It’s Their Fault

Andrew Sullivan and Ezra Klein point out the relevance of the boomer parents vs. their kids age gap. From Sullivan, who very much understands the generational differences at work:

…I have a feeling that the generational narrative of this campaign from here on out will be a very powerful one. It isn’t that one man is much younger than the other. It is that his supporters are skewed younger as well - and that the issues in this campaign resonate differently with the generations.

The culture war means less as the age cohort gets younger; the reflexive assumption that America is required to be everywhere on the planet, with 50 planned permanent military bases in Iraq, for example, is less obvious to a post-Iraq generation than to those with memories of World War II; rising debt will worry the next generation more than those on the brink of retirement; social questions such as same-sex marriage are no longer very salient questions for those under 40.

My own sense is that this will be the defining faultline of the contest. Not age as such; but generation. And the key voters will be those in between and whether they decide to ally themselves with their parents or their children.

This will clearly be the fault line in this election, with a key swing voting segment being boomers who are starting to feel guilty about their generation’s legacy (a growing segment of the population): will they vote for the younger guy out of regret, or go with the old guy out of stubbornness? …and the key question for the younger generation will be - will they show up?