OK, Millennial, It's Time To Register To Vote In Hitherto Unseen Numbers!

It turns out that launching memes against a different generation, like the young sprats did with 'OK, Boomer' last year, is vastly easier than putting your own generational house in order.  That includes tossing your hat into the ring and getting politically involved-  thereby demonstrating you have the spunk,  moxie and insight to go to the mat when it counts.  That time is now, as we face the most critical election (and political crisis)  in U.S. history.  The question on everyone's mind is: 'What are the youthful potential voters going to do about it?'  

Are they going to sit back, pout, and express dismay at the candidate choice (in Joe Biden) and not vote, or even register? Or will they come to their senses and grasp that their own lives and futures are as much on the line as the rest of ours? And hence, we simply cannot afford the luxury of demanding some nebulous emotional rapport with a candidate before one deigns to cast a ballot.  Especially if the only option to take down Trump is to verily put on our big boy pants and VOTE - for Biden!  The issue then is existential, and I'd wager, especially for the millennial and Gen Z contingent.

The issue of millennial 'bad breaks' and likely hard futures came up in Gerald Seib's recent column - 'Young Voters Catch Another Bad Break', WSJ, April 21, p. A4).  Seib noted how the young fell into a terrible bit of back luck with "the worst recession since the Great Depression"  - which prevented having any chance getting the jobs originally promised. Not to mention being "loaded with student debt because the system encouraged you to do that." 

All of which is true, as well as dashing any hopes of buying a car, buying a house or having children along the way.  Yep, that sucks, big time! But as I see it, the youngsters have two choices: 1) Throw themselves a big pity party on how life and terrible luck dealt them a lousy hand, or 2) Get up and start fighting for a better future. And btw, that must be one in which the monster Trump is gone, if you are to have any remote chance at all. 

Hence, we in the older generations issue the challenge:  'OK, Millennial!'  

So what is the main way to start fighting back, owning your pain but vowing to do better?  Well, it starts with registering to vote, and then actually going out to vote for the coming November 3 election.  And for Joe Biden, not the moral reprobate Trump! Here's a first clue: staying home is not an option and neither is voting a 3rd party candidate,  especially as Justin Amash has graciously bowed  out.

What is disturbing so far is the lack of evident younger generation energy and  participation in the primaries.  As I wrote in my March 11 post:

"The lack of interest of the Young also contributed to Bernie's demise as he himself put it last night

"Let me tell you the bad news, to be honest with you, young people vote at much lower rates than older people. That is the facts. I hope all of the old people vote, that’s great, but I want young people to vote at the same rates.”

So what happened to all the young voters, the Millennials and Gen Z's who were supposed to turn out?  Well, they clearly believed the effort wasn't worth their time or energy, or perhaps there were too many hurdles - such as obtaining the  right IDs to be able to vote.  But what most of us (older voters) don't want to hear now is any more whining from the young uns about their student debt, oldsters getting all the benefits,  having to move back in with mom and dad, and so on.  

 But  if you don't vote, don't participate, you don't get to complain - or say "OK, Boomer."

A highly disturbing observation of Seib's regarding potential  youthful voters is the following:

"Before the coronavirus hit, the shocks millennials already had endured had left them feeling 'somewhat detached from the political system' says Democratic pollster Celinda Lake".

By contrast, despite the fact that Boomers in the 1960s endured the shocks of three major political assassinations (JFK, Bobby Kennedy, Martin Luther King Jr.) and the Vietnam War, we became more energized politically and registered to vote. 

Seib goes on (ibid.):

"Indeed, a report by the GQR  polling organization prepared early this year for NextGen America found that a majority of voters under the age of 35 were 'unenthusaistic' about voting in 2020.  Adding: 'A Basic dislike of politics keeps many from voting."

This is well nigh unbelievable to most Boomers, many of whom actually participated as "Freedom Riders" in the mid-60s:  going by rental bus into Klan-infested areas of Mississippi and Alabama to register black voters at great risk to themselves.   So to now learn that a major segment of the young voting block is "turned off" and "unenthusiastic" just doesn't cut it. It reeks of weakness or at least lack of any resilience.   In the more generous latter case, it echoes what I wrote in my November post 'OK, Boomer', quoting college psychologist Linda Bips:

"Many of today’s students lack resilience and at the first sign of difficulty are unable to summon strategies to cope. The hardship can be a failing grade on a test, a cut from the team, or a romantic  breakup. At the first sign of trouble many become unable to function and persevere. Often they even anticipate difficulties and their anxiety alone paralyzes them."

For his part, Seib recognizes that if the young demographic could awaken from their stupor and inertia (or lack of resilience) they could well be a force to be reckoned with, as he writes:

"If they do show to vote, it's clear they will be a force for the presumptive Democratic presidential candidate, former Vice President Joe Biden."

Pointing out that in a WSJ- NBC poll the young voters favored Biden over Trump by a "whopping 23 point margin". 

But that only translates into power if the votes are actually cast. Mere responses to polls don't count.   Millennials  now have a chance to show us Boomers they are much more than mere mouth, chutzpah and catchy memes. Also, that they have the resilience and pluck to stand up and be counted as genuine citizens as opposed to whiners, wimps and losers.  Besides, a generation seeking to change its fortunes - say reducing mounting student loan debt and having government work for you not against you - means voting. Not staying on the sidelines because you "dislike" politics.   As Democratic Pollster Celinda Lake told Seib:

"You can't see a big role for government if you don't take part in picking the government."

And as I wrote in my November, 'Ok, Boomer' post:

"Want to convince me you've "flipped the script"?  Then put down the cell phones and project your power in the real world. "

Projecting power now in this real world, means getting to the polls on Nov. 3rd (or using mail in ballots if that choice is available) and  playing a role in getting rid of Trump. Because if that doesn't happen, the pain and shocks Millennials experience now will be like a day at the beach compared to what will be in your future - hell, all our futures.

Sitting this election out is not an option. Voting for the Democratic candidate offers the chance to show the younger generations have finally become adults.

See Also:

2020 Elections | Donald Trump

Mission Imperative: Come November, Trump Must Go

by Michael Winship | May 13, 2020 - 5:50am | permalink

Excerpt:

"There must be one mission above all, one goal supreme: Vote this monster out of the White House. And along with him, tow to the nearest dump the clown car of malefactors who gave him license to cripple our republic.

Donald Trump’s defeat and the defeat of those in Congress who have enabled him with nary a word of protest are Priorities Number 1 through 100. Focus. Don’t be diverted by ideological hairsplitting and intraparty squabbling. Drive this creature and his army of creeps, leeches and miscreants back to the wet market from which they came."

Tom Coburn: Couldn't Do One Decent Thing (even for Vets) Before Leaving Senate

What is it with these Oklahoma Republican Senators? One (Jim Inhofe) is dumb as a sack of hammers and wouldn't know a Jokulhlaup from the polar vortex. (Recall that “jokalhlaups”are sudden bursts of melting runoff from glaciers. It was this phenomena that also played a role in the “unusual cracks" that set off the separation of a chunk of ice the size of Manhattan” - or 19 sq. miles - from Ellesmere Island in Canada’s northern Arctic, nearly ten years ago). And yet this buffoon - who actually believes global warming is a "hoax" is set to take over the Senate Environmental Committee.

Then there is Sen. Tom Coburn - otherwise known as "Doctor No",  because of all the bills he's torpedoed - good or bad (he makes no distinction) - in all his years in the Senate. Coburn once bragged that it "only takes one Senator to stop a bill" - and I sure wish to hell the Dems would take note when the pukes bring up a bunch of execrable legislation next year.

This jerk had one last chance to be a humanitarian and allow a bill to pass the Senate (it already passed the Tea Party -laden House) which would have helped thousands of vets suffering from PTSD, but he blocked it. He said the $22m cost was "too much".  The bill,  dubbed the Clay Hunt Suicide Prevention for American Veterans (SAV) Act,  would have addressed the epidemic of veteran suicides in the wake of the two lengthy U.S. occupations in Iraq and Afghanistan. But Coburn was more intent to stand by his rep as Doctor No, following his established template.

Incredibly, to try to justify his reprehensible action, Coburn went into a long,  incoherent rant which also served as his swan song. (Parts were played on the Rachel Maddow show last night). This jag-off, so you know and are aware, also blocked  a planned VA Hospital for Tulsa, OK because it was "too nice".  He actually complained to the TULSA WORLD, that he was in favor of a "better VA Hospital" but "not the Taj Mahal" adding "they're building a Taj Mahal". Actually no, they were building a hospital with all the services (plus some amenities) that wounded vets needed, to expedite their return to health and society. But did this prick care? Hell no! As long as he could collect his fat Senator checks for mostly sitting on his ass, using filibusters or saying "No!"

Last night Coburn one-upped his disgusting behavior by taking to the Senate floor to single-handedly block the SAV bill. This toad was the lone obstacle in the way for a bill that's 100 percent bipartisan and otherwise would have passed.  He said he "didn't care how much support the bill had" he was personally going to block it.

Maddow, in referencing Coburn, said what she didn't expect was his "rambling, emotional incoherence" in trying to deliver a backhanded justification for his move.

Sure enough, this shameless troll launched out into some award the French gave his grand daddy in World War I before claiming "as a physician, I know suicide all too well". Really? Then how about a vote for the SAV act, doofus?

He then admits having "failed patients in the past, doing everything I knew to do....even treated patients with the demons....that these young veterans have."

Seriously, you jackass? You treated the "demons"? Well how about this, you were an incompetent toad and if the SAV act you just blocked had been around then those vets you couldn't help wouldn't have been lost to your bull pockey!  Harsh? Damned fuckin' A believe it's harsh because this asshole merits nothing less.

Coburn then launched into a long harangue about the lack of respect for vets, and that "they deserved respect" - which they do - but this has nada to do with  his blocking the SAV bill (except that it showed HIS disrespect).  The most telling remark was near the end, when be babbled:

"My heart breaks for the people who commit suicide. You know what it is? They find no relief anywhere else except death. There's no answer for them! We don't give it to them, we have failed them."

Uh no, buttbrain, YOU have failed them- by blocking a bill that for a relative pittance ($22m) compared to the expansion of war toys ($600b) could have given thousands of vets hope.

Even Maddow was nonplussed, asking: "Does anyone have any idea substantively what Tom Coburn is talking about?"

I believe I do, and it's par for the course for this rat: That is, if vets have a problem getting suicide prevention assistance let them take it up with the VA because no more added money is needed (in Dr. No's estimation) to help them.  Never mind the VA is massively overburdened as it is just treating the physical costs and wounds of war, including brain damage from IEDs. and paralysis.

Susan Selke, mother of Clay Hunt, put it bluntly but in much more civil fashion than I would:

"As parents who experienced the pain of losing a veteran to suicide, it is shocking to see this bill blocked because of one lone Senator’s agenda, Too many veterans are facing the same bureaucratic red tape Clay confronted years ago, and they are looking to our elected leaders for hope. While throughout this process we have been so thankful for the widespread and sincere support from our Congressional leaders, today, once again, vets like my son were failed."

Meanwhile, Veterans' groups are outraged as they should be, because Coburn's blockage is as offensive as a punch in the face.

And what about those Okies that elected this turd? Will they keep on being dumb and electing the same buffoons as Inhofe and Coburn year after year?  We will have to wait to see, but their record thus far isn't encouraging!

On the good side, as Maddow observed, this bill will pass next year when Coburn is no longer around. And on the bad side (for Coburn) this is the one thing for which he will always be remembered.