...or, Honey, I Left the Millennials On Top of the Car
By Tamara Marston
A few days back, in her most egregiously tone-deaf soundbite yet, Hillary Clinton deeply dissed the youth-vote demographic, talking about them like a patronizing Great Aunt who’s completely out of touch with Kids Today. Which, by the Primary returns, seems to be anyone under 40. In six seconds of lumping them under the label “the Young People,” she let them know she thinks they’re - sadly - too naïve and too lazy to gather information themselves, and are merely suckers for the influence of manipulated information (I find this deeply ironic). She speaks as if she’s completely unaware that there’s an entire generation reared on the internet, and that this demographic she feels so “sorry for” has the full spectrum of resources at their fingertips — plus technical skills and savvy innate to a generation who literally cut their teeth on the family keyboard — and they know far more about how and where to gather accurate and supporting information, much faster, than the vast majority of her prime age demographic base.
Here’s an example that comes out of a great online conversation with a group of six 23-35 year olds yesterday: Does Clinton think she can issue a (widely thought to be considered deplorable) tweet, holding Bernie Sanders and his stance on gun laws responsible for the anguish at Sandy Hook due to his D-minus rating from the NRA supposed nonsupport of gun control... and not understand that those pitiable, sheeplike, “deluded youth” can (and did) pick up their phones, and in two minutes were looking at emails from her staff and other showing her history of arms sales to over 20 countries whose governments contributed many millions to the Clinton Foundation? And as they read this, they pondered how many people must have died from all those guns. Does she “feel sorry” for these misguided “Young People”? Will she be lamenting their sad little misunderstanding here, as well?
She doesn’t seem to be aware that it’s really hard now to cover the trails you’ve left behind, and that all the flips and double-speak and hypocrisies and dodges a high-profile person perpetrates can be accessed and shared widely in a heartbeat. That’s gotta make it really tough on most politicians.
Now, after being raised with all the artifice/hype/misdirections of the internet, this is a generation that’s found itself deeply inspired by the transparency and integrity another candidate has brought to the table; transparency that puts Clinton under a very justified, very harsh light. She’s too smart to not know this… she simply doesn’t seem to be able to operate on that field; it’s completely against her political upbringing. And what’s worse is that — as the gist of her attacks on Bernie’s commitment and vision and that unfortunate soundbite show — she doesn’t even seem to be trying.
Even at 56, I’m mortified by it. And I’m angry (thus the tone of this diary) and deeply concerned on behalf of my four millennial children and their mates and children.
I’m concerned that Ms. Clinton, in seeking the Presidency, sees this as a way to lead the country and the Party. She takes the inspired motivation Sanders has brought and paints it as deluded overzealousness, and thus smears with a broad brush the hopes and vision of the youth whom she exhorted for the cameras to join her and “build together.” In the doing, she greatly risks making the mere mention of the Democratic Party repugnant to an entire upcoming generation of politically-engaged citizens. She’s already implied they’re loafers, with her “it can’t just be about what we're going to give you" comment to millennial Sanders supporters in Nevada (an unveiled slam against Bernie, using a GOP “free stuff” talking point); she’s already dismissed or spoken or acted in opposition to several key things which the country’s young voters have made clear are deeply important to them (and far from just them, pretty much her whole base)… now this??
And, even as her supporters lambaste Sanders as lacking common sense, she says she just doesn’t get why she doesn’t have the trust of the millennials. Really? With all the polling data and advisors at her fingertips? That’s exceedingly hard to believe. I think she’s made it pretty clear that they’re just not that important to her. What the heck, she can win without them.
There could have been a more progressive path that might have gained Clinton and the Dems some points with millennials. Clinton could have — should have — shown more respect to the vision and heart and significance of the younger voters’ passion for Sanders’ message, what it’s saying about the changes in political priorities and ethics they’ll demand to see happen when they’re given power. She could/should have shown that respect by not just emulating Sanders’ popular stances, in abrupt shifts to the left that reek of impermanence and disingenuousness to garner more votes, but by speaking and acting with the higher level of integrity we’re coming to demand as a nation. She could have spoken out against the inequities and manipulations — including those within her party — that have worked to effectively disregard and squelch too many voices. (Where was her voice — or the DNC’s — after Arizona??)
And if she had? Well, let’s be honest, they would almost certainly have still been drawn to Bernie over the establishment. But they would have been far more receptive to the thought of her as their country’s leader if the vote comes down to it. Is what we’re seeing really her considered choice of strategy — or best effort — to get them to show up and put a check next to her box come November?? Let alone stick around and become true, active members of the Party?
Right now, that’s a big Fail.
It’s been confounding to me that both Clinton and the DNC would be so willfully short-sighted and arrogant… to be content with their establishment voter base and stay so dismissively out of touch with the majority of the demographic currently making up one quarter of the country, aka The Future. What it speaks to is an attitude of Seize The Power By Whatever Means Possible… never mind the future, or at least what almost all Americans who will be be living there are clearly stating they want for their country.
But hasn’t that always been the Big-Money attitude towards power, and profit? And therein lies the explanation for the lack of priority towards the things the millennials care most about. This is the most basic, most despicable result of letting corporate influence and investment infiltrate our political system; how badly it skews the priorities of those who run this Government of the People.
And y’know, I can’t type those last four words without adding the increasingly disregarded and neglected — yet so fundamental and vital — “By the People and For the People” that goes with them. All these “Young People” learned that in school.
Like we all did.