Is Barack Obama on the verge of becoming the first Generation X President or is he a member of the last of the Baby Boomers? Follow me over the fold and we'll take a look at the generational trends that have shaped this candidate for President.
Boomer or X'er? Well actually a little of both and that makes a difference in how he sees the world. There are numerous articles about him being a member of Generation X, however, he doesn’t have the hallmarks usually associated with this generation. Obama is definitely not cynical nor a slacker. His is however much different from a Boomer, a group Bill, Hillary, Bush and John Kerry are members of. He is, if you read any of the various books on generational trends NOT a boomer, which makes some influential Boomers question his Bona Fides. He himself addresses his view of Boomers in his book, "Audacity of Hope"
"In the back and forth between Clinton and Gingrich, and in the elections of 2000 and 2004," he writes, "I sometimes felt as if I were watching the psychodrama of the baby boom generation — a tale rooted in old grudges and revenge plots hatched on a handful of college campuses long ago."
Some books say he is a late boomer and some books say he is an early Gen X’er, but the truth is that is is from a lesser known group born between 1954 and 1964 known as Generation Jones.
They are clearly different and as such we should try to understand what makes them tick.
In demographic terms, Generation Jones was part of the baby boom which ended in the early 1960s. However, the events stereotypically associated with the generational discussion of Boomers, including protests over civil rights and the Vietnam war and the emergence of rock music took place while the members of Generation Jones were still children or early teenagers. Thus the early life experience of this group was more similar, in many respects, to that commonly imputed to Generation X.
Naturally, the Boomers are leery of him because he is not a black/white right/left thinker and as such doesn’t play into their generational experience which to state in its simplest terms is "Are you for the Vietnam War or against it?"
Lets face it, Bill Clinton wasn't despised and demonized by the right for nothing. They saw him as a pot smoking, draft dodging, intellectual elite that had somehow risen to power and they were not having it.
On the other hand the left saw Bush as a guy who had skipped the war through his connections, then used more family connections to scrub his record. But this was the "way" many conservative families of the Boomer era did it. They felt that it wasn't their obligation to actually fight the war, they had "other obligations.
So that some Boomers, especially members of the media , opinion makesrs and the chattering class are cynical of Obama doesn't surprise me at all. He is a consensus builder. In fact you could in a way look at Jonesers as middle children. Having that Diplomatic touch in finding accord rather than fanning the fire. Joners are also both Idealistic and Pragmatic so it isn't that hard for them to see many sides of an argument and identify not only how “Their” side "wins" but how to make those "Wins" stick by not poking the other side in the eye with a stick of deep division.
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