Looking at the Obama
generation
By
Ruben Navarette
Well, at least Barack
Obama got the support of
one white Southerner
last week. John Edwards'
endorsement came one day
after Obama got pounded
in West Virginia. Maybe
Edwards, a North
Carolinian, saw
something in this
contest that made him
queasy?
“There is one man who
knows in his heart that
it is time to create one
America, not two, and
that man is Barack
Obama,” Edwards said.
Pundits assure us that
race had nothing to do
with Obama's lopsided
defeat in West Virginia
— that the more than 70
percent of the state's
white voters who cast
ballots against the
Democratic front-runner
did so based on the
issues, or because Obama
didn't do much
campaigning there.
However, exit polls
showed that the No. 1
issue for West Virginia
Democrats was the
economy. And unless you
count the throwaway
issue of a proposed
federal gas tax holiday,
there not a dime's worth
of difference between
the candidates' economic
positions. There must
have been something else
going on.
Thanks to a report in
The Washington Post,
we've learned more about
racist incidents
experienced by Obama
volunteers in Indiana
and Pennsylvania. A
white bar owner in
Georgia is even hawking
“Obama in '08” T-shirts
with a picture of
Curious George holding a
banana. Naturally, the
bar owner denies any
racist intent, insisting
that he saw a
resemblance between the
cartoon monkey and the
candidate.
Why, certainly there is
no racism in the
presidential campaign.
In fact, white readers
assure me that — while
they won't vote for
Obama — they would vote
for a more acceptable
black candidate, such as
Colin Powell or
Condoleezza Rice.
Reality check. This is
the same Colin Powell
whose wife voiced
concerns about his
safety should he run for
president, given the
hate mail he was
getting. And the same
Condi Rice who has been
the subject of racist
caricatures by liberal
cartoonists.
And yet, one of the more
interesting outcomes of
the West Virginia
primary has less to do
with race than it does
with age. Throughout the
primaries, Obama has won
over young voters
handily, sometimes
beating Clinton by a 3-1
ratio among voters under
30. That changed in West
Virginia, where Clinton
won the youth vote and —
in a state that is
nearly 95 percent white
— it bears mentioning
that it means she won
the young white vote.
That may surprise those
who study the so-called
Millennial Generation,
people born between 1982
and 2003. Morley
Winograd and Michael
Hais, co-authors of
“Millennial Makeover:
MySpace, YouTube, and
the Future of American
Politics,” have written
an indispensable book
that examines the
generational and
cultural alignments
playing out all around
us, and gives us a peek
at the new world to
come.
“Our argument is that,
with Millennials,
racial, ethnic and
gender distinctions are
much less important than
they've ever been,”
Winograd told me
recently. “There were
some class distinctions,
but even they weren't
that strong.”
Instead, young people
today seem to have — as
Winograd put it — a
“very unified opinion as
a generation.”
Of course, there are
exceptions. “No
generation is uniform,”
Winograd acknowledged.
“All we try to do in the
book is to look at the
attitude that a majority
of them carry with them
from their childhood.”
These are the
civic-minded,
just-starting-to-vote,
tech-savvy cohorts
who've spent their lives
being told they're
gifted, unique and
destined for greatness.
They're optimists who
actually think the
United States can do
some good in the world,
and they have little
patience for what Obama
calls “the politics of
division and
distraction.” Nurtured
and protected since they
were toddlers (remember
the yellow, cautionary
“Baby on Board” signs on
minivans?), many are
drifting through their
post-college years and
are bogged down by a
sense of entitlement.
But they also feel
entitled to good
government. They're
problem-solvers who
think elected officials
should improve people's
lives.
If you don't know what
makes these folks tick,
you had better learn.
They're not only the
most diverse generation
in U.S. history; 40
percent of them are
people of color. They're
also the largest,
numbering roughly 100
million. By the sure
strength of their
numbers, the Millennials
will leave their mark.
And, to think, this is
the Obama Generation. Or
is it? Could it be that
there is a force out
there stronger than
shifting demographics
and the winds of change?
If so, let's call it by
name.
