The phrase Obama Generation is being floated by the media as label for the times we are in. The fact that President Obama has such a large following of young and new voters, is where the media gets this idea from. During his campaign President Obama campaigned on the fact that he would bring change. Change from what? we are just now realizing he meant change from a capitalist society and change from staying the course in the Global War on Terrorism. I don't necessarily believe that it is President Obama's policies that is caused the large swell of young and new voters to flock to him. President Obama, like him or not is a charismatic young leader who speaks well, and can connect with the youth of America because he is a young President, he markets himself as a post-baby boomer, in keeping with his young image.
In 2008 then Senator Obama was elected because of good speeches and catchy campaign slogans. In 2012 President Obama will have to run for reelection on his successes and failures in his first term in office.
I believe a republican candidate could do the same thing. If a young charismatic, republican that speaks well and can connect with the youth of America and non-traditional voters, comes on to the scene in 2012 or 2016, I believe there could be the same hysteria for a candidate on the conservative end of the spectrum.
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Obama Generation or Generation O are terms which primarily are used in the media to describe today's 20-somethings; as a synonym for GenY. But you're right that there is a broader, more subtle use that implies this era, ie. the lumping together of several actual generations together. But this zeitgeist usage is minor, these terms have mostly been used about GenYers.
ReplyDeleteIronically, Obama is not a member of The Obama Generation. Born in '61, he is a member of Generation Jones, born 1954-1965, between the Boomers and Generation X. Google Generation Jones, and you'll see it’s gotten a lot of media attention, and many top commentators from many top publications and networks (Washington Post, Time magazine, NBC, Newsweek, ABC, etc.) specifically use this term to describe Obama.
Great op-ed on exactly this topic in USA TODAY last week:
blogs.usatoday.com/oped/2009/01/stuck-in-the-mi.html
And given the name of your blog, you may be interested in knowing that GenJones is the most GOP-voting of the living U.S. generations.
Thanks for the good info!
ReplyDelete