The old order changeth, yielding place to new

A version of this was published in the Sky Hi News March 28, 2018

https://www.skyhinews.com/news/opinion/muftic-the-old-order-changeth-yielding-place-to-new/

“The old order changeth, yielding place to new”

In Alfred Lord Tennyson’s classic poem Morte d'Arthur, these dying  words of King Arthur are his realization that there will be a change in generations with views different from his. This is what is  happening before our very eyes for this is the long term significance of the movement to which the Parkland kids have contributed. The kickoff event was March 24, 2018  March for our Lives. There are good reasons to believe the movement against gun violence begun by the Parkland students will have long term staying power beyond the 2018 and 2020 elections.These are troubling  implications for a GOP that yearns to return to the past.

The impressive turnout, very sophisticated political awareness,  and skills of the speakers left pundits scrambling to predict the near  term effect of the event. Was this the beginning of a movement that would change the makeup of Congress in 2018 or the White House in in 2020, or was it just a flash in the pan that would fizzle? There is a case to be made that this is a contuing  of generational changes and that in the very long term the color of American politics will turn bluer and bluer. The generation that the Parkland kids represent and the ones just two generations older, the millennials, and the Gen Xers, have much in common in their social and political values. They have bucked prior trends to become more conservative as voters  got older. Instead, they have remained or have become more liberal. Older, more conservative generations are dying off.

I am from the cusp between the generation born before World War II and the generation that experienced the cultural revolt of young people against the old order. The Vietnam War protests of the 1960’s  led to the embrace of the multi cultural vibrancy of the civil rights movement , of tolerance and inclusiveness of “others”, economic populism, environmentalism, the feminist movement, and a dedication to peace instead of war.

Like the Parkland kids, the Vietnam War  generation’s participation in politics was sparked  initially by self interest in a single issue. They did not want to be drafted .The Parkland kids are motivated by their experience of finding themselves at the  business end of an AR 15 and grieving for those they knew who met a violent, senseless death they themselves narrowly escaped. They helped the rest of their generation realize that all kids could also be in the same danger unless this epidemic of school shootings and gun violence  was stopped.

The millennial and Gen Xers are showing  no signs of becoming more conservative as they get older, per a recent PEW poll. The millennials had added more respect of gender diversities  to the trends. The more liberal values of inclusiveness and anti-violence were on display in the multi-cultural, gender diverse, and racial participants of this newest generation in the Saturday march event . Parkland students  were aware they were suburban kids of privilege but that the issues of urban gun violence in Chicago and other cities were closely related. They joined the two together, urban, suburban, in powerful statements, eliminating class, racial  and partisan divisions in a common cause.

Because of the kind of education they had received, training in media, journalism, debate, and stage performance, and their generation’s expertise in the use of social media, the Parkland students had the tools to carry  off the marches. They built on the organizational template of the women’s marches and the protest traditions of Martin Luther King. Their generation has unprecedented skills and experience that will translate into effective political leadership down the road and the continuation of political trends they represent.

Morte d'Arthur

BY ALFRED, LORD TENNYSON https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/45370/morte-darthur

http://www.people-press.org/2018/03/01/the-generation-gap-in-american-politics/

http://time.com/5280446/baby-boomer-generation-america-steve-brill/

From the PEW survey….as summarized by: http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2018/03/new-survey-young-staying-liberal-conservatives-dying-off.

“The oldest voters are the most conservative, white, and Republican, and the Just 27% of Millennials approve of Trump’s job performance, while 65% disapprove, according to Pew Research Center surveys conducted in Trump’s first year as president. Among Gen Xers, 36% approve and 57% disapprove. In Obama’s first year, 64% of Millennials and 55% of Gen Xers approved of the way the former president was handling his job as president.youngest voters the most liberal, racially diverse, and Democratic. There is absolutely no sign the dynamic is abating during the Trump years. If anything, it is accelerating.

“The most recent Pew Research Survey has more detail about the generational divide. It shows that the old saw that young people would naturally grow more conservative as they age, or that their Democratic loyalties were an idiosyncratic response to Barack Obama’s unique personal appeal, has not held. Younger voters have distinctly more liberal views than older voters...”