Young voters portend a Millennial Makeover

Morley Winograd and Michael Hais have written a new book, Millennial Makeover: MySpace, YouTube and the Future Of American Politics. In it they say that every 30 or 40 years in the history of America there is a generational transition in politics and we’re in for one now.

A big one.

The Millennial Generation are those who are born between 1982 and 2003. There’s about a million more millennials than there are baby boomers, and twice as many than the generation that preceded it, Generation X.

Winograd and Hais discussed their book last night on The Newshour:

JUDY WOODRUFF: How do you characterize their — their political views? I mean, you point out that they are voting more Democratic than Republican. But is there a way of labeling them?

MICHAEL HAIS: Well, we refer to them as a civic generation. And that means that they are a generation that is not intent on — as other types of generations are — not intent on implementing their own personal moral values, but rather in rebuilding civic institutions, in acting together as a group to resolve political problems, which we expect the millennials to do, problems such as health care that have really bedeviled the U.S. political process for the last 40 years or so.

MORLEY WINOGRAD: So, their parents raised them share. And they had them watch “Barney” and make sure that everybody was treated equally. And we came to win-win situations.

So, they come to the political process with a collective point of view, and therefore tend to be Democratic. And, in fact, this is the first generation in about five decades where a greater number label themselves as liberal, rather than conservative.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Why is it — what is it about Barack Obama that has turned so many of them out?
MORLEY WINOGRAD: Well, he has a unifying message, so it’s — that’s important, because these are not a generation interested in the confrontational culture wars of the boomers.

But he — and his background, which is very diverse in and of itself, so he sort of captures that nature of this generation. But I think maybe the most important thing is that he’s combined that message with the right medium. He’s really organized on social network — around social network platforms to build the kind of support he’s been able to demonstrate, at least in many of the states.

Not so good for social conservatives:

JUDY WOODRUFF: To the extent this is a turning point, a makeover moment, as you call it, what should we expect from this generation? What are they going to do differently in the way — when they get control…
MICHAEL HAIS: Well, I would say at least two things.

One will be the style and tone of politics. Instead of the confrontation, instead of a situation where, as we have seen, again, for the last four decades, where you have extreme liberals, extreme conservatives banging at each other, and very little is accomplished, this generation will lead a realignment in which people will get together and they will try to come up with common solutions, win-win solutions that essentially can be used to benefit all of society. So, the style of politics will be different.

But also I think the kind of politics, political public policy that we will see will reflect this. We will see a decrease in economic inequality, for example, because this generation is very concerned with the welfare of the entire group. We will see less emphasis on social issues that have concerned the public, the things…

JUDY WOODRUFF: By social issues, you mean abortion and…

MICHAEL HAIS: Abortion, gay rights.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Gay rights.

MICHAEL HAIS: It’s a generation, for example, that two-thirds of its members have no problems with gay marriage. It just is a nonissue with them. And, so, they will move on to other, more basic economic and foreign policy concerns.

Just the tip of the iceberg:

MORLEY WINOGRAD: Significant policy changes. The American political landscape will change completely over the next decade.This election, only about 35 percent of the millennials are eligible to vote. They have already had a tremendous impact no matter how the Democratic primary contest ends. Now, think about in 2020, when 100 percent of this generation and its attitudes are in the electorate in those kind of numbers. It will be a completely different political scene.