I want to coin a new term:  THE OBAMA GENERATION

Because WORDS ARE POWERFUL - they mean something.  Because THE OBAMA GENERATION is simply and clearly defined.  Because it makes sense as a identifier.  Because with it comes not just a sense of unity but a sense of purpose and an implied requirement for members of the OBAMA GENERATION to step up to the plate, to accept responsibility and change the world.

• Literally: those for whom Obama as an elder, but are old enough to vote or to campaign for Obama's election
• From roughly 18-46, this 28 year spread is a generation from those entering college to those with kids entering college
• And this generation is without a good name, being some mix of Genertaion X and Y... so let's call it what it is

THE OBAMA GENERATION

And let's respectfully ask for help and guidance from those Boomers who worked so hard to effect change in some of the important areas we believe in and take for granted today, and make for a productive transition of power from their generation to ours

I wrote a stroppy diary recently about how pissed off I am at the Boomer generation, like so many of us born after the boomers... but I liked the discussion it provoked and it got me thinking...

I was going to type a comment to XYSea's post on Gen X vs. The Boomers, but it was too long, so I made it a diary.

Sea-change.  I think this change is a good thing.  That is what we are seeing amongst the Democrats these days, and it's about freakin' time.  But, the Republicans aren't the only ones not 'getting it.'

This topic came up today in a conversation I had with a co-worker who is a male, unmarried Boomer.  It pissed me off, as a single parent who busts her butt ever day to keep out of poverty and who works just as hard as he does, probably harder.   He isn't going to retire for five more years, he says, because if he stays he can make an extra $350,000.   Geebus!  I'll be lucky if my pension is intact in 15 years when it's my turn to retire.  I'll be lucky if someone just like this guy doesn't gut it while I am still here so he can float down to the Bahamas in his golden freakin' parachute.   It made me want to cry and alternately pull my hair out!

A lot of these Boomers were also Republicans, who managed to 'pull themselves up by their bootstraps' only to make it impossible for anyone else do to it in their lifetime.   A Boomer is president now, and while not representative of all Boomers, he's certainly not atypical.  

I don't see it in diaries. But lordy, how I see it in comments.

Blame blame blame. Boomers get the smack down for stupid punditry, moron Presidents, and the entire sorry state the country is in now.

It's all the Boomer's fault.

I've also seen people claiming different generations.. Oh, I'm X, or Y, or even Generation Jones.

Get a grip, folks.

We are, each of us, more than a demographic cohort, okay?

To the Flipmobile!

'Make love not war' or 'Fight Club'.

Many boomers in that I know are confused at why a solid gen Xer like myself is so anti-Clinton. There are lots and lots of reasons, lots and lots of them. Too many to enumerate in a quick lunchtime blog entry that is for sure.

At a core level it is distrust of you, the Boomer generation.

You are the generation that fought in or against Vietnam and lived through the sixties, shortly after which you grabbed control of the agenda in America and the country has marched to your generational tune since then.

You are the demographic that is choosing, from the Left Clinton, from the Right McCain.

Well you know what... as you retire and we have to continue to take the reins and clear up the disastrous messes we are inheriting - a shattered and  broken global financial system, climate change at tipping point, peak oil upon us with no fore-planning for a post-oil future, resource depletion, overpopulation... as a generation those of us born after the sixties and voting this November, it's time to say enough is enough...

Einstein once said, it's impossible to solve a problem with the same thinking that created it.  It's become impossible to run our country and give us a chance to actually beat these problems, and provide for ourselves, and our children, your grandchildren, and even you... impossible to run our country and beat these problems with the old politics that created them.

I respect your decision to choose Clinton.  I respect your decision to choose McCain.  But we choose Obama.  And I think it's time you let us have our say.

Barack Obama, in speech after speech, asks us to follow him into a land that many of us had thought we would never see again, one that has lain fallow and empty for so many years that it had begun to seem as something out of a long-faded dream. In his words of hope and his ideals of an America that can be one again, he hearkens us back to the America in which so many of us grew up. It's easy for nostalgia to take over and romanticize it, and I know things were never peaches and cream, but there was a simplicity to things that allowed people to interact more openly with each other back then.

In the quiet community where I grew up, all of us, all generations, hung out in the neighborhoods, dropped in to each other's homes both invited and uninvited, stayed out into the night when it was summer enjoying the warm air. All of us knew our neighbors, almost all of them, by name, and had daily interactions with them. Our parents were friends; we played at each other's homes and we had private places away from adults where we played in the woods or the fields. The sound of the ice cream truck was a special and electric sound. A family night at the drive-in movie was a fantastic adventure. We may romanticize a lot, but we don't need to embellish these things; they were real. But that's not the world I see today.

Are you prepared to defend our social safety net from being cut as a large group (the boomers) are entering retirement age?  Would the thought of all those people being unable to meet their bills for food, medicine, and housing make you angry?  Well, there’s a sinister plot afoot that isn’t just proposing benefit freezes or cuts in Congress where you can fight them.  It is quietly cutting them as we speak (and has been for some time).  And Congress isn’t doing a thing about it.

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.

I married a Wizard.  Wizard is a technical term.  It refers to a class of IT Guys and Gals who understand what the electrons want to do.  They have a fundamental curosity about computer technology, they devised the languages that grew the industry, and they are responsible for that marvelous thing you are staring at as you read this.

They are Boomers, and they are retiring.  They are taking with them a peculiar mind set that pushed the boundries of what is possible, and dreamed about what was next.

Every industry seems to go through three phases.

For neigh on 4 years I've come to this special cubby hole to listen to and occasionally argue with people who basically shared my hope for our Party and our Country.  Lately, however I don't think this is a party (small 'p') that I enjoy much anymore.   Oh, not to a GBCW extreme...that's just for attention seekers anyway.  No, I expect this place will find it's groove again, but it certainly can't come soon enough for me.

Okay Boomers, we hear you.  You're relevant.  You're here. There's nothing we can do about it. For my child's sake, I hope that I grow fabulously old with a little more grace and that I show more respect for new ideas than many of you boomers have shown mine.  

Here's the thing:  I'm actually willing to hear your perspective, IF you're willing to hear mine.  I'll tell you where I'm coming from, my frustrations, my hurdles - you listen, then you tell me what's ailing you.  Maybe, we can find some common ground here instead of a string of comments two miles long "They're so immature!"  "They're Old and Stupid!"

The generational split between Clinton/McCain and Obama, between boomers and post-boomers alarms me -- and I have five decades under my belt. There are too many boomers.

Here's my thesis.

1. There is an evolutionary, physiological basis for identity-based politics.

2. We use policy arguments to affirm and rationalize our identity biases.

3. We are a small minority who understand and feel the fierce urgency of now: impending overshoot and collapse. (Are Humans Smarter Than Yeast?)

3. Unless the Clinton/McCain pair trips, boomers will deliver to us in the presidency another eight years of more of the same.

4. That is really unfortunate.

[Cross-posted at OpenLeft and BarackObama.com.]

There: I said it.  We did it.  It's all our fault.  Everything bad in the US, everything bad in the world, all comes down to the fact that the boomers spent money that should go to their children, voted for idiots like Bush and Bush and Reagan, are latte-sipping, Volvo-driving pansy-asses who can't get off the couch and leave their wide-screen TVs and surround-sound cocoons long enough to do anything good for anyone.

In short, it's all our fault.  We take this moment to apologize.

But wait:

of Hillary and Barack or Barak and Hillary would be unbeatable in Nov.  uniting genders, races, young and old.  The top and bottom end of the boomer generation along with their voting age children and grandchildren. A 21st Century ticket!

Boomers bringing along and uniting the X & Y generation moves us forward.

This election will be about family, the economy, and ending the war responsibly.

Once they win, the argument against women and blacks in the highest offices will disappear. Many want to see this in their lifetime.  They are already making history by making it this far.

Yes, media built Hillary up then tore her down. She took nothing for granted and worked hard. She never called herself inevitable the press did. They create and like contrast, the more the merrier. Win or lose I admire her campaign and organization she put forth. She's really showing the world how superficial America really is and after this, if she loses more of : what the next woman would have to overcome: female inuendos and jokes about dress, hair, voice town (mommy issues, so to speak with many male commentators).

I admire the courage and strength she's shown and how articulate she is. How many of us in our lifetime have seen a woman (unless in show business) speaking to 1000s.

When I happened across a diary from Lying eyes in the wee hours of the morning, I couldn’t help but fire this off.  Basically, the diarist very politely (and dripping with condescension) asked "young people" to "back off" and please let Hillary win this one, huh?  Willya?  Please? I mean, isn’t it the Boomers’ time, now that their parents are mostly dead or in that home out by the Interstate?

I felt compelled to write in response, not to her particular diary, but to the idea that the two frontrunners represent a generational divide – one is almost tempted to use the term "gap", if the Boomers hadn’t trademarked it for their own justification for political rebellion in their youth.  The fact is that while both candidates have their share of supporters from across age and class and gender, Clinton is most clearly the candidate that represents the interests of the Boomers, while Obama has the interests of Gen Xers and those that follow.  There is an essential divide, here, and it’s important to call it out.

It was OK for Bill Clinton to be President at 46 with little national or international experience, because the Boomers felt he was "one of us."

Now the boomers are older, and while Obama is also a boomer, he is a "baby baby boomer", and most boomers are older than him.

Voting for someone younger than you to be president just feels weird, and is yet another sign of aging.

I'm surprised the media has not latched on to this simple explanation.