The Real Generation Gap

According to NBC News Exit Polls:

Of Voters Overall: 

People ages 18-29, people born 1995 to 2006: 54-43 for Harris.

30-44, people born 1980 to 1994: 49-48 for Harris.

45-64, people born 1960 to 1979: 54-44 for Trump.

65 on up, people born 1959 or earlier: 49-49 tie.

The "Baby Boom" generation, generally defined as those born between 1946 and 1964, was the largest generation in American history, went for Trump. So much for peace, love, and tolerance. Rock and roll? They turned out to be less Grateful Dead, more Van Halen. (UPDATE: I originally had that as "more Mötley Crüe." That was before Crüe drummer Tommy Lee wrote this open letter to Trump, which begins, "Dear Fucking Lunatic." I guess he figured he'd go easy on him at the start, and then really let him have it.)

"Generation X," generally defined as those born between 1965 and 1979, thus including me, grew up on movies with lots of gunfire and explosions, professional "wrestling," and heavy metal. Metal is the most misogynistic music ever created, even more than rap. I felt out of place at the time, and I feel that just as much now.

But the Boomers are not innocent here: Our parents' generation saw their dreams partially realized, then cut short, and they gave up, and decided, "We tried to save the world, and we couldn't do it. So let's make some money, and who cares how, and who cares who gets hurt in the process."

Even the Millennials, born between 1980 and 1995, came too close to siding with white male supremacy, instead of with the most possible good for the most possible people.

The kids? Generation Z, the people born from 1996 to 2012 (though those born in 2007 or later were not yet eligible to vote), may yet save us from ourselves.

I was wondering what they were going to call the next generation. Turns out, they've started over with the alphabet, sort of: "Generation Alpha."

Women: 

18-29: 61-37 for Harris.

30-44: 54-43 for Harris.

45-64: 50-49 for Trump.

65 on up: 54-45 for Harris.

Men: Trump won every age group:

18-29: 49-47.

30-44: 53-43.

45-64: 60-38.

65 on up: 55 to 44.

Women by Race:

White: 53-45 for Trump.

Black: 91-7 for Harris.

Hispanic: 60-38 for Harris.

White Women:

College Graduates: 54-44 for Harris.

No College Degree: 63-35 for Trump.

Men by Race:

White: 60-37 for Trump.

Black: 77-21 for Harris.

Hispanic: 55-43 for Trump.

Other (Asian, Native, etc.): 48-46 for Harris.

As Joy Reid put it on her MSNBC show The Reid-Out last Thursday night, "Y'all voted with Stephen Miller and David Duke, and against your own sisters, who chose Kamala Harris with 60 percent of their votes. So you own everything that happens to your mixed-status families, and to your wives, your sisters, and your abuelas (grandmothers) from here on in."

Here's how to handle them: Tell them, "It's all yours now. You asked for this. Whatever happens, you deserve it. You were warned."

When it all comes crashing down -- and it will -- remind them: "I told you so. Now, you have no choice left. You have to do the unthinkable: Blame Trump for causing this damage, blame him for fooling you about it, and blame yourself for being fooled by him. And don't let yourself get fooled again. Get it right the next time, and all will be forgiven. But it will never be forgotten."

The Coolest Generation?

I'm starting to see memes saying, "Your grandparents were cooler than you will ever be." One showed people on line for Star Wars in the Summer of 1977.

It's a message to today's young people, the ones who would have included my children, if I'd had any, about my parents' generation. A 16-year-old on that line would now be 63.

Well, the heck with the premise: I was 7, and I was on one of those lines.

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What is it with Baby Boomers, especially the early ones, born between 1946 and 1954, and their never-ending need to be seen as The Coolest Generation? Is it because they feared early death, due to being of draft age during the Vietnam War?

It seemed to start even before they fully came of age. American Graffiti came out in 1973, and was set in 1962, just 11 years earlier, yet, already, it leaned into nostalgia.

People wanted to forget Vietnam. They wanted to forget Watergate. They wanted to forget race riots. They wanted to go back to the era when Dwight D. Eisenhower was America's grandpa, or at least to the era when John F. Kennedy was America's big brother. (And not the kind of "Big Brother" George Orwell wrote about in his novel Nineteen Eighty-Four.) When the biggest thing they had to worry about was whether they had a dime for the jukebox at the malt shop after school.

Hey, I get it. But 2024 - 11 = 2013. I don't see too many people holding up Barack Obama as a figure of nostalgia. Of course, unlike Ike and JFK in 1973, he is still around. As is Bill Clinton, who was also the President at a time comparatively better than now.

But you don't see people looking back fondly on the cars of 2013. Or the music. Okay, the most popular singer now is Taylor Swift, and she was the most popular singer then. But, in spite of her own naming of her current tour as "The Eras Tour," nobody looks at her as a relic of a bygone, better age. 

Elvis Presley, the Baby Boomers' 1st big non-sports hero, died on August 16, 1977, while Star Wars was still in theaters. The day Elvis died was the day that the Baby Boomers realized that they weren't kids anymore. The day Yankee legend Mickey Mantle, the biggest baseball star of the Baby Boom era, died, August 13, 1995, 18 years later to the week, was the day the Boomers had to accept that they were now old. But they really still haven't accepted that they are old, even though they're now really old.

At least they had great music. But "old people music" is going to get worse. Nursing homes play the music the residents heard growing up. Well, guess what: If a person was 13 when Elvis debuted nationally in 1956, they're now 81; and if they were 13 when The Beatles came to America in 1964, they're now 73. So we're getting rock and roll in nursing homes now.

But in a few years, we'll be getting disco. By the time I'm old enough to live in one, we'll be getting the early MTV stuff. I lived through that garbage once, in my adolescence. I don't need to hear synth pop and hair metal when I'm old, and my wheelchair's motor isn't fast enough to get me away from it!

"Shady Pines, Mike!" Not unless I get to pick the music!