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Speaking of young people, Kevin Drum has a question:
Over the years, most of us have retained roughly the same view of whether the government is wasteful and inefficient. The postwar (“Silent”) and Boomer generations hover around 65% and Gen X hovers around 55% — with very little change as members of those generations get older. But Millennials are different. In 2003 they were pretty optimistic about government-run programs, with only about 30% saying they were wasteful. Today, though, nearly 50% think that. In the course of only a decade, they’ve become far, far more cynical about government programs.
Why? Is this related to the Iraq War? To the Bush/Rove administration more generally? To the stimulus bill? (The numbers went way up between 2009 and 2011.) Or were they just unnaturally optimistic during their 20s and are now catching up to everyone else? Any guesses?
As a card-carrying “Millennial” (Lord, what an atrocious name for a generation) I can tell you my experience of this, because it tracks the line on his graph fairly closely.
So when I was a kid in the 90s, times were good. I can remember when gas was less than a dollar a gallon. (Not to say that was a good thing per se, it’s just emblematic of the times.) People had jobs, the economy was good, computers were amazing and getting more amazing at a blistering pace, and the government seemed generally competent. Not that I paid a whole lot of attention to it, but I remember thinking watching the l’affaire Lewinksy go down that, though the whole thing was utterly preposterous, it seemed to indicate that we had the deeper questions of governance figured out. If the entire country was captivated for years by a minor sex scandal, then surely we must not have had any actual pressing problems. After all, if we did, wouldn’t the media be paying attention to those? (Please, stifle your laughter, I was only a kid.)
Then we had an entire decade of catastrophic failures, one after the next. First Bush stole the election in a banana-republic fiasco that badly tarnished our highest court. Then our massive security apparatus missed 9/11. Then we invaded Afghanistan, ostensibly in part to get bin Laden, but dawdled and let him escape so we could invade Iraq, based on a pack of lies. While that country was fast turning into a dystopian, bloodstained nightmare and sucking chest wound in the nation’s treasury and military, a hurricane destroyed one of our largest, most original cities, and the government stood there helpless for months, mouth agape. It turned out the very top of the government, up to and including the president, instituted a torture regime in blatant violation of constitutionally-binding treaties. (They later brag about this fact on national television.)
Then what turned out to be the biggest financial bubble in eighty years popped, and the government swooped in with incredible speed and force to shovel money into the gaping maw of the banks, pulling back the moment the immediate crisis was over. The enormous recession that ensues got only tepid response from the government.
Though President Obama has been better than his predecessor, he still didn’t manage to alleviate the foreclosure crisis, or punish banks for committing systematic fraud. His efforts to police the financial sector have been laughable. The biggest banks are bigger than ever, and with Citizens United, the political system is awash with cash from the ultra-rich.
It has been, as Chris Hayes says in his new book, a “fail decade.”
Now, I don’t think that good government is impossible, and I think a lot of government programs are great, especially if you look overseas to, say, Scandanavia. I support Obamacare, and I think the stimulus did save us from another Great Depression, though it obviously wasn’t enough. But I don’t think it’s possible to honestly look at this country and not conclude that we have an enormous governance problem.
UPDATE: I should include President Obama’s extraordinarily disturbing civil liberties record in this list. Four years ago I never would have thought the executive branch would be killing American citizens via drone strike, on its word alone, cynically re-defining the term “militant,” or killing those whose identities are not even known.
UPDATE: Fixed a couple typos, added “The enormous…” sentence.
Ryan Cooper is the Monthly handyman. Follow him on Twitter @RyanLouisCooper.
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bluestatedon on June 05, 2012 2:14 PM:
"But I don’t think it’s possible to honestly look at this country and not conclude that we have an enormous governance problem."
And the source of that "enormous governance problem" is almost entirely the Republican Party, whose manifold lies and policy insanities are promoted by a 24/7/365 propaganda network and are lavishly supported by incredibly wealthy reactionaries.
Cybrguy on June 05, 2012 2:19 PM:
Ryan, thank you. In my quest to try and understand what makes your generation tic, your description is quite useful and instructive. I really hadn't put together what the world would look like to those born into a post Reagan world where their first real look at our government would occur during the Bill Clinton presidency. You have taught me a bit...
citizen_pain on June 05, 2012 2:24 PM:
The financial corruption of our election process has rendered a functioning government of, for, and by the people impossible.
It's painfully obvious that the GOP (the political wing of the right leaning American corporatocracy) has done the bidding of their masters by undermining at every level and at every opportunity positive government intervention in society so they can then say, "see, we told you so, government just doesn't work".
Surely you understand this, no??
Gandalf on June 05, 2012 2:34 PM:
My first reaction to this article by Ryan is to rail on his mindboggling naivety. But I know it's oh so hard to understand what's really happening and we're so use to the easy answers. Hell we can't even figure wht music to like on our own we have to be told by american idol what's good and what isn't.
John B. on June 05, 2012 2:37 PM:
There is no excuse for publishing simple-minded tripe like this. I suppose this Ryan Cooper person can put a verb with a subject and all that, which seems to be a minimal requirement most journalists can meet, but he has a serious deficiency in memory, logic, and thinking.
First, a small point: gas was NEVER "less than a dollar a gallon" in the '90s. Not unless you were standing at the lip of an oil well in Saudi Arabia. In the '60s, sure. In the '70's, for part of the time (after the endless gas lines of Nixon's slowly melted away). In the '80's, it hung around a dollar-plus. But never in the '90's. Three friends and I specifically recall taking an auto/golfing trip through four states to get to and then follow the Robert Trent Jones Trail around Alabama and gas topped $2.50/gallon in all but one of those of states -- and in that one it was very nearly $3/gal.
As for the litany of terribles, as bluetstaedon points out, they're all about monumental, royal Republican-Conservative f*ck-ups. That Republicans want to drown the federal government in a bathtub -- after looting it for all they get for their corporate "personhoods" -- should not be news, even for a self-proclaimed Millennial with impaired brain function.
That somehow this means "we have an enormous governance problem" is risible. It means, Cooper you stupid s*it, that we have an enormous problem educating voters like you to get their facts straight and think clearly.
Ron Byers on June 05, 2012 2:47 PM:
Wisconsin is going on today and it seems something remarkable is happening there. I guess Washington Monthly means just that. If the story isn't about Washington you will report anything including Millenials growing up and grass just growing.
Boy, there is a story out there. Read about it.
amused on June 05, 2012 2:49 PM:
So, kids today are stupid, self-centered gits. Thanks for the heads up.
boatboy_srq on June 05, 2012 2:50 PM:
Not being all that much older (your Clinton years recollections are my Carter/Reagan years ones), I can see that it's easy to miss one of the fundamental drags on effective governance.
Starting in 1993 with opposition to universal healthcare, there's been a very visible (even farcical) Conservatist opposition to governance (i.e. the belief that government has any positive effect on the nation for which it is responsible). This metastasized in the Contract On - er, With - America, following through the various Clinton investigations, then grew malignant under Shrub (esp. the GWoT, Katrina, the various AG scandals etc) and is proving nigh inoperable thanks to the Teahadists.
There's a measurable level of fatigue involved here: it's both tiring to continue to battle the same intransigent bodies and disheartening to discover how active they have been (and remain) at undoing anything that makes governance effective.
The entire paragraph devoted to the Shrub years is little more than observation of the effects wrought on the republic by a [mal]administration that governed from the principal that the public sector could not achieve any positive result, so any attempt for it to do so would be both futile and counterproductive. From the perspective of the Conservatists, the results could not have been better: since 2001 we've had reduced regulation (and at-best ineffective enforcement of the regs that remained - see the MMS scandals for details), a massively increased "defense" and national security state apparatus, a "war on Terror" at once spawned from a (for them) manna-from-heaven terrorist event and a desparate need to redeem the "peace dividend" in ways beneficial to arms makers and paranoiacs, and failure after failure for social and national safety net components (unemployment in the "jobless recovery", FEMA in NOLA, and intel re: 9/11). Those eight years were tailor-made to instruct the public that they'd only be "safe" if the entire planet were under our control, and the only "secure" employment was in the armed forces.
There's also, buried in the post, the consistent misunderstanding of the role of the Presidency in the US. The line "Though President Obama has been better than his predecessor, he still didn’t manage to alleviate the foreclosure crisis, or punish banks for committing systematic fraud" conveniently ignores the incredible drag a resistant - and all too frequently actively opposed - Congress has on Presidential goals and national needs. Obama may not have actually succeeded, but Speaker "[anything but] jobs, jobs, jobs" Boehner and Senate Minority Leader "one-term President" McConnell have done more than their share ensuring that real success eluded this President.
If "Millenials" are different, it's because the Conservatist moves in the 90s were foundational and not immediately visible, and because things didn't go badly enough to make the Left sit up and take notice. And through it all the Millenial mindset was (present company excepted) too self-absorbed to notice.
The music of the various decades says a lot: in the 60s we had protest music, which carried into the 70s; in the 80s we had angry punk and new wave artists (ever hear "Relax" or "Anarchy in the UK"? That was us); the 90s gave us Nirvana and a bunch of whiny garage bands who couldn't be arsed to work up the energy to face the things they complained about.
It's late, but not too late, for Millenials to get sufficiently POd at what's been done in their name to get involved enough to do something about it. The timing is particularly apt, given how willing the Boomers have proven to embrace the same Fascists they protested when they were your age.
jheartney on June 05, 2012 2:54 PM:
Re: Gas Prices
1990 : 1.13
1991 : 1.10
1992 : 1.09
1993 : 1.07
1994 : 1.07
1995 : 1.11
1996 : 1.20
1997 : 1.20
1998: 1.03
1999: 1.14
2000 : 1.49
Source
These are average prices, meaning that an enterprising motorist might have found gas cheaper that this. Bottom Line, Ryan's maybe exaggerating slightly, but only slightly.
I also agree with Ryan on the "enormous governance problem" formulation. Yes, the GOP has gone round the bend, joining in the venerable American tradition of crackpottery. But the reason the average person cares about it is because they are making the country impossible to govern.
Overall, an outstanding capsule summary of this last miserable decade.
Janet on June 05, 2012 2:57 PM:
Exactly how many Americans (who are not Al Queda) have been killed in drone strikes? I'm sick of hearing this as if Obama has a list of Americans ("enemy list" I suppose) that he is targeting. I understand some people's moral concerns about drones, but this Obama killing Americans crap is a bit overdone.
SecularAnimist on June 05, 2012 2:58 PM:
Ryan Cooper wrote: "Then we had an entire decade of catastrophic failures ..."
It's interesting that you don't mention the most catastrophic failure of the last 50 years -- namely, the failure to address anthropogenic global warming while there was still a chance to stop it from destroying human civilization within the lifetime of today's "Millennial" generation.
cathymac on June 05, 2012 3:02 PM:
What this tells me is that this particular millennial has bought the news media's 'both sides do it' bullshit. Depressing as hell.
c u n d gulag on June 05, 2012 3:04 PM:
Young Mr. Cooper,
We DO have a governance problem!
And here's why:
The R's, CAN get elected, and do. Because "Divide and Conquer" is a time-tested winner.
But they can't and won't "govern", because they hate "government." Government becomes patronage with the R's in charge.
They put cronies in charge of agencies and leave "governing" to them - which leads to people like former mining company executives heading mine safety agencies, where they do everything they can to have THEIR mining cronies make all the money they can, while cutting, or allowing the companies to avoid, mine safety regulations.
And they do this with EVERY agency!
The Democrats, who can't get elected often enough (because "Divide and Conquer" is a time-tested winner), or at least with big enough majorities to make a real difference, CAN "govern."
And when they DO get elected, they put capable people in charge of agencies, and try to do the best they can correcting years of R mismanagement and/or undermining.
The problem is, when the D's are in charge, the R's, who say government doesn't work, then do EVERYTHING AND ANYTHING in their powers to stop D's from proving that government CAN be made to work - since it proving it can makes them look like incompetents and/or people willing to undermine governance for fun, but especially, PROFIT!
Now, add to this toxic mix, enough lazy, disinterested, ignorant, stupid, racist, misogynistic, xenophobic, and homophobic, voters, and you can see why we're at the point we're at now!
Also too - add a cowardly, compliant, and complicit MSM, owned by 6 corporations who prefer profits over governance, and have NO incentive to tell the truth so the voters I mentioned above might get a clue as to why they're pig-ignorant, and vote against their own best interests almost every single election day.
The ones who CAN get elected, hate government, and they won't allow the ones who can govern, when they DO get elected, to actually govern - because it will make their old maxim that 'government doesn't work, look like the BS it was, is, and evermore shall be.
Need proof - look at the last 20 feckin' years!
This ends today's addition of why, "We DO have a governance problem!"
Thank you.
TCinLA on June 05, 2012 3:07 PM:
We've had an enormous governance problem since we stopped being a constitutional republic and turned into an empire. I can even put a date on it: August 2-4, 1964, the dates of the alleged Tonkin Gulf "incident" (which I can assure you, having been present, never happened as Americans were told it did) which started us deep into the American War in Vietnam and began the process of distrusting government because they were always being proven to be liars (as someone who had that proof almost literally shoved down my throat by what my assignment in the Navy forced me to learn every day, I can tell you that was damn hard to deal with after growing up believing the opposite). From that point on, it became "How can you tell a politician is lying? Look and see if his lips are moving." And it has only become worse. And when you do vote for change and it seems like it could happen, what do you get? The good emperor Obama and his drone wars to save the Empire, and politics bought and paid for by the super rich.
The same thing has happened to us as happened to Rome once the Caesars took power. However "bad" the Republic was before Julius Caesar destroyed it, it wasn't as bad as what he replaced it with.
TCinLA on June 05, 2012 3:10 PM:
John B.: gas actually got down to 65 cents a gallon here in Los Angeles during the buildup to the Gulf War in 1990 and stayed under a dollar through 1991. And it was cheaper than that throughout the country. And of course it was manipulated by the oil companies, as they manipulated the process of pricing since long before and ever since that war.
Anonymous on June 05, 2012 3:13 PM:
....Four years ago I never would have thought the executive branch would be killing American citizens
A young 'un. Google "Church Committee".
Hegemons gotta be hegemons.
Perspecticus on June 05, 2012 3:15 PM:
Shouldn't a "Millenial" be someone born in the beginning of this millenium?
Mitch on June 05, 2012 3:16 PM:
"In 2003 they were pretty optimistic about government-run programs, with only about 30% saying they were wasteful. Today, though, nearly 50% think that."
Personally I blame it on disappointment with our politicians, and on the Republican Media Machine, equally.
Never forget that the GOP has a huge media appendage, led by Fox News, but infecting everything screaming 24/7 that Government Programs are BAD BAD BAD. Everything that's wrong with the country is because of the government. Government employees are vampires, sucking down taxpayer dollars and strangling business with pointless red tape.
This is what the conservative spin machine is saying. This is what conservative politicians, pundits and other talking head say every damn time there's a camera around.
Does the Progressive side have any similar dogma? Hell, no. Dems wouldn't know message discipline if you beat them about the head and torso with it. And way too often Dems say things like, "We value the input from our Republican colleagues," or, "America needs to live within it's means like any ordinary family," or EVER using the phrase "Job Creators" which just strengthens the GOP's credibility.
Jiminy H. Cricket.
I was twenty in 2000. It was my first time voting. Then I got to spend eight years watching the thief GWB and his cohorts do their best to trash our country. Then Obama gets in. . . and very little changes. Yeah, Obama has done a great deal, especially given the opposition, but that is small comfort. No comfort at all, to a generation as cynical as mine.
The GOP still gets everything they want, with the help of certain Dems, and "allies" like Lieberman. Big things that could have had a real effect on the nation (like ending the Bush Tax Cuts) get sacrificed for small (in the long run) victories. Instead of concentrating on fixing the economy during their time of majority, the Dems passed ACA, which may have nice features, but it is FAR from a progressive vision for Healthcare Reform. And, even during that, Dems bent over backwards to get the GOP onboard (after all, the whole thing is based on old GOP ideas). How did that work out, exactly?
Here's my hypothesis: Obama and his team are too concerned about being "post-partisan", and afraid of being tarred and feathered by the Tea Party-types screaming "Kenyan-Islamofascist-socialist!!1!!11!!".
Well, guess what, I don't think ANYBODY gives a shit about partisanship. It will always be there, as long as we have more than one political party (which we always should). The hyper-partisanship of the GOP is certainly not hurting them, is it?
And, if I could say one thing to Obama, it would be this: "No matter what you do, they will call you 'Kenyan-Islamofascist-socialist!!1!!11!!'. So don't waste your time trying to be nice. Make your time in office count, and if that means you go down in flames, then at least go down fighting for what you claim to believe in."
Because otherwise, the country will just keep sliding right and downhill. There is nothing that sickens me more than hearing my friends complain that Obama is just like Bush, or that the Dems are basically GOP-lite—except when I find myself thinking the same thing.
You want to know why my generation is cynical about government programs, and politics in general? How can we not be. When we actually started believing in the political process (4 short years ago) we were let down on every level, even though our "side" had won.
And don't get me started on "President Obama’s extraordinarily disturbing civil liberties record" please. I've ranted enough.
Sorry for the verbosity.
Sisyphus on June 05, 2012 3:18 PM:
I'm surprised at the rancor about this post, and I have to say the responses reflect far more poorly on Gen X and the Boomers than on the Millenials.
The premise of the piece is that Millenials don't trust the government like they used to, and to explain the reasons why that's the case. This may hurt your sensibilities, but not all young people are card carrying members of the Democratic party. All Ryan said was that when he was a kid, it seemed like government was more effective, even if they were distracted by trivia. Then, when he got older, it became clear that the government at a federal level was incompetent. That Obama's been better than Bush, but that this wasn't a high bar to clear.
As for those who want to blame the GOP and ignore the complicity of the Democratic party in the foreclosure of America, read a book. Hating the GOP is fine, but it is rank tribalism to immediately absolve the donkey party of their share of blame. I think it's entirely a defensible position to say that Obama has been a disappointment to anyone with a progressive view. Yes, the GOP's obstructionism is unbounded, unprecedented, and insane. That doesn't absolve Obama for completely failing to prosecute the various executives who perpetrated a massive fraud that nearly brought down the world economy. That doesn't absolve him from his immoral actions regarding drones and Guantanamo.
Ryan never suggested that Obama had a hit list that he was attacking with drones. He suggested that Obama has acted in a cavalier manner toward the lives of American citizens, depriving them of their lives without due process. This is not an unreasonable view to take, nor is it a trivial concern. The government's monopoly on violence is there because we are meant to watch them and ensure that it is never used improperly. It's our job to question when they go too far.
Personally, I'm shocked that more Millenials aren't taking to the streets given how we Gen Xers, and especially the Boomers, have effectively stabbed them in the back, crapped all over their future, and then responded to their legitimate issues with cries that they're a bunch of entitled morons who should stop whining.
T2 on June 05, 2012 3:22 PM:
the day the Supreme Court installed George W. Bush as president, despite the clear evidence that a variety of voting irregularities had been committed in a state with candidate Bush's BROTHER as Governor, is the day we started heading downhill in just about every metric. Go back, my friends, and just consider where we were then and where we are now and understand almost all of our problems started then. Under Republicans.
When the history book is written, the names of the five "Justices" will go down as the worst traitors in our history.
jjm on June 05, 2012 3:30 PM:
Re: "Four years ago I never would have thought the executive branch would be killing American citizens via drone strike, on its word alone, cynically re-defining the term “militant,” or killing those whose identities are not even known."
Assassinations by America stretch back decades -- recall Mossadegh in Iran, Diem in Vietnam, even Patrice Lumumba in Congo ...
I for one am happy that an intelligent, thoughtful president is making the judgment calls here, and taking upfront responsibility for the drone strikes.
(Assassinations by the CIA used to be pretty routine for decades, then were supposedly outlawed, but they continued nonetheless.)
And, today, one of those strikes got the new #1 Al Quaeda leader.
TD on June 05, 2012 3:33 PM:
FYI, gas was .99 a gallon in 1996-97ish. How do I remember? I was in college and it only took me $20 to fill up a tank so I could drive home for the weekend.
I'm in New Orleans, so I'm sure it may have been a little higher in bigger cities.
I'm honestly just sick of all the finger pointing. He said, she said, they said, I said.....I don't care....just fix it! But I'm pretty sure that's unfortunately NOT going to stop any time soon.
Rick B on June 05, 2012 3:38 PM:
Why do voters learn that government is wasteful these days? Think it might have something to do with the fact that America's perpetual minority party considers it an article of faith and is supported by the majority of reporters and producers writing stories in America?
Who is actually telling the stories of successful programs? That's not news, that's a PR handout to be ignored.
If all you ever get is stories about program problems then the conclusion is going to be that the program itself has problems. What's your opinion of Medicare? I've been on it over four years and have never had a problem with it! And at my age I use it for chronic conditions as well as for the heat stroke I had Sunday. But there are people who want to kill discussion of how good single payer really is and the idiots doing reporting are too young to know anything factual about Medicare from a personal point of view, so they report the exceptions.
R Miller on June 05, 2012 3:45 PM:
Washington Monthly went to hell the day Benen left. It's nothing like it was; just filled with garbage, like this article. Come on; you could do a little research on any subject and come up with something better than this.
mudwall jackson on June 05, 2012 3:55 PM:
oh where oh where to start ... seems that most of us has bought the conservative line that government is the problem, not the solution. that is pure, unadultered BS.
a big part of the problem is that much of government runs in the background functioning just fine and taken for granted.
drive to work today? you used a road system built by government.
you took a shower when you woke up? clean water brought to you by government.
breathe today? chances are the air that filled your lungs is much cleaner than it was say 30 years ago thanks to government.
had a doctor's appointment. most likely government was involved somewhere along the line, if nothing else in providing or financing the education of the professionals you saw. if he or she prescribed a medicine, guaranteed the government was involved in developing that drug.
if you've had a bite to eat today, you probably didn't give so much as a second thought as to the safety of what you're consuming because of government.
own a house? the government was involved in the process in a variety of ways.
have money in the bank? no worries about its safety thanks to the fdic, a govenrment program.
post here on this blog? the government helped fund the technologies that made it possible to do that.
the truth is government works. that's not to say it's the solution for every problem or that we don't have governance issues in congress these days. but to fail to recognize the role that government plays in our everyday lives is to accept the propaganda line of the right as truth.
monkey_in_holland on June 05, 2012 4:06 PM:
@Sisyphus. Don't see how you can lump genxers with baby boomers. Most of us are are around 40 and only now coming into the age of being in the position to influence things. If you want to single out a generation. Pick the so-called greatest post world war two one. Medicare and social security for me, but not for thee and the largest, most enthusiastic voting block.
As for the rest calling this tripe. You show as much empathy as the republicans you claim to despise. I feel for Ryan and my cousin his age. They're coming into a world where there seems to be a systematic breakdown of governance across the board at a time when problems are reaching critical points. Maybe a little less bashing and a little pointing in the direction where kids his age can start making a change might help.
@boatboy_srq Nirvana isn't the voice of a generation. There's Radiohead, Public Enemy, The Pixies, Beastie Boys, Metallica, Fugazi, house, techno... Don't be so closed minded
boatboy_srq on June 05, 2012 4:23 PM:
@Sisyphus:
Forgive us "old" folks, but there are too many of us dead from HIV, the war on drugs, the first and second Gulf adventures, and the omnipresent drumbeat of "welfare bums bad" to think kindly of government in the abstract. Our losses are too many and too dear for us to have a particularly rosy view of the public sector as it stands, and after seeing friends die, neighborhoods crushed, and law enforcement / military excess go essentially unchallenged without major upheaval, we have little patience for the happy rosy childhood of the Millenials who weren't mature or aware enough of these things to notice.
Mr. Cooper may forget that an entire generation of professional and creative souls was nearly snuffed out while Washington and state capitals watched and moralized; that three wars in ten years, essentially of choice, brought more back home damaged beyond repair; that all through these years getting rich and disenfranchising/excluding all those other people was all the rage. Then again, he was probably too young to remember.
And we may not like Dems, but ordinary incompetence/malfeasance can't compare to the energy of an entire party working to wreck government on purpose. Dems may "share" the blame, but not the intent; they're not the ones out denying citizens the franchise, or women the right to make their own healthcare choices, or adult citizens the right to choose their spouses as they see fit, or to organize at work as they need... (do I really need to go on?)
If we're angry, then it's because our peers and siblings screwed things up for us, never mind the young'uns - and if by that anger the young'uns are shaken out of their naivete enough to act, so much the better.
Time was, when a generation got this angry, things got accomplished, and usually for the improvement of all. This time around, the Boomers have been razzed up about how all the things they were promised never materialized, and instead of finding out why, they are turned on the people and forces who could make things better (or at least less bad). We can't count on a crowd who've had "greed is good" and "gubmint is bad" hammered into their heads for nearly thirty years: IGMFY is too well ingrained.
Frankly, we're more relieved that people like Cooper are finally becoming aware of how thoroughly effed we are. The anger you're hearing is more for their seniors, who ignored their duty as citizens and leaders, who pandered to the worst impulses of us all, and who have for thirty years now fed the US pablum instead of news and art amd fable instead of knowledge. Cooper and his generation are a symptom, not a cause. If it's painful to realise that, well, better late than never, and if it feels personal perhaps there's a good reason for that. The next question is what you choose to do with that pain/guilt/whatever (hint: climbing on board Queen Esther's Ski-Doo of Specialness ain't going to cut it with this crowd).
Rick B on June 05, 2012 4:26 PM:
Ryan,
I see why you posted the post The Monthly, Journalist Creation Machine after this one listing some of the great writers/bloggers/reporters that have been trained at Washington Monthly. Apparently some readers think that journalists are created fully formed and are born knowing how to write and report.
boatboy_srq on June 05, 2012 4:37 PM:
@monkey_in_holland: You may be right. But after Nirvana, Gin Blossoms, Jann Arden, and the rest of 90s post-pop grunge whinging about how terrible life is and how unfortunate we all are (the songwriters in particular) without the least impetus in the material to get up and do something about those conditions, artists that didn't make the radio pre-Napster don't exactly exactly strike me as exemplars. Beasties and Metallica were 80s product IYR - we're talking about "new" artists. There was plenty of angry music on the airwaves until 1993 - but angry with a purpose; after 1993 that turned largely to self-injurious self-pity. I'm not blaming the bands entirely: the record industry of the 90s was exceptionally corporate and profit-driven, and that was what sold, and a lot of good material never made it big thanks to marketing decisions more than talent or an ability to resonate with an audience. Show me an outfit that had the righteous venom of RATM that made top 40, though, and I'll happily eat my words.
Rick B on June 05, 2012 4:48 PM:
Look, people. It's not generations that determine how effective government can be. Every real war since the Civil War involved the government taking over the economy and getting the War Department to run it. That's the Civil War, WW I and WW II. A central government is required to run an industrial nation. Look what happened.
After the Civil War we got the Industrial revolution, railroads and mass production markets. After WW I we got the women's right to vote, the movement of Blacks from the South to the factories in the Midwest and the automotive industry. We also got radio and TV. After WW II we got two great decades when America literally ruled the world economically. That lasted through but not past LBJ.
But after every war and following period of national industrialization and expansion the wealthy and the state and local politicians have stepped in to stop the federal government from running things. That has given America the gilded age, the Great Depression, and more recently the Reagan Revolution and the Great Recession we are currently seeing the wealthy predators fighting back against the limitations the central government has placed on them.
It's those limitations that have permitted each period of industrial expansion, but every time, the predators have stepped in to stop the limitations on their financial predation.
The problems today are not the various generations. It's the demand of local power centers (equivalent to the English gentry) and the large corporations stopping the federal government from requiring the other requirements of industrialization - social equality and mobility along with mass education and fair distribution of the productivity gains that industrialization create. It is the monopoly of the production gains that the financial predators are fighting for.
Tom Hilton on June 05, 2012 4:53 PM:
Voting rights, equal pay for women, LGBT rights--these are all civil liberties, and the President's record on them has been better than any other president in your lifetime.
*And, from the sound of it, you also appear to buy into a lot of Greenwald's distorted spin on these issues.
internet tough guy on June 05, 2012 4:53 PM:
This post shows the the right truly has won.
Should we expect a post talking about Social Security is doomed next?
FlipYrWhig on June 05, 2012 5:08 PM:
OK, I'm sorry, but the whole premise of this litany is ridiculous, because children do not experience "The Government" as working or not. I was a kid in the '70s and became aware of politics by learning to despise Ronald Reagan. At no point did I form an impression of what something called "The Government" was doing or whether it was doing so competently.
SecularAnimist on June 05, 2012 5:34 PM:
Sisyphus wrote: "... especially the Boomers, have effectively stabbed them in the back, crapped all over their future ..."
And you can say that because, of course, ALL of us "Boomers" were exactly the same, had exactly the same politics, lived exactly the same sort of lives, had exactly the same negative impact on the world.
We were all self-indulgent hippie-dippy assholes who turned into self-indulgent money-grubbing yuppie assholes, every single one of us.
Not a single one of us ever worked for a progressive cause, or Occupied DC by the hundreds of thousands to oppose a war based on lies, or fought for civil rights and women's rights and children's rights and workers' rights, or struggled for environmental protections, or got tear-gassed by the National Guard and bludgeoned by cops for our trouble.
Yeah, us Boomers, we ain't nothin' but walking stereotypes.
Rick B on June 05, 2012 5:56 PM:
@SecularAnimist, I am glad you see that ALL you "Boomers" are carved out of the same block of weak sandstone. I've known that ever since you guys came in with your decadent and discordant rock-and-roll and destroyed the beautiful narratives of the previous folk music ballads. Show me any Boomer singer with a voice that even approaches the beauty of the soprano Joan Baez! And the emotion with which she told her stories.
OK, OK, you guys aren't reallyall that bad, but you have totally dominated American cultural and political life for far too long because there were so damned many of you. If you don't expect some anger at that domination of the culture and some blowback and blame for all the mistakes of your generation (e.g. Reagan's minions)then you don't understand how this generation blame works.
Of course above I posted an explanation that blames it all on the three major wars America has fought in the last two centuries instead of the generations. But since I long for the Kingston Trio and Joan Baez I'll blame you anyway.
And if you don't get that I am (partially) pulling your leg through exaggeration, tough. My top favorite album of all time is still Dark Side of the Moon.
Speed on June 05, 2012 6:00 PM:
The Pentagon and the CIA have been running the country behind the scenes since 1963. Unless you understand that, you will understand nothing else.
Rick B on June 05, 2012 6:09 PM:
@John B.2:37 PM
You may not have seen it, but I was paying $0.99 a gallon for regular when "Shrub" was elected and for nearly a year thereafter. That was the price in the DFW area for a long time until after Cheney's oil company executives got their act into gear. Remember Cheney's secret meeting with those predators?
I hate Captcha
Janet on June 05, 2012 7:00 PM:
Still waiting to hear how many Americans Obama has killed. As Kat Williams would say..."Don't worry...I'll wait"
castanea on June 05, 2012 8:44 PM:
The Democrats are fine as a political party. The notion that they should have a single, unifying message, and that they are to blame for their electoral "failures" in the absence of such a message, is foolishness. Expecting purity of message from a party that tries to represent the widest swath of the public is not realistic. Accept that fact.
The nut of the matter is that we are where we are in America today not even because of the Republican party, but because of the morons in the electorate who continue to vote for the GOP even after the GOP continues its string of policy failures.
Voters too often are like people who buy crummy cars from a used car lot, but then return to the same lot time and again when each successive car breaks down. Case in point: Wisconsin. If Walker survives the recall, then a pox on each and every member of the middle and lower classes in that state who voted for him, for they will have helped to set America incrementally back to the bronze age.
It won't be the Democrats' fault for not honing the Most Perfect Message Ever. Jesus, the facts are well known at this point. It will be the fault of the middle class for not being bright enough to vote in its own self interest.
Monkey in Holland on June 06, 2012 1:42 AM:
@boatboy_srq. I don't want to deviate too off topic, but not even all of Nirvana's songs were about whining how bad it was. Polly for example was about a girl being raped. They also took a stand on gay rights before it was fashionable. Pearl Jam tried to take a stand against ticket master and were mocked. Then there was Lallapallooza tour in the early 90s which was heavily political. I didn't know charting in the top 40 was a prerequisite, but for early 90's hip-hop was the most radicalized and popular. Think Ice Cube Wicked, "Burn your cross, I'll burn your flag) there was also Nas. But more rock fare, you had Ministry, Fugazi who charted. There was also Tool's Aenima in 1998 which won a grammy and was a concept album inspired by Bill Hicks. Finally there was the beginning of club culture. Stone Roses in the UK etc. Quite a variety for a generation of whiners.
I'm sorry everyone keeps putting all the blame on Republicans but every major boondoggle Democrats were complicit. No one forced Clinton to repeal the Glass-Stegall Act. How many supported the 2nd gulf war? Voted for Roberts etc? Then there was the period between 2008-2010 when despite being in control of all branches, NO ONE was held accountable for any crimes under the guise of looking forward, not back.
I left the US in 2002 because friends and family who were left of the political spectrum were just as jigonistic and pro-market as the republicans I knew. Maybe things have changed on the ground level, but on the leadership level, little seems to have changed.
Emily on June 06, 2012 8:13 AM:
Other than the take on Obama's drone program, Ryan Cooper pretty much articulates what I felt growing up in the '90s. There's actually a clip of me on the local news from the day they interviewed kids at my school about Clinton, saying that I was sick of hearing about the president having sex. I suppose I ended up somewhere on other end of the spectrum than Cooper, however, because I still have a lot of faith in government, and I'd say I trust the Obama administration about ten million times more than business or private industry.
Spring Texan on June 06, 2012 8:44 AM:
Why the hate on this post? I don't get it. It's an honest account of how things look given when he grew up.
I'm left to wonder if you are jumping all over him simply cuz he's younger than you and admits it.
Except I guess for you drone-lovers who defend THAT -- and put yourself much more in the wrong than the columnist could possibly be.
Thanks for the thoughtful and thought-provoking post. I agree with bluestatedon's reaction.
Sisyphus on June 06, 2012 11:12 AM:
@SecularAnimist
"And you can say that because, of course, ALL of us "Boomers" were exactly the same, had exactly the same politics, lived exactly the same sort of lives, had exactly the same negative impact on the world."
I didn't mean to imply that. Sorry. But think on this. In the 80s, the Charles Keating was indicted and convicted (although for far less than he deserved), as were many other executives who were perpetrating fraud on a scale far smaller than we experienced in the 2000s. Now, we're at a point where it's controversial to suggest that the executives of AIG, Merril Lynch, and other financial firms should be investigated and prosecuted. Can you honestly say that the loudest and most common voices pushing the political conversation in a direction that made this the status quo do not belong to people in the Baby Boomer generation?
As for the responsibility of the Gen Xers, we let Bush get elected again in 2004. We let Gore have the election stolen in 2000. And we're still not agitating for change in any meaningful way. The Occupy movement was a symptom, not a cure. Until the left organizes it won't achieve anything. While decentralization works to encourage people to change individually, real political power will only come about through organized, mass movement with directed goals.
So I don't want to say that every boomer or Xer is the same, but the aggregated voices of those generations tend to follow patterns.
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