Blogger Sees New — and Involved — Progressives on Horizon

Move over Baby Boomers. Step aside Generation X. The rise of the Millennials is upon us. And Mike Connery is covering their emergence on his blog,FutureMajority.com.

Neither the generation’s age bracket nor nickname is agreed upon universally (Connery said he generally considered Millennials to be born from 1978 to 1996; the media often refers to this segment of the population as Generation Y, though theorists like William Strauss and Neil Howe and bloggers use the term Millennials), but certain trends seem to be developing, Connery said, particularly that today’s young people are much more inclined toward civic engagement.

“I think we’re a much more entrepreneurial and civically engaged generation,” Connery said. “Generation X got known for being apathetic. The narrative of apathy comes from their decline in political and civic engagement, and Millennials are reversing that trend.” (Indeed, Iowa Independent has been following the uptick in youth and civic engagement.) Connery said recent studies have demonstrated that young people are increasingly volunteering in their communities and that young people voted in record numbers in 2004—an 11 percent increase since 2000. They're also much more progressive according to the New Politics Institute.

That engagement is founded on a youth culture emphasizing a “team ethic,” Connery said, a sense that “We’re all in this together.” The popularity of social networking websites like MySpace and Facebook are examples of this culture in action, he said. These sites do not represent a “culture of narcissism,” as some have suggested, but “a re-emergence of a belief in public things,” he said. “It’s not about being your own person … it’s about the network, connecting with your friends … and [being part of] the shared cultural experiences.”

“It’s all sort of connected to a generational philosophy that isn’t fully formed yet but it’s in the process,” he said. Connery, who recently turned 29 years old, making him an elder-Millennial, is working to help shape that process with Future Majority, a site he hopeswill become the “the Millennial Generation’s version of MyDD.com.” He said that the blog filled “an unoccupied space” in the blogosphere and that the online conversation would be lacking if Millennials were ignored. “In terms of ideas and our values I think we’re a huge base of support for the progressive movement, particularly the Democratic Party,” he said.

Connery had never intended to be an activist. Though he called himself “a news junkie and a politics junkie” he had not been active in politics in college or in grad school. Then Howard Dean came along and he threw himself into Democratic politics, eventually co-founding Music for America to support the Dean campaign through concerts and social networking around music.

He said Music for America was part of a surge in “entrepreneurial activity” by progressives in the early 2000s, which included Drinking Liberally, the Oregon Bus Project, League of Young Voters, Forward Montana and Campus Progress. These organizations formed for, and often by, Millennials are “totally reinvigorating youth politics,” Connery said.

Since the days of “Clean Gene” McCarthy, presidential candidates have sought the support of young voters. More often than not, they never showed up. But with a newly engaged generation of young people, the youth vote could propel one of the candidates into the White House. At this point in the race for the Democratic nomination, that candidate might be Illinois Sen. Barack Obama. “Obama is obviously riding the youth wave of the moment,” Connery said. “He flies away with Millennials.” According to MyDD, Obama took the support of 40 percent of participants aged 18 to 29 in the recent Take Back America straw poll.

Meanwhile, former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards “is running the campaign that I hoped Obama would run,” Connery said. “My politics make me an Edwards supporter. I really like what he's trying to do with One Corps and with Young Americans for Edwards. His campaign is about more than himself and his own nomination.” Unfortunately, Connery said, “Edwards is pulling almost no support from Millennials.”

An April poll conducted by Harvard University’s Institute of Politics showed Obama taking 35 percent of likely 18-24 year old Democratic voters, followed by New York Sen. Hillary Clinton with 29 percent and Edwards with just 9 percent.

Clinton “has a decent amount of support in these polls,” Connery said. “But no one is organizing at the grass-roots level with her like Obama. So is it just name recognition or is it real support out there?” At this point in the race, Obama is clearly dominating the youth vote, but “Hillary could take a bite” out of that support, Connery said.

In the end, Connery said, young people will participate when they’re included in the conversation. “They don’t get involved because no one talks to them,” he said. He urged campaigns to do simple outreach to young people like door-knocking and calling them on Election Day. Due to the apathy of Gen X or something else entirely, Connery said, “The Democratic Party just plain old stopped asking a long time ago.” Should they decide to make the call, a new generation just might pick up.