Hi. I admit I am 40 years old. I am a Gen Xer. I grew up poor and angry. I think a lot of us did. As little kids we saw:
- Aftermath of Americans who just lost their first war and all the associated anger
- Americans who were dealing with the aftermath of being violently torn in ways not seen since maybe the 1860s (assassinations, cities destroyed by riots)
- Cynical America
- Split America
- Declining America (gas lines, crappy manufacturing, Nixon, Vietnam, Chrysler and AMC going bankrupt)
- Stagflation
- huge layoffs
- paycuts
- recognition that politicians were liars and theives
- first generation to have parents be divorced. They got the divorce. The kids got the pleasure of learning to be head of households as latch key kids and got social scorn from families with both parents.
That was macro stuff.
We grew into a world where we represented a tiny percent of the population and watched TV seeing only talk about baby boomers and the depression era generation. No one spoke of us, looked like us, etc.
And we had Reagan who promised to make it all go away and lied, lied, lied. We never were even sold the American dream. We were told, hey you were born after all the good stuff. Don't worry about it, cuz we know better and you are young and btw it is too late to enjoy America. Now go enlist like a good boy.
That was child hood. Along with great stories of the old days where drugs were commonplace, drinking age was 3 years younger, and sex was free, plentiful, and no one died from having it. We instead got tough drug laws, tough on crime laws, 14 years olds being tried as adults for crimes, and a earful about the benefits of abstinence of all things that the last generation didn't do.
Then came college. Before I went, the economy was rebounding finally and we were told we would maybe, have our own mini American dream after all. But oops, 1987 market crash brought it down to earth before we could partake in it. Sorry, the boomers ate your lunch again. And finally, hey, at least there are so few of you there will be plenty of jobs. But oops, instead we have new tools to automate all those jobs the boomers are retiring from. You have unemployment.
So we graduated from college, made our $3.35/hr minimum wage, and got to hear about how much better it could have been if we were just born a little earlier. Too bad.
Then we struggled with our crappy job in our crappy country and worked our asses off and watched ourselves climb into our late 20s as we clawed a meager living out of the eaten carcass of the USA. Then the internet boom happened and everyone in generation Y got the American dream back just in time for them to be adults and got all these $50/hr jobs being web developers, baby boomers had cash to buy stock in eBay and Amazon and watch it quintuple for no reason, and we were stuck watching on both sides people saying tough luck for you. We have or had it better than you and your timing and lack of influence just missed being good. Tough to be you. Meanwhile, we had just spent a decade working out asses off to get to $20/hr jobs and now we see 20 year olds getting $50 to do something we didn't feel able to retrain for and 50 year olds getting nice retirement accounts while we had $100 in the bank.
Now granted, Bush made it all go bad, but Gen Y had a period of joy and a taste of the better America we never got. They were now joining together and wanting to fight for it. All we got was older and had our meager stocks that we finally got to buy around Nasdaq = 5000 turn to dust. And Gen Y is all over the damn TV and Internet when the Boomers finally weren't. We never got our 15 minutes of fame. We got nothing but stories about dreamy lives lived by those just older or just younger than us...and Adam Sandler. Yippee.
So in a nutshell, you have a tiny, tiny group of folks who never got their American dream. They never got their time in the sun. They never had the numbers to matter as a demographic. They never got parents, or the ability to trust, or fair pay for fair work, or fun. We got 3 strikes and you are out, GHW Bush and Dan Quayle, Punky Brewster, Mr T, bad Euro trash music, abstinence, low paying jobs, and talk from both sides of how great things are/were.
I know this is really just a rambling rant, but it is my view from the eyes of 1 gen exer who happened to be a liberal anyway and had hope in humanity even as humanity seemed to offer nothing back in return. So I wanted to let you know since I am one of us (liberals), my peers are often not and I understand why they are basically angry old people before their time. We are a sad and small bunch who never got theirs, feel like we worked hardest and got the least.
One bright note is that I have kids now and I live for their future. Mine is mostly played out. I am a professor now and I help our Gen Yers who don't know how to live in a recession (what is a resume daddy? What do you mean I won't make $60k right out of college?). But I feel cheated and am misanthropic. Most of us seem to be angry and small people. We wish the world were better for you and assume it will never be good for us.
This isn't the most coherent summary but I have 2 little kids to care for. But I wanted you to get some story line behind the WTF are those 30-44 year olds thinking when they aren't voting for Obama. 1st of all, 1/2 of us are. But the other half, please just forgive and ignore them. There are too few of us to matter anyway (we have been told that our whole lives so it must be true). And they probably don't like McPain as much as they just hate everyone. I think we are all in a way misanthropic. Just somehow 40-50% of us managed to be humanistic too. They aren't mutually exclusive although you would think they would be.
And I am not expecting pity or understanding. It isn't something I was brought up to expect. Sorry if this is hyperbolic to you. I think you had to live it to know what I am talking about. And I don't expect you to want to forgive the wrong headed of us. I ask you do that for your own good (it is better not to hold onto anger). Take the advice of someone a little older than you. We did learn somethings of value even if no one seems to care.
Oh, and we are drama kings and queens without an audience. I think I am demonstrating that today.
And if we lose this election, I am sorry for you and my kids. My generation already feels like we lose no matter heads or tails.
Take care of yourself and remember to vote,
GMR.