Playing the Generation Card
Lacking political vision?
Plug the ‘next generation.’
Social psychologists, when assessing group alignment and conformity, point to “generation bias.” Take the same social issue and pose it to two groups — one of mixed generations, one, a twenty-thirty-year spread, and one of ‘same generations,’ less than a ten-year spread. The mixed generation group rarely yields consensual resolution before the same generation group.
Consider one’s alignment to one’s generation as peer approval at work. It makes sense.
It also makes sense for political manipulators to triangulate generations: to pitch “a new generation,” as a rallying message for a generation’s holding onto power. (1)
From Nikki Haley to Ron DeSantis advocate, Jeb Bush, the anti-Trump factions are pushing the “new generation” trope. Lacking vision which nearly every Republican has foregone, they hoist “new generation” messages. Pundits offer that most Republicans are scared of challenging Trump’s record, so challenging his advanced age is safe territory.
Really? Trump’s advanced age is also easily debunked by Trump’s fans. He may be nearing 8–0 but they are not.
And Trump loves the opportunity. It’s about him.
Democrats are not faring any better spreading the “new generation” fog. Biden “owns” his experience and also his age. He has plausibly accomplished more in three years of office than Obama did in eight and yet Biden’s approval rating is stuck in the low forties. So arguably, touting Biden’s experience going into the 2024 campaign season is a double-edged sword.
Biden’s age detractors belong in his own party. The visit to Kyiv frames the announcement of Biden’s candidacy and for the time being quells handwringing over the prospect of an 84-year-old holding the reins.
Try a ten-hour train ride through a country under siege, after an overnight flight.
What’s fascinating to watch is Biden’s growing appeal with Gen Z, the majority of whom will be voting age come 2024.
Generation bias appears in appraising Vice President Kamela Harris’s fortunes for the 2024 Presidential ticket. She ducks between abortion and gun violence umbrellas, whereas her boss simply grabs the moment and runs with it.
Harris feels older than Biden.
Not so implausible, then, is the proposition to throw the question of who is going to run with running Joe in 2024 to the party convention (2) in… wait…Chicago? Or will it be… Atlanta?
Union city, older generation politics or “groove city,” younger generation politics?
Undecided.
March 1
Notes
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