I have written more than once that, contrary to Tip O'Neill's wisdom that all politics is local (partly true), all politics is really generational, especially on a national level. When you think about it that way, in fact, the yin and the yang between liberal and conservative waves makes a great deal more sense when viewed with that fact in mind. Each generation chooses the type and amount of government it thinks that it needs for their specific circumstances. The Greatest Generation, facing both the Depression and the Axis, felt that it needed "big government" to help get it past both obstacles. The Boomers (my generation) took prosperity for granted and saw "big government" as an obstacle on its own, to the individuality that Boomers craved (and still do). As a consequence, it has tended to elect Republican Presidents and Congresses.
Well, the Millennials are poised to take over as the major cohort among the American voting public. And guess which direction it's leaning in? Take a look. That's right. If only Millennials voted, Hillary would be the beneficiary of a nearly 45-state blowout. To say nothing about the kind of Congress she would get to work with.
Does this surprise you? Millennials have come of age in the world of limited government and unlimited capitalism that sprung up as a consequence of Boomer self-centeredness and searching for individual fulfillment. Why shouldn't they view the government as a potential helping hand? Who else is going to extend that hand to them? To paraphrase the late Senator Paul Laxalt of Nevada, when was the last time any of them got a hug and a kiss from Wall Street.
I don't know if we'll get to where we need to be in next week's election. But I know it doesn't matter. Having graphically seen the voting inclinations of millennials, I feel that I can join the late Rev. Martin Luther King at the mountaintop, and see the promised land. Our eyes hath seen the glory of the coming of the Lord!
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