A week before the election, my dad was visiting and talked to me about his gut feeling that former President Donald Trump might win. He was clear about his choice to vote for Vice President Kamala Harris. “But what are they doing?” he asked me, exasperated.
“They need to level with people about the economy,” he continued. “I know so many people who can’t afford a place to live any more. People do not want to hear, ‘Well, actually the economy is good.’”
Then suddenly he pivoted away from Harris to liberals more generally, and away from the economy into culture.
“You know, another thing: I’m tired of feeling like I’m going to get jumped on for saying something wrong, for using the wrong words,” my dad confided, becoming uncharacteristically emotional. “I don’t want to say things that will offend anyone. I want to be respectful. But I think Trump is reaching a lot of people like me who didn’t learn a special way to talk at college and feel constantly talked down to by people who have.”
At 71 years old, my dad is still working full time, helping to run a delicatessen at a local farmers’ market. He didn’t go to college. Raised Mennonite and socially conservative, he is nonetheless open-minded and curious. When his cousins came out as gay in the 1980s, he accepted them for who they are.
Who do you think set the stage? Baby Boomers voted for 50 years to only enrich themselves while pulling up every ladder they had for advancement. They are 100% the “fuck you, I got mine” mentality.
Of COURSE we should have social safety nets and a more enlightened society. The reason we do NOT is that a massive cohort of incredibly narcissistic personalities had control of the government for 50 years. And even now, many Boomers refuse to step down from their “leadership” positions. “Generation Me” has been remarkably consistent in their attitudes, for roughly 55 years.