Generation Jones could give GOP surprise win in midterms

The Washington Times ^ | Nov 2, 2006 | Suzanne Fields

[politico 2006]

...there's a voting cohort between Generation Xers and boomers that bears watching. They're the not-so-young of Generation Jones. If they're not "the lost generation" they're invisible to most of our culture commentators. The Joneses, who were born between 1954 and 1965, are usually included in the boomer cohort, but Jonathan Pontell, a pop culture consultant who coined the name, says that's a mistake. He thinks the Jonesers may be crucial in next week's congressional elections. "Coming of age politically in the late 1970s and early 1980s," he says, "Jonesers were the much discussed 'ReaganYouth,' and is the most conservative U.S. generation by a considerable margin." He credits Jonesers, particularly the women, with tipping the election for George W. in the swing states two years ago when they comprised approximately a quarter of the electorate. They are disproportionately represented among theme voters, such as NASCAR enthusiasts, Office Park Dads and Soccer-Security-Mortgage Moms. They cluster around issues of "moral values," and were polled as pulling away from conservative candidates after the Foley scandal. Now the latest polls show that they have conspicuously returned to the Republican base (apologies to Peggy Noonan). What makes them different from the boomers is that during their formative years, while their older brothers and sisters were indulging the hedonistic pleasures of Woodstock, they were at home watching the Brady Bunch and supping on mashed potatoes with both parents at the dinner table. They were not traumatized by the Kennedy assassination, but were terrified by Jimmy Carter's Iranian hostage crisis. They weren't interested in kicking Richard Nixon around, but were grateful to Ronald Reagan for restoring America's strength in the world... Next week we're likely to learn which candidates kept up with the Joneses. Copyright © 2006 News World Communications, Inc. All rights reserved.

[Saije]

"What makes them different from the boomers is that during their formative years, while their older brothers and sisters were indulging the hedonistic pleasures of Woodstock, they were at home watching the Brady Bunch and supping on mashed potatoes with both parents at the dinner table. They were not traumatized by the Kennedy assassination, but were terrified by Jimmy Carter's Iranian hostage crisis. They weren't interested in kicking Richard Nixon around, but were grateful to Ronald Reagan for restoring America's strength in the world."

This is absolutely true. I was born in 1958. Too young to "play" in the 1960s but old enough to remember a lot of it and to see how shallow and hypocritical those "peace, baby" types turned out to be.

[Knitting A Conundrum]

(the one lucky break we got was a chance to retire early on the first wave....I fully expect things to get worse as more and more of the first wave do that. By the time those born in '50 hit prime retirement, we will be feeling the effects all over the place.)

[Defiant]

That's me! I hated the hippies when I was a kid in the 60's and early 70's, and hated Carter in the late 70's. Ronald Reagan is my hero.

Only why do they call us "Jones"? I always thought of it as "old boomers" or "Obs" and "Young Boomers" or "Yubs". If they wanted to be cute they could call us the "Brady Boomers" as our childhoods coincided almost exactly with the Brady Bunch.

We can't be too smug, we did have to live through disco.

[patton]

Ok, sorry...

Intergenerational transfer of the wealth causes the strife, you know. ;)

[MOgirl]

"Finally, somebody doesn't lump us with the damn boomers."



Hello,

LOL!

Glad to be here, (born 1965), MOgirl

[Ethrane]

Very interesting....

I never felt I was a Gen-Xer, or a baby boomer. I was born in '59...

Now I'm a Jones'er? I guess so!

Ronald Reagan was my hero as a young member of the military in the early 80's...actually, he still is.

Please everyone, get out and vote...and get your like-minded friends out to vote too. It is in OUR hands!

[no dems]

We've got Novak; they've got Caddell.

We don't just have Novak; we have Pat Buchanan, Fred Barnes, Joe Scarborough, Tucker Carlson......

[shield]

My daughter was born later than that age group...but she and her military husband are extremely conservative. And both of them are lovers of Reagan. They've named their dog after Reagan, his name is Dutch.

So even the later generation than is in the report are extremely conservative and will be voting a straight R ticket. ;o)

[ThomasThomas]

I was always taught by my parents probably like most people born between 1954 and 1965 that keeping up with the Jones was not a good thing.

This made official when Randy Jones(baseball picture dude) moved in on the hill above us. He was hard to keep up with.

[Florida native]

I was born in '57 and I've been telling others for years that most of my generation is more conservative. We graduated from HS in '75 and grew up looking back at those 60's college brats with disdain for what they did to our country. Now those same brats are in their 60s, they run our country, and still they think it's all about them.

Frankly, I can't wait until the ones like Clinton are either too old to do any more damage or they are DEAD.

Can't wait to get my Jones on tomorrow and vote STRAIGHT REPUBLICAN down the line!

P.S. I will vote for Katherine Harris despite what some say is a wasted vote; no vote is wasted if you vote for what you know in your heart and mind is absolutely correct...something that is so lost on Clinton types.

[Knitting A Conundrum]

I read back over what I had posted and realized the good tone of voice I had in my head wasn't communicated...didn't mean for it to sound smarmy...I am glad someone wants to split the boomers into a pre- and post-Korea cluster...because those of us born later really had a different experience than the earlier kids.

[patton]

Just waiting for the polls to open. ;)

[sneakers]

"Jonesers were the much discussed 'ReaganYouth,' and is the most conservative U.S. generation by a considerable margin." He credits Jonesers, particularly the women, with tipping the election for George W. in the swing states two years ago when they comprised approximately a quarter of the electorate."

I was born in 1955 and he's spot on with the analysis of joneser women. He was describing me! Maybe we'll have a jones president someday! How old is Rick Santorum? ;-)

[tubebender]

Our son was born in 58 and daughter in 61. We bought a place on the Klamath River and took them up there nearly every weekend to keep them busy on weekends. They brought their friends up there.

Both have been and are Republicans as is my 18 year old grandson. :)))

[leda]

... and desrcibes me better for certain ;)
i have never thought of myself as a boomer.

[Controlling Legal Authority]

THE definitive study on generational issues for the masses, Strauss and Howe, defined the baby boomer generation ending around 1960. As I recall, they said that the BB generation's defining event was Vietnam and that if you were born after 1960 it wasn't the biggest event for you and your cohorts. (They also started the BB generation as starting around 1943, noting that the generation didn't have to have been actually born after the war to be a part of it. More of a mindset than a physical birth date.)
But, as I recall, they tended to support the concept of the latter arriving BBs being more conservative than the early BBs.
So, while the article is correct in noting attitudes of latter BBs, I think they are in error in tying in early Gen Xers to latter BBs. While some overlap is always going to happen between those born on the cusp of a generational change, I think they go too far. Even the conservative, latter born BBs are not the same as the early Gen Xers that followed them.

[patton]

You are one smart lady. ;)

[maine-iac7]

more and more college students today are not swallowing their socialist professors pablum. Young Republicans are sprouting up everywhere.

The young folk today are born with computer chip integrated brains. They spend inordinate time on the Internet - they can check out the facts of any given situation = even if it happened decades ago.

It's an awakening that just may save our country.

Perhaps an unintended circumstance of the millions (40-50 million?) of aborted babies in the past 40+ years is that more non-libs were born than lib? (Justice will out)

[sneakers]

Agreed!

[Knitting A Conundrum]

But there is a lot of time that I feel I have more in common with some of the gen Xers than the early bbs...but it's not a perfect fit, for sure, in either direction.