Millennials are not destroying this country, the baby boomers already took care of that for us. I have been hearing that my generation is the cause of all the current social woes and the decay of every tradition since I was old enough to understand what was meant by the term millennial. In truth I, like most people in the group, didn’t realize that I was a member. I had assumed quite erroneously that it referred to people born after the year 2000. In truth most people don’t know exactly who the “Millennials” are, just that they are younger than the Baby Boomers, generally undesirable, and to blame for all the changes that you don’t like.
The burning question of course is does this charge hold water? Are Millennials in fact to blame? Let’s start with what a Millennial is; generally people born from 1981 to 1996 are considered to be a part of that group. This must give even the harshest cynic pause... Is there a group of 25-40 year olds that are influencing public policy on a national scale? On the surface that seems pretty unlikely, considering the average age of a voter in the US is about 50… So if the goal is to destroy the country, we’re not trying that hard.
Let’s examine this further, since I was old enough to vote the average age of the President is 63, the average age of a Senator is 53, the average age of a Representative 57. The Supreme Court has one member currently under 50 years old, Amy Coney Barrett, who you may recall very recently replaced an 87 year old Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Even at the state level, the Governors have an average age of 60, not a millennial in the bunch.
What then is the basis for this claim? Why are the Boomers, who undisputedly are currently in charge, so eager to blame the generation after them for everything they have fouled up? Aren’t the Millennials the last group that supposedly were “raised right”? The answer to me is simple, it is the only group that it is socially acceptable to blame. Boomers know full well millennials are not now and have never been in charge, but like most generations before them, the Boomers seem embarrassed that they have not lived up to the imaginary standard they set for themselves by living in the shadow of their parents the “greatest generation”, and one thing is for sure, it’s not their fault!!!! We all know who is to blame of course, Say it with me, “IT’S THOSE GODDAMN KIDS!!!”
That is certainly a more comfortable version of history, at least for the people responsible for making the messes we have in this country. It is one, however, that I wholeheartedly reject. My message from us Millennials to any Boomers reading this, your parents beat the Nazis and freed the world, you rang up a $3 trillion national debt, we will try to clean up your mess.