade.

Things are changing in America, and the Republican party's days are numbered. Will they accept defeat, or will they fight reality, kicking and screaming? Will the Democratic party sieze on this golden oppurtunity for real progress?

I, for one, certainly hope so.

[elepet]

1. Beautifull said!

Most of us will be with you. I've been listening to hip hop leaders on kpfa (free speech radio in Bay area) and wondering what next?

[Burma Jones]

2. This will happen even if the Chimp stays in the WH

The 'pukes are due for a split. If we win, it gives the less insane Republicans, (we know who they are, they're in it for the money) a leg up. Now, while I don't appreciate unfettered greed, I do prefer it to religious fundamentalism.....

A desire for freedom, justice and truth is good by me regardless of whether I enjoy the medium by which the message is transmitted. I'm 40........

On Edit: The Culture War is here, it has been fought since the 1950's. The struggle against unbridled greed and power has been going on for over a Century. It's energizing to see that there is yet another generation that will just say fuck you. I heard Eminem on SNL and was floored................

[MirrorAshes]

3. Very true. Especially if there is widespread voter intimidation/supression

If they do manage to steal this one away from us, we're gonna take it personal.

[Nite Owl]

4. A Baby Boomer here

with two sons in college. You will be take seriously, you are our children and we love you more than life itself.

[dave502d]

5. That was well said .

[murielm99]

6. Any Democrat who came of age in the sixties should

identify with what you are saying.

Boomers who lived through the war years, the civil rights movement, and all the other issues of those times remember the "generation gap."

That is just an older name for the culture wars.

We all want the same thing.

And if youth really do get out to vote, they need to demand that their issues are heard. I have been telling my kids for awhile that the reason no one has been listening is that they don't vote. I think that will change now.

Kerry's victory will be just the beginning. Lots of these greedy fools will still have power. We will have to stay as united as we have been for this election. We will have to reach out across the generational divide for continued unity.

[welshTerrier2]

7. many of us old timers can lend you a hand ...

i'm a baby boomer ... i once thought my generation stood against the insanity of the Vietnam war ... i once thought my generation would not stand for the materialistic values of the "older generation" ...

i took this for granted ... we were hippies; we were yippies; we had our own music; we had our own language; we were a generation united ... trust me, many of us have "gone adrift" ... what you have in youth is often not retained ... and that's too bad ...

i greatly admire the spirit your post embodies ... i can't tell you how inspiring it is to have your generation join the battle ... we need both your energy, your vision, and your youthful enthusiasm ...

many of us old timers look forward to working with you to change what needs to be changed ...

a few lines from my generation's music:

Come mothers and fathers
Throughout the land
And don't criticize
What you can't understand
Your sons and your daughters
Are beyond your command
Your old road is
Rapidly agin'.
Please get out of the new one
If you can't lend your hand
For the times they are a-changin'.

[MirrorAshes]

10. My generation also has an obligation of its own--

To learn the lessons your generation has to teach us. Please forgive me if I sound at all arrogant or presumptuous about the core of the Democratic party. I know that you understand, better than anyone, what is happening in this country today. I also have faith that we will be able to work together in creating a better future and in defeating these fascists once and for all.

I do wish we had more real protest music, though. You guys really have that dept cornered ;-)

[welshTerrier2]

14. you don't sound either arrogant or presumptuous to me ...

what i saw with my generation was that "the 60's" were too much cultural (music, long hair, drugs) and not enough grassroots organizing ... most people i knew were very politically active while in college but did almost nothing once they started their working life ...

i also think that many who were politically active were motivated by the draft ... once that ended, the air went out of their balloons ...

the concern i have now is that many who are filled with renewed political energy largely in opposition to bush's corrupt regime will vanish into the ozone once bush is ousted ... if he's done nothing else, bush has reinvigorated a long dormant spirit on the left ...

but real change is a marathon not a sprint ... we must build a shared vision based on our values ... it can't just be about democrats or John Kerry ... in the end, we must take power away from those who seek only to benefit themselves ... we must design strategies to obtain power for all citizens and we must design institutions to protect that power ...

culture, e.g. hip hop music or 60's protest songs can be a great unifying bond ... but it really takes much more than that ... it takes a real long-term commitment to getting involved ...

[MirrorAshes]

17. "real change is a marathon not a sprint"

I might just quote you on that in the future, thanks :toast:

You raise extremely important points, and I see it as possibly my biggest challenge in the future--to make people feel the fire that I feel, and keep it burning.

Whatever happens, though, people will not soon forget this election. I have seen my friends become involved over the past year or so. I have seen people who knew nothing about politics become self-declared experts. I've seen people educating themselves by turning off their tvs and reading alternative media. I've seen the same kind of disgust that I feel with the neo-conservative movement in the republican party in many of my peers.

If nothing else, I think this election will have shown people that the republican party will abuse power if left unchecked. That simple fact will resonate with me forevermore, and I think it will with others as well. You can't trust a republican, and now a whole lot more people know it.

[Jose Diablo]

29. I think its better to remember

It is not just Republicans with power.

You said, "I think this election will have shown people that the republican party will abuse power if left unchecked".

Power is in and of itself its own motive. People should be ever vigilant of anyone in power, and make sure they do not become corrupted by this power.

But this Republican party, is corrupt beyond redemption. It should be junked and those moderate conservatives should start another party in the ashes of the old party. And those extreme neocons, should be expunged from access to any and all power.

[AntiFascist]

32. I agree....

the culture from the 60s was great, but, other than the protests, that generation was turning on and tuning out. They shaped an important vision, but the current generation seems very much tuned in to current politics to the nth degree and many seem very ready and willing to take action. We have to keep this momentum no matter what happens in this election, the future of humanity may very well depend on it!

[American Tragedy]

25. We need all of you desperately, you know

We all need you to remind us about preceding elections, about the Great Society initiatives, the Civil rights struggles, Watergate, and the horrifying Vietnam war that senselessly consumed 58,000 young men, a paradigm that seems to have been forgotten by many of your coevals.

Similarly we need your parents to remind us about the Great Depression, how specifically FDR saved our country for years to come with the New Deal, and how those particular initiatives cannot afford be taken for granted as long as the Republicans exist; the failures and victories of WWII, the Red Scare, and the blend of uncertainty and optimism of the post-war world.

I was born in 1983, so I personally remember very little of American history; most of it I only know from thousands of hours of study in books, but it is a poor substitute for experience.

[Liberal Gramma]

8. I hope so too

It was your parents' generation, the Boomers, who struggled to end the Vietnam War and changed the face of American politics, and now you inherit the mantle of hope. I am so heartened by the enthusiasm I am seeing in the young, especially on this board! May your vision become our reality.

[reprobate]

9. MA, from my generation to yours, we are in agreement.

I believe that the republican party we know today is about to experience it's death rattle.

You are the future of America. It will be up to you to return the nation to what the founding fathers wanted in the first place. My generation-the children of the Greatest Generation-has allowed the country to be highjacked by the corporate wealth thru buying politicians. You must change this by limiting the power of corporations and repealing the principle of corporate personhood.

A democracy is impossible without an educated electorate. Several things should be done to ensure this. First, reinstate the fairness doctrine so that no one doctrine can ever again gain dominance over the public's airwaves.

Following the same idea of education, please see that in this richest of lands, everyone can reach the highest level that their ability allows them, with money being no object.

I truly hope that you can redirect the energies of the nation away from war. In the next few years this nation will be spending more on weapons than the entire rest of the world. Just think of the wonders we will see if all the energy represented by that money could be directed to the benefit of the citizen, rather then the enrichment of the rich.

There are many other things that need changing, but if you can accomplish these few things everything else will take care of itself.

I promise that if you are succesful, those of us who came before you will smile, from wherever we are after leaving this earth.

[jhain]

12. Media will "FLIP FLOP"

It's all about ratings and advertisers.
I fully expect the media to act like one of those bizarre walking fish.... you know, drag itself from the slime and flop over to realism once President Kerry wins.

Young people will be the big consumers soon enough.

[MirrorAshes]

13. Thank you. Words of wisdom, truly.

You are absolutely right in your assessment of where things have gone wrong, and I intend to make it my own personal mission to see that they are addressed and fixed.

Thank you for all that you have done. The only proper honor I can think of is to continue the fight. I know I will, and I don't think I will be alone.

[Beam Me Up]

11. The culture war is already in full swing and has been

all my life.

Welcome to the struggle!

Remember: "the reality you save may be your own."

[starroute]

15. There's a new counterculture being born

I've been predicting this ever since the last one died. I've got complicated models of historical cycles that show countercultures coming up at regular intervals (the 1840's, the 1910's, the 1960's), and we're due for the next one any moment now.

According to my calculations, we're currently about at the equivalent of 1961. We've had several years of increasing political activism (equivalent to the civil rights and anti-nuclear movements.) We're coming up on a period of moderate reform and cultural flowering (equivalent to c. 1962-65.) And after that we get a full-fledged counterculture (equivalent to the hippies and anti-Vietnam War movement) as tensions within the culture that can not be resolved by simple reformism rise to the surface.

The most radical aspects of this counterculture will not depend on the issues of the culture wars like gay marriage -- which despite any fuss the fundies may put up is already being accepted by mainstream America. Instead, they will turn on intellectual property issues and the battle against corporate intellectual hegemony. Information wars fiercer than anything we can now imagine will be waged. New possibilities of social organization (distributed networks, a reclaiming of the commons) will become the subject of utopian idealism.

Beyond that schematic structure, I don't have a clue as to what all this will actually *look* like -- what new forms of music and dress and manners it will give rise to, what radical new ideas it will put in people's heads, and what sort of alternatives to our familiar way of life it will present. But it's going to be interesting to watch.

[MirrorAshes]

18. Interesting analysis!

"Instead, they will turn on intellectual property issues and the battle against corporate intellectual hegemony."

Very true. One standard I will hold John Kerry to is that he must be a champion in the fight against corporations. I believe he is just the right man to lead this fight, and I hope he will not let me down.

[welshTerrier2]

20. cultural identity and political commitment

most of what i'm going to write pertains to my views on "the 60's" ...

i see the "cultural personality" of generations as a great opportunity for each generation to define itself ... through its music, its language and perhaps even its values, the generation is able to distinguish itself from the parents' generation ... someone in this thread recalled the term: generation gap ...

and in defining itself, a generation can also find a set of political beliefs ... it seems this is often taught or at least communicated through song lyrics ...

the mistake that was made in the 60's was that we confused the numbers of those who listened to the same music, those who had long hair, those who were pot smokers with the numbers of those with a genuine commitment to change the society ... my point is not to argue that important changes did not occur but rather that "the movement" had more breadth than depth ... and our "counter-culture" was quickly co-opted by the mainstream ... it was not long before many people with long hair who smoked pot and listened to the same music had very conservative political views ... the culture no longer seemed to be aligned with what was once thought to be the political ideology of the generation ...

and even within the "60's generation", the level of political activity after the draft ended or after people left college to join the workforce rapidly diminished ... i think this new generation needs to do better than we did ... i think cultural identity can be an effective unifying force but should be seen only as a means to an end ... listening to hip hop music does not change the world ... getting a group of people who like hip hop music to form grassroots organizations, or join existing organizations, is what needs to happen ...

defining a generation's values through cultural expression is critically important ... but working for change is the only way those values will ever be realized ...

[Neshanic]

16. You are correct, and in 72 hours, the media as we know it....

will see the begining of their utter failure to see the coming future.

As Andrea Mitchell, that died up hag, and Tweety and gang babble on about what they think, feel, and observe, they are watching their network and others sink into obscurity.

They just can't see what is staring them in the face. The internet, and people who use it, do not trust them anymore. They already are mystified by blogs and what goes on with them, and are flat footed in trying to get their arms around the fact that people have abandonded them in huge numbers for information.

The coming new culture does not want to see Buchanan, Mitchell, Tweety, and all others like them, with their obvious baggage and slavish devotion to their own, and their corporate interests.

The future begins on November 3rd. There is a big shift coming, and the established networks are not part of it.

As far as us Democrats to take up the void that will be a gaping canyon, I think that we will be up to it. We will have to be.

[MirrorAshes]

19. "The future begings on November 3rd."

Yes!

I can't wait. :yourock:

[Neshanic]

21. Sorry about the mistake. Thanks.

[MirrorAshes]

23. Mistake?

Sorry if I gave you the wrong impression, or if perhaps I'm just confused here, but I didn't see a mistake!

I was just quoting you because it deserved to be repeated.

[Neshanic]

27. Oh no, I just spelled "begins" wrong and I edited it. Thanks again.

[MirrorAshes]

28. Oh, hah, I didn't even notice that.

read right over it! Sorry to call extra attention to it. heh.

[deadparrot]

22. Well said. I love my generation. We're gonna kick some ass.

[American Tragedy]

24. This election has brought out more of the best in younger voters

I just got back from seeing Barack Obama speak, and you wouldn't believe how many young people were out there. When he recognized us and said that this was for all the younger folks the crowd just erupted. For the first time in years, I'm not ashamed of my generation.

There are enough of us to turn elections and shift public policy forever, we just need to get our asses out there to the polls and assert our demographic power!

[woofless]

26. This old fart says welcome,

we need you and keep it up. Vote in every election you are eligible for. Let us build a new Democratic Party together as a shield against the horror we have witnessed the last 4 years. Get out there and kick some ass. Be proud of yourselves and make us proud.

Woof


p.s. Just don't ask me to listen to M&M. Not gonna do it.:evilgrin: :toast: :hippie:

[Jose Diablo]

30. The purpose of any generation

Is to produce the next. We are extremely proud of our children and what you will make this world into. You can be sure, for as long as we breath that whatever you attempt, we will be with you.

[MirrorAshes]

35. thank you :)

I'm overwhelmed by the kindness and grace in this thread. Thank you so much, you and everyone else.

[Abelman]

31. Oh, hell yeah!

I agree with your assessment of our generation. We're on the cusp of stepping forward and making some noise. I think that noise is going to be heard on Tuesday.

[DebJ]

33. another Boomer and husband here. What new issues are you

referring to?

My hubby is an old hippie...cleaned up now. But what HE got from the 60's culture was to hate establishment and refuse to participate.
Like many, many of his peers, he has never, ever voted in his life.

I worked on him the first year we were together...saying 'WE HAVE THE POWER'...people just refuse to wake up and use it. Authority is granted, POWER IS SEIZED.

Then, God bless him, came Howard Dean, saying EXACTLY the same thing.
After watching several (and ultimately all and taping them and watching again) of the Dem primaries, my hubby will be voting for the first time in his 54 years. I got to thank Howard Dean in person for that last Wednesday.

So I am fervently hoping your generation will SEIZE THE POWER. AND NEVER STOP. DON'T GET LAZY. The Boomers had too many who dropped out of the fight before entering it, and too many others who just got fat lazy and happy and tuned out then.

[MirrorAshes]

34. The biggest one, in my eyes...

Is the scam that is the war on drugs. I'm a relatively average white suburban kid. But I know far, far too many people just like me who have been to jail, are in jail, or are on the run from the law simply for drug charges. These kids will never have the same oppurunities they could have had, their lives have been turned upside down, and for what?

Meanwhile, our prison systems are overcrowded and overflowing, violent crimes are being punished less severely and new non-violent drug offenders are being sent to jail every day. It just doesn't make any sense.

And then the real kicker--the mainstream drug companies make millions and millions of dollars off of drugs like prozac, zoloft, paxil, etc.

This country needs MAJOR drug reform. To help our kids, fix our prisons, and end our country's unnessesary dependency on anti-depression perscription drugs that are merely filling the pockets of the company CEOs.

Another issue, which obviously is important to everyone, but barely even was mentioned in this campaign, is the environment. In my eyes, GWB should be thrown out of the White House for his malicious environmental policies.

Beyond that we're getting into social issues that need a new perspective, new life breathed into them. Education, welfare, public housing, all of these things have been criminally ignored by this administration.

One thing that probably won't get alot of traction, but is talked about alot among my generation, is the electoral college. Nobody really seems to like it, and I think it undermines peoples confidence in our electoral process.

Theres much more also, but thats kind of the jist of it.

[eataTREE]

39. A-Fuggin-Men!

The War On Drugs has done incalculable damage to our society. And for what? Has it stopped anyone who really wanted to from doing drugs? NO! This complete disaster has gone on long enough.

[Zorra]

36. Have I met you before

30 something years ago
Pickin' flowers in the rain
in San Francisco.

Was it the summer of love
or 1969
were we winning the war
with our orange sunshine?

She's the girl next door,
you know the one I'm talking about -
She's got a crazy idea
She's gonna change the world.

Only 20 yrs old,
she's afraid they're gonna drop the bomb
and turn Iraq
into a Vietnam.

She's gonna MARCH FOR PEACE!
and find the bread to feed the poor,
MAKE THE WORLD STOP FIGHTING,
That's the girl next door.

She's the girl next door -
you know who I'm talking about
she's got a crazy idea
she's gonna change the world.

She's got stars in her eyes,
she's got love in her heart
she's got this crazy idea
of making peace throughout the world,
oh what a crazy idea
making peace throughout the world
oh what a crazy idea.;-)

"The Girl Next Door",
copyright 1999

[chieftain]

37. Great Post

This aging baby boomer hears echos of earlier campaigns . Mosh is certainly rendered in a style I am not used to but I can't help but think of the following lyrics when I read your thoughts or listened to M&M's political anthem .
Stay out of this new world , if you can't lend a hand
for the times they are a changin'
And for the better I would bet
GO KERRY ! TAKE BACK AMERICA !

[sweetheart]

38. time grinds young and old into dust

And the culture war is an illusion of identity politics, that age
somehow distinguishes anything in a culture that respects only tight
buttocks.

You join a 100 year battle to bring social justice in to the barbarian
lands of the US corporatocracy. God bless any who fight this battle.

These bush wankers think they've seen a war. No, that will come
another time, and your generation will be remembered like the german
generation born during the 30's... permanently apologizing for
decades for the crimes of our forefathers.

God bless the millions who will be killed.