The Latest Generation

Much has been made of the role that young voters of the so-called "Millennial" generation (born after 1982) played in electing President Barack Obama. But any analysis that stops at their current partisan preferences misses a great deal of the complexity underlying this cohort's attitudes towards a range of subjects.

Confident and consensus-oriented, Millennials instinctively trust large institutions such as corporations and government bureaucracies. Traditionalists when it comes to family and country, they are nonetheless strongly pro-gay marriage and anti-war. Coddled by "helicopter parents" and coming of age amidst the senseless carnage of Columbine and 9/11, they are risk-adverse and yet drawn to promises of bold change and lofty challenges.

The New America Foundation's Next Social Contract Initiative has worked with two of the leading chroniclers of American political generations and youth civic engagement to unravel the sometimes-contradictory values of the Millennials and predict how these will shape public policy and society in the decades to come.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• Youth
• Vote
• Generation
• Demographics
• Democrat
• Liberal
• Conservative
• Republican

[AL20201000]

Let's face it. Millennials already rule. We have to pay for them forever. I a 1979 baby am caught between and paying heavy for it. All Hail the Millennials!

[jefersontorres]

She speacks in the name of "they".Do you realize how many time it happens ? As if one could say anything about "they".Well, the problem is that "they" are not like a thing that can be so clearly determined.

[ilovemycat00]

@okayplayer82 From one Millennial to another, okayplayer82...kudos!! :)

[hollymaria]

All i know is that I am a "millennial" and well over 90% of people I know vote liberal and are proud of it. No matter how much you drone on about it, it doesn't change that fact. Sooo..... Get used to it.

[shmbonn]

@bluemind423 There is nothing wrong with individuality you drone! I personally believe that your children will be the true saviours of American society. Like the boomers, your generation is too self absorbed to solve our problems. It takes a selfless generation to effect real change.

[bluemind423]

It's all perspective. Gen X'ers were probably seen by Baby-boomer in much the same light: pejoratively. We're the upstarts but we do have the cohesion that Gen X'ers lacked because their individuality and by our sheer numbers. We can change it and with our positive, maybe even niave, outlook on life we'll dare to do what other generations dismissed as being unrealistic. We're realistic but we're also hopeful of our potential to do more than our predecessors and do it better.

[okayplayer82]

Hey! Stop being so cynical :)

We Millennials will change the world!

[bamadawgsc]

As a Gen Xer I have a burning desire to put a bullet in most Millennials I meet. Spoiled little brats, but maybe they will save the country.

[SCARREDMIND]

no, just no.

unsubbed before i bang my head off my desk