For example, much of the polarization in this country stems from Boomers vs. Boomers, but also from Boomers vs. GenXers. GenJonesers are in a unique position to mediate between these skirmishes. It is no coincidence that the two candidates most associated with reconciliation/compromise are Obama and Huckabee--the two GenJones candidates.
I’ve always resented being lumped togeter with the baby boom.
Being a Gen Xer (1966) explains the ole' cynicism. Thought it was just me. If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, it must be a duck and I am saying either way both Obama and Clinton are liberals no matter what decade they were born in. A liberal is a liberal no matter how one tries to spin it. Is that too Gen X of me?
My birth year of 1960 has often been the hinge for fairly nasty (from my perspective) changes in public policy. It was those born in 1960 who were the first to be required to register with Selective Service under Jimmy Carter, after the post-Vietnam hiatus. And we were the first to face delaying of retirement age for Social Security benefits.
From my vantage point the 1945-1959 boomer got the breaks and my tail-end boomers got the screws.
Welcome to FR.
Things changed very rapidly during that time. I was born in ‘51. Ironically, the 2nd wave feminists were born slightly before me and are completely different from me, but my sister was born in ‘61 and the two of us had such a different upbringing that we might as well be a generation apart. I had a stay-at-home mom. She had a working mom. I was appalled when she told me that our parents were just about the only ones still together and that many of her classmates were going to school stoned or drunk.
I was born at the end of ‘64.
I agree with this point: Those of us born at the end of the so-called “Baby Boom” had a far different experience and have far different views from those born at the beginning. I can communicate with and understand both the older “baby boomers” and the so-called “Gen-Xers”. But those of us born at the end of the boom don’t think alike.
My first election was Reagan, too. And, in college in the 80’s, many of my fellow students and professors were outspoken Republicans. I returned to college in the early ‘90’s, and, wow, was it different.
Huckabee might be a Joneser by birth year, but he looks OLDer.
Hillary seems like a dowdy-old librarian compared to the full of energy-looking Obama. Hillary sounds shrill. Obama sounds confident. I think a lot of folks subliminally hear Hillary’s voice and would rather hear fingernails against a chalkboard. Obama’s voice is calming.
I was born in 1957 and completely reject the Generation Jones thing, which was a real Johnny come lately idea.
...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.
So, I didn't just imagine those Republicans at college in the '80's (earlier post). This explains a lot.
A while back I wrote, but never recorded, a song about them that more or less rips them. Coincidentally on Friday I had my 15 yr old niece in my studio and she really liked the volume and venom of the song and said she’d sing it. I promised her I’d have it on you tube by the end of march. The poor kid has no clue (I tried to tell her)of the hornets nest she may be stirring up, but she’s 15 and invincible. A verse from the song:
You;re proud you haven’t changed at all since you were 17
When you raised your voice and so impressed yourself that today you still believe
All the silly good intentions in your adolescent master plan........
Me and Mrs. Jones have a thing going on... -— Clemenza, a Gen Xer ;-)
As a Gen Jones myself, I can understand my own schizophrenia re political parties & issues.
I absolutely hate the liberal Baby Boomers. I tend to identify with those 10 years younger than me.
I thought he was black.
Trust me, he’s Generation Cake.
I completely agree with this article and comment. Those who have mistakenly referred to Obama as a GenXer miss the point, and that matters in this election. Obama was a child in the 60’s, and that informs his political views now; he was exposed to strong idealism at a young formative age, which is one of many clear distinctions between he and GenXers (e.g. Xers don’t write books with titles like “The Audacity of Hope). I was born in 1961, like Obama, and I know I’m not an Xer. I do, though, very strongly relate to being part of Generation Jones, and I voted today for Obama, partly because of this.
Does Obama get the name from when he was “Jonesing” when he needed a cocaine fix?
Here is a simple test. If a person can remember the JFK assassination, he or she is a boomer. If he or she cannot, and yet, can remember Reagan, he or she is an X-er. If too young to really remember Reagan, than a Y-er or Millenneal, etc. The Boomers always claimed the early X-ers, to inflate their numbers. But the real break point is what I wrote here.