“The Millennials”

On May 8, 2008 PBS Newshour included Judy Woodruff interviewing Morley Winograd and Michael Hais, authors of a new book entitled “Millennial Makeover: MySpace, YouTube and the Future of American Politics.”  They were talking about the “young voters” that we hear referred to mostly with reference to Barack Obama.  Well it was a fascinating 10 minute interview.  (You can read the transcript and listen or watch the interview by going to the first link below).  There are about a million more Millennials than Baby Boomers.  They are getting a lot of attention from politicians and marketers. 

Winograd and Hais classify Millennials as those born from 1982 to 2003.  The have been heavily enabled by the availability of new technology.   They tend to be far less opinionated than their Boomer forbears and less cynical than their Gen-X  progenitors.  The authors also predict a pending cultural makeover which will be brought on by the millennials as they become the largest political demographic.

The authors have observed that roughly every 40 years our society realigns from  “Idealism” (Ideologues) “… intent on implementing their own personal moral values, but rather in rebuilding civic institutions, in acting together as a group to resolve political problems, which we expect the millennials to do, problems such as health care that have really bedeviled the U.S. political process for the last 40 years or so. (from the interview.)

The millennials are diverse and are not hung up over gender defined roles, or sexual orientation or ethnicity.  Management styles are more group oriented than monolithic.  The were not neglected by their parents and they know how to work cooperatively towards a goal.  They feel they can influence governance and that government should be expected to serve the people.

Although they are not antagonistic of authority, they don’t require or expect constant direction.  They tend to stay in constant communication with each other electronically and as they see a worthwhile need they will organized themselves to meet it.  In effect they seem to form independent cells or groups which for example  have been very effective in fund raising for democrats.

It will be interesting as time goes on and the millennials become more influential to see if the “establishment (old guard) are perceptive and agile enough keep them under “the Big Tent”.  I would think they would expect a higher and more ethical level of performance than either the Conservatives or Liberals, Republicans or Democrats have demonstrated over the last several Administrations and Congresses of both political persuasions

I doubt they are that homogeneous, but the tendencies are strongly represented.

Unfortunately I have not been able to lay hands on the book, Millennial Makeover, but there are other books which I have found and a lot more rich informations to be found by Googling.

Some of the ones I’ve found useful are linked below.  The first two are the probably of most value but the other articles give different viewpoints
.

If some of you can “read ahead” it will broaden out our discussion.

This interview on Newshour is what turned me on to the idea of the Millennials (GCG
Role of Young Voters in Politics Continues to Grow
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/politics/jan-june08/makeover_05-08.html
Young people are continuing to play a larger, more expanded role in politics, using new methods and networking technology. The authors of “Millennial Makeover: MySpace, YouTube and the Future of American Politics” examine the trend.   There are audio and video streaming downloads and a downloadable mp3 file of the interview

The Progressive Politics of the Millennial Generation, 16 pages,  Probably the most complete brief summary and worth reading, it has a good bibliography. Many of the references are linked to the Internet..
The Progressive Politics of the Millennial Generation
http://newpolitics.net/node/360?full_report=1
http://newpolitics.net/sites/ndn-newpol.civicactions.net/files/NPI-Millennials-Final.pdf

Here Come the Millennials, By BOB HERBERT,  May 13, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/13/opinion/13herbert.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

Millennials Are About to Give American Politics an Extreme Makeover, Morley Winograd and Michael D. Hais are co-authors of Millennial Makeover: MySpace, YouTube, and the Future of American Politics
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-hais-and-morley-winograd/millennials-are-about-to-_b_85556.html

Misreading millennials: the politics of a rising generation, Reason,  Dec, 2003  by Julian Sanchez
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1568/is_7_35/ai_110361462

Politics May Never Be the Same, By Michael Barone (WSJ Review of Hais & Winograd book)
http://millennialmakeover.com/Articles/WSJ%20Politics%20May%20Never%20Be%20the%20Same.htm
http://online.wsj.com/article_email/SB120786969211806371-lMyQjAxMDI4MDE3MTgxNjE5Wj.html.

>From the publisher of “Millennial Makeover”, http://rutgerspress.rutgers.edu/acatalog/Millennial_Makeover.html,
http://rutgerspress.rutgers.edu/acatalog/Millennial_Makeover.html

A SYNOPSIS FROM on Millennials Rising (2000) , Neil Howe and William Strauss
 http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Millennials-Rising/Neil-Howe/e/9780375707193.

A (Critical) REVIEW (7 Pages) FROM
 http://www.johnreilly.info/miri.htm ON “MILLENNIALS RISING”

Youth Voting
CIRCLE | Research & Information | Political Participation & Voting
http://www.civicyouth.org/research/areas/pol_partic.htm

More to be found on Google:  http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=millennials+politics+2008&btnG=Google+Search