Gen X assumes state power

Detroit News ^ | 1-26-03 | Mark Hornbeck

[Dan from Michigan]

Baby Boomers may still rule the Michigan Legislature, but a record influx of brash Generation Xers is about to muscle in on their turf.

The new House and Senate, molded in large part by constitutional term limits, features 40 members who are 20- or 30-something -- a group sociologists characterize as hard-nosed, fiercely pragmatic, unsentimental, impatient, results-oriented and unlikely to see government as the answer to people's problems.

[glory]

Boy, I could have cited that word for word. Mine weren't outright lefties though, they just reveled in those values while maintaining a veneer of normality.
BTW, mine dislike me to, but don't hesitate to hit me up for assistance whether financial or emotional whenever possible. Something I would not mind in the least, had I not been shown disdain as a child for being so inconvenient.

[glory]

Give it a rest GrandMoM, I guess you don't think anyone in your generation were complete failures at parenting do you?

Ungrateful my kazoo..I guess I should be grateful for being kicked out of the house for looking at my dad the wrong way or not picking up my dirty clothes from the day before off the floor? And I should be grateful for being blamed for my mothers ulcers(which would more likely have been his fault if they were related to stress)? Or maybe I should be grateful for my dad who thought with his private part and broke our family part? And my mother who went through all of his mental abuse of me to maintain her bottom line?
And maybe I should be grateful when they show the same "love" and "concern" now for their grandchildren?
Yeah, I'm so ungrateful and I think I have reason to be.

I don't pretend to think my generation is perfect. Like all generations there are some real losers, but we are talking about general trends here and my generation definitely trends towards the conservative and the boomers toward that other direction;-)

What's funny is the boomers are proving the point of their self centered arrogance with every passing post made to this thread and their continued belittlement of their own children and their generation. At the very least, xers can claim some resentment to their parents belittlement of them, but what can boomers claim for their continued resentment of xers? In what way has our generation so disappointed their parents that they can claim to hold this grudge against us? My theory is it revolves around some irrational jealousy of their children for taking the limelight away from them. They are loosing their center stage and they aren't going without a fight.

[rwfromkansas]

Why thank you for bashing what polls show is the most pro-life generation in America.

Why thank you for bashing me and many fellow conservatives on this site.

/sarcasm

Get a life.

[glory]

If it gives you any consolation, I have just met a number of folks about 5 yrs younger than me and they are all newly married to boot, no kids yet, every last one conservative--artsy fartsy types too, but conservative.

I'm actually amazed myself.
Don't take my criticism of boomers too personally, I'm merely responding to the exact type of boomer that I see everyday that represents boomer arrogance. Seen it here a number of times on this thread and that's what I'm responding to and speaking in very general terms.

Keep preaching, please. I know at least my generation is listening and maybe you can even get through to the younger generation who had to endure Bill Clinton as their example.
We are the future and we intend to take care of our parents, it just gets our goat when *some* of our parents then stab us in the back with this continued belittlement for our efforts.

[rwfromkansas]

Today at the lunch table in the campus cafeteria, we had a debate about politics. Everyone was railing on the ONE Democrat at the table. ONE! And she is a PRO-LIFE Dem at that. Not one person at the table was pro-choice.

[rwfromkansas]

The reason I mention this is that not all the people I sit with LOOK like your typical conservatives. One looks rather countercultural and several others have this "intellectual liberal socialite (sp?)" look to them. But, they aren't liberal. Looks can be deceiving and I think the folks on this site that stereotype Gen X'ers as a bunch of fools need to open their eyes.

[rwfromkansas]

How young are these kids. Surely you don't expect teens to be sticking with one job when they are trying to figure out what type of work they like?

[Calico Cat]

You and me both, Glory. I know there's a lot of resentment towards the Boomers from the Generation-X crowd (I know, those are both labels applied by advertisers as much as anything, but I believe that there IS a real difference between these two generations). My parents are two very selfish people--my father finally abandoned my mother after years of his abusing and mistreating all of us while she looked the other way (she wanted all of the perks that his huge paycheck brought in and couldn't have cared less about us) and now, since she never educated herself or received any training and has ZERO work experience and she's pushing sixty, guess who is going to have to take up the slack? I don't think the kids of the Baby Boom are going to have any sentimental attachment to their parents' generation like the Baby Boomers have for theirs. What did they do? Screw up the country--it's a more immoral place now than when they became adults--an immigration problem that has become THE largest problem this country is facing--legitimation of drug use followed by an extreme backlash that led to invasion of privacy re involuntary drug-testing--a health fanaticism that is leading to more government interference in private property rights--and the rise of litigation. And on and on.

And they're going to live forever. Every aerobicized, non-smoking, healthy-living one of them is going to pe sucking at the public trough for years and years, still thinking that it's all about THEM and that they changed the world for the better.

Trust me: nobody my age, nobody I know, believes this is true.

[rwfromkansas]

When the boomers ask.....we should tell them no. They call us lazy and then don't prepare for their retirement and think the govt. will do it all (and I bet that applies to many of the folks on this very thread).

[rwfromkansas]

The word is "full." Furthermore, you need to add something called a hyphen between the words "self" and "reliant."

[rwfromkansas]

He is also working on a degree in college, smart guy. I doubt the state legislature will go year round also and he will have to hold some private sector job.

[Little Bill]

Don't take my criticism of boomers too personally....

As my FRiend Doc on the Bay sez, he is older than I, Revolutions, such as restoring the Constitution, start from small beginings.

[GrandMoM]

. If that doesn't represent your generation, then I have met the outspoken minority who gives you all a bad name.....Well that makes two of us. The X'ers I met never got a job until they got out of college, their parents paid for everything. They came home during semester breaks and sat on the couch and played video after they dragged themselves out of bed at noon. Early evening they'd jump in their car, that their parents bought for them and didn't come home till early morning so they could repeat the cycle.

When and if they did graduate, they continued living off their parents, expecting to be taken care of until just the right job came along, which most parents wouldn't mind if they were really looking but many continued their break cycle and looked for work intermittenlly.

We boomers as you call us were either thrown out or married by the time we were eighteen and if we happen to be working, which most of us were if we wanted any clothes or spending money, had paid rent.

[Prov3456]

You're all gonna love/hate me.... I'm a 53-year-old boomer, and I agree with most everything that has been said here.

When I finished college, I was as liberal as the rest of my friends. However, I had been raised by strict, loving, Christian parents. I was taught the value of money and of saving for things that were important to me. (At the time, my friends and I all thought my folks were the MEANEST people in the universe.) I think most of my liberal thinking came from college and from media exposure.

After I married, worked, paid taxes, and suffered a few "hard knocks", I began to change my position on everything. I voted for Carter and Reagan (have voted Republican ever since). I was pro-choice, now pro-life. I was educated to be a high school German teacher, but the nonsense that was "taught" under the guise of an "Education degree" made me want to throw up. And it was worthless in a real classroom. I never really accepted the ideas of "big government": the theory sounded good, but it just couldn't work in practice. Over time, my positions on everything changed.

Now I resent the mess that my generation has made of everything. The "best of intentions" was going to change the world: well, it did, but not in the way it was supposed to! Now I am doing everything I can (beginning with supporting our President and troops) to repair the damage done by my peers and to return America to the land that I love--especially for my 18 and 17 year old children and their future families. God save America.

There's my rant. Flame away.........

[FreedomPoster]

I, too, am 43, and to he!! with the demographers, I don't consider myself a boomer. Wouldn't have'em.

And I agree wholeheartedly with what I hearing from the X'ers below.

Nice "flame war" image, BTW, DN.

[wku man]

"Here we go again with the logical fallacies. You know seven gen Xers who just happen to represent the whole population. Wow! And where were you educated sir?"

I'm an Xer (born in 1965), and I'll back up what Thebaddog says. Most Xers who have worked for me, in the Army and in civilian businesses, have been lazy, bored, listless, devoid of creativity and ambition, and have had zero loyalty to anyone other than themselves. Their work ethic can be summed up in one word...nonexistent. There has been the occasional exception, but I feel comfortable painting with a broad brush on this subject.

Not that the Boomers were much better, and Generation.com looks to be even worse, but let's face facts...it's our turn to take the reins of this country, and we ain't tough enough for the job.

We're headed into turbulent waters the likes of which this nation hasn't seen in, well, decades at least, and maybe even a century, but Gen X has never had to deal with a problem more severe than losing their shirts in the dot-com collapse. The only Xers who have ever faced real danger are the relatively few who have served combat tours in the military, are cops/firefighters, or grew up in the ghetto. Most of us have never had to deal with anything more stressful than three midterms on the same day, then having to rush off to the airport to catch our flight to Cancun for Spring Break.

Generations past have faced war, starvation, pandemics, the Depression, and other horrors but managed to overcome them by virtue of blood, sweat, tears, and a heckuva lot of praying. But they were tough people to start with, they hadn't been born into a safe, soft world with the internet, Playstation, drive-through vittles and 24-hour financial news. Hell, my father didn't even have electricity the first few years of his life on the farm in North Carolina. Meanwhile, Gen X has shed plenty of tears while watching Oprah, but that's about it. I have no faith whatsoever in my generation. This nation is screwed.

Scouts Out! Cavalry Ho!

[m18436572]

Nooooooo... don't tempt me!

[GrandMoM]

....go read some of your own quotes on your home page you tartuffe. Talking to the likes of you is like talking to a brick wall and a waste of my time!

[Betty Jane]

I'm not going to get involved in the generational flame war. Just going to relate a little experiment done on my sister and her entire 6th grade class. She is the last of four children born in 1969. I was born in '64 if that matters.

In her sixth grade class, half the kids were the youngest in their families, the other half the oldest. The difference between the kids has been noticeable. The youngest kids, raised by mainly silent era parents, didn't screw up too badly, The other group floated from job to job, relationship to relationship, and generally messed up pretty badly. Some have turned themselves around, but they're still not at the same place as the youngest kids are now.

The oldest kids came from more affluent families due to fewer kids; 1 or 2 compared with four or more. The oldest kids were cooler socially and fashion wise at an earlier age.

I found it interesting that the school with 4 classes for each grade would do this social experiment in 1 class in 1980. The two groups made friendships along these lines, too. I think the youngest kids had more in common with each other than with they had with the oldest kids, and vice-versa. I think the values of the parents had more impact than the year of their birth. More of the oldest kids had divorced parents than the other group.

[rwfromkansas]

lol! Calling me a hypocrite doesn't affect me at all. I am a hypocrite, as everyone is before a holy God. That isn't exactly news.

But, you are trying to say I am a hypocrite because of my rough language before you.

If I am a hypocrite because of that, Luther is an arch-hypocrite. Being Christian does no require me to act nice to annoying people.