Yeah, I know all too well that, just as Adlai E. Stevenson once lamented, "Nothing so dates a man as to decry the younger generation," but I can't help it. They frustrate the hell out of me sometimes.
And, as if I needed another reason, the "Reason-Rupe 2014 Millennial Survey" landed on my desk this morning. Dubbed by the study's authors as the "politically unclaimed generation," this generation doesn't emerge from this looking very good. Not that they would care.
This is either one confused generation suffering some historic growing pains or they love screwing with survey takers.
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See also: Time to rethink Gen Y
(And, yeah, I know, I suffer a little bit of the Generation X, middle-child syndrome. It seems like boomers and millennials get all of the love – or hate. While we Xers are simply forgotten. Course, it could just be me.)
Keep in mind, this is a group that voted overwhelmingly for President Obama in the last two elections, despite being no more affiliated with the Democratic Party than the Republican Party. They just happen to be less Republican.
This is both good news and bad news for the GOP going forward. Good, because there's a helluva lot of potential for conversion here. The Dems aren't exactly helping their cause, but neither are the Republicans by taking such a hard line (and hard right) stance in election after election.
Quite frankly, this generation isn't a big fan of either political party, according to the survey, something I can certainly relate to.
Then their collective youth betrays them. This is a group that, for the most part, loves the idea of a big government providing lots of services, by an 11-point margin. Of course, when suggested it might cost them more in the form of higher taxes, the table turned, with 57 percent preferring a smaller government.
This is also a group more distrustful of government than any previous generation, while still pushing for that "suspect" federal government to provide for the disadvantaged, whether it's the poor, sick or homeless.
And they also cross traditional party lines in emerging as strong advocates of individual freedom across the board, whether its legalizing marijuana (a Democrats talking point), buying old school light bulbs (a GOP sticking point), drinking Big Gulps (Sarah Palin) or same-sex marriage (Barney Frank?).
They're also big believers in our economic system, strongly favoring free markets over "government-managed economies," love the idea of being entrepreneurs and certainly favor meritocracy over egalitarianism. These people, as frustrating as they might be, don't want handouts, but they also want a helping hand, too, expecting government help stirring the economy back into action.
Millennials also fall in line with most Americans on a pair of key policy issues. For example, a whopping 72 percent of them favor bumping up the minimum wage to $10.10. Additionally, 51 percent of them support the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, a slim majority I found a little surprising given their overwhelming support for the president.
In short, despite this group's diversity (and schizophrenia), they could best be described as fiscally conservative social liberals. Which also means each party is halfway there to winning them over. And Democrats will probably never tighten taxpayers purse strings enough to win Millennials over. Which is why I don't understand why my Republican friends won't let go of some of these distracting social issues the government has no place meddling in to begin with. It only turns off these voters they're so close to getting.
There's a lot more obviously, and you can check out the full report here.
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