Members of the huge millennial generation are less religious, less likely to call themselves “patriotic” and significantly more liberal than older generations, new research shows.
Although adults aged 18-33 are much more likely to call themselves political independents than their elders are, they are also far more likely to vote Democratic. Their views favoring activist government, as well as their stands on social issues such as gay rights, reinforce that voting behavior, an extensive study by the Pew Research Center shows.
The youngest generation of adults, born after 1980, has the most optimism about the country. That comes despite the economic difficulties that a large share of them have experienced since entering the workforce. And it stands in contrast with some previous generations: Baby boomers, for example, born between 1946 and 1964, were less optimistic than their elders at this stage of their lives.
The millennials are also the only generation of adults with more people who identify themselves as liberals than as conservatives. Just less than one-third of millennials call themselves liberals while about one-quarter identify as conservative. And nearly half say they have become more liberal as they have aged, with 57% saying their views on social issues have become more liberal over time.
By contrast, among members of the baby boom generation, 41% call themselves conservative and only 21% identify as liberals. And baby boomers are more likely to say that growing older has made them more conservative. On this and most other issues, the views of Generation X (born between 1965 and 1980) fall between those of the baby boom and millennial generations, and the views of those born before the baby boom are more conservative.
The fact that the Millennials are becoming MORE liberal as they grow older flies in the face of conventional wisdom and indicates a real and fatal danger to the conservative movement in this country.
I am still going to reserve some healthy skepticism as I have seen how even very reasonable and well educated people can be frightened into embracing conservative, and even nationalistic, points of view in reaction to overarching fear. As we all saw demonstrated after 9-11.
Not to mention that I once believed that the so-called Baby Boomers were going to usher in a new era of peace and prosperity in this country.
Imagine my anger and disappointment in how that worked out.
Having said that however I am still at my core an optimist so I do indeed hold out hope that this new generation will shame those of us who came before with their humanity, their imagination, and their dedication to peace.
I'm a 1965 Generation X'er. I watched my older sib's -the Baby Boomers, fall for the "make a million by the time you're 30 and retire to the Island's Baby". Boy are they a bunch of cynical, disillusioned, and frustrated people. They thought they were entitled to the 3 car garage, big suburban house lifestyle, and a golden retirement account. But then those 401Ks started going bust, if they weren't taken directly away, the interest rates soared, the cc(s) bill(s) just couldn't be paid off, raises and promotions didn't happen, and now they are all in debt up to their eyeballs. And many of them STILL vote Republican!
ReplyDeleteI knew before I even reached college that I'd be damn lucky to even scrape enough money together to pay for college - and hope that I wouldn't be paying for it the rest of my life - and be grateful if I could just make a decent living.
Now we need to be sure that they understand how important it is to vote.
ReplyDeleteI'm a 1946 Boomer and even I am disappointed in how conservative my generation has become. When I was rockin' along in the 60s at University of TX, Austin, we were about peace, love, rock-n-roll, and taking care of each other. We shared, helped, marched, protested Viet Nam, etc. What happened? Someone once said that 'you get more conservative when you have children'. I didn't. I got more Progressive/liberal. I wanted my child to inherit a better and more level playing field than I had. I worked my way through college because my parents told me that boys were more important than girls. I'm tired of re-fighting all the wars we Boomers thought we'd won back in the day. I'm glad the Millennials are more independent. It's good for the US and good for the world.
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