From the Gallup Vault: 60 Years Ago, the End of "Separate but Equal"

For our look at polling, public opinion and civil rights.

- Click here for the article.

On Nov. 13, 1956, two years after the Supreme Court deemed racially separate schools unconstitutional in Brown v. Board of Education, the Supreme Court struck down an Alabama law requiring segregated seating on city buses, trains and public waiting rooms. Several months later, Gallup found 60% of Americans supporting that ruling -- including 27% support in Southern states and 70% support outside the South.

The case, known as Browder v. Gayle, grew out of a yearlong boycott of the Montgomery city bus system by local blacks, in which the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was a key player. That boycott followed the Dec. 1, 1955, arrest of Rosa Parks, a black woman, for refusing to give up her seat on a city bus to a white man.

Beyond the regional disagreement, approval of the court's decision in Browder was fairly broad across major U.S. subgroups, but there were gaps: 63% of Republicans nationwide agreed with it vs. 53% of Democrats. This partisan difference most likely reflects the concentration of Democrats in the South at that time. Further gaps in approval include 67% of those aged 21-29 vs. 56% of those 50 and older; 78% of those with at least some college education vs. 51% of those who never advanced beyond middle school; and 77% of blacks vs. 58% of whites.

Four years later, when Gallup asked the question again, 66% of Americans approved of the decision and 28% disapproved. While perhaps not as celebrated as Brown v. Board of Education, Browder v. Gayle was the last major blow to the "separate but equal" policies that prevailed in the South after the Civil War.

The Pew Research Center on Millenials

For a look at past stories about the group from click here.

For more on age and politics:

The politics of American generations: How age affects attitudes and voting behavior.

Here's a nice graph from the story:

Millennials and the 2016 election

For classroom discussion - and a written assignment for a small handful of students:

In 2305's section on public opinion we will looks at the concept of a political generation. Most students are members of the millennial generation - though another generation is creeping up behind them. I've heard them referred to as the Homeland Generation, and as Generationi (get it?).

I want you to consider what unique impact each generation is likely to have on the outcome of the 2016 election - but focus especially ion the millennial generation

For info:

- The Whys and Hows of Generations Research.
- How Millennials Will Impact the 2016 Election Without Voting.
- Clinton Maintains Big National Lead, Millennials Optimistic on Sanders.
- Do College Students’ Votes Really Matter in an Election?
- Will Millennials Determine The 2016 Presidential Election? New Poll Looks At Their Voting Plans.

A History of Political Generations

Here is one look at the history of political generations - including a few prior to the settling of Jamestown. The source is the Wikipedia page on Strauss - Howe generation theory. Keep in mind that the experiences of the people of each of these generations are unique and shaped how they approached political issues.

I know little about the rationale behind the early generations, and this is the first time I've see a label for the generation that follows the millennials. It's the Homeland Generation. Makes sense.

- Arthurian Generation (1433–1460)
- Humanist Generation (1461–1482)
- Reformation Generation (1483–1511)
- Reprisal Generation (1512–1540)
- Elizabethan Generation (1541–1565)
- Parliamentary Generation (1566–1587)
- Puritan Generation (1588–1617)
- Cavalier Generation (1618–1647)
- Glorious Generation (1648–1673)
- Enlightenment Generation (1674–1700)
- Awakening Generation (1701–1723)
- Liberty Generation (1724–1741)
- Republican Generation (1742–1766)
- Compromise Generation (1767–1791)
- Transcendental Generation (1792–1821)
- Gilded Generation (1822–1842)
- Progressive Generation (1843–1859)
- Missionary Generation (1860–1882)
- Lost Generation (1883–1900)
- G.I. Generation (1901–1924)
- Silent Generation (1925–1942)
- Baby Boom Generation (1943–1960)
- Generation X (1961–1981)
- Millennial Generation (1982–2004)
- Homeland Generation (2005–present)

The Millennials

Most of you - my 2305 and 2306 students - are members of the millennial generation. These are people born between the early 1980s and the early 2000s. They comprise one of the many political generations which have helped define politics in the United States since day one and even before. There are argument - good ones - that generational replacement is one of the principle factors driving changes in public policy. It's tough to understand the rapid change in policies regarding Gay marriage, and sexual orientation in general, without it.

With apologies to the Generation Xers and Baby Boomers in the class, I'll regularly post items related to this generation over the semester. It might help the millennials understand themselves better - and the rest of us can try to figure them out too.

Here are some items that might be worth your time to get comfortable with the concept and the uniqueness of the millennials.

- Quiz: How Millennial Are You?
- Wikipedia: Millennials.
- The Civic and Political Participation of Millennials.
- Harvard Institute of Politics: What Are Millennials Thinking?
- Pew Research Center: Millennials surpass Gen Xers as the largest generation in U.S. labor force.

And some informative charts - to help your ability to communicate visually.

The Beloit College The Mindset List for the Class of 2015

Beloit College does this very year. There is no better way to feel old.

If you are a traditional, straight from high school student you were born in 1997 and shaped by certain events, but not others. This is not just a neat bit of trivia. it's also a look at what shaped a person's world view. One of the more difficult things to come to terms with is which references work and which don't when using examples in the classroom. For many of you things like Watergate and the fall of the Berlin Wall are ancient history and have little relevance to how you think of the world. But the things that matter to you, probably don't matter to folks my age.

Very late in the semester we'll discuss the concept of a political generation. The fact that people in different age groups sometimes tend to think alike, not because they all know each other, but because they all grew up exposed to the same events. I grew up in the 70s for example - keep that in mind when you hear me go off on this and that.

There are 75 items on the list, here are the ones that I think are most interesting to ponder.

1 - There has always been an Internet ramp onto the information highway.

2 - States and Velcro parents have always been requiring that they wear their bike helmets.

3 - The only significant labor disputes in their lifetimes have been in major league sports.

4 - There have nearly always been at least two women on the Supreme Court, and women have always commanded U.S. Navy ships.

5 - They “swipe” cards, not merchandise.

6 - As they’ve grown up on websites and cell phones, adult experts have constantly fretted about their alleged deficits of empathy and concentration.

7 - American tax forms have always been available in Spanish.

8 - More Americans have always traveled to Latin America than to Europe.

9 - Amazon has never been just a river in South America.

10 - Refer to LBJ, and they might assume you're talking about LeBron James.

11 - Women have never been too old to have children.

12 - They’ve always gone to school with Mohammed and Jesus.

13 - The Communist Party has never been the official political party in Russia.

14 - The Rocky Horror Picture Show has always been available on TV.

15 - Jimmy Carter has always been a smiling elderly man who shows up on TV to promote fair elections and disaster relief.

16 - Women have always been kissing women on television.

17 - Music has always been available via free downloads.

18 - Sears has never sold anything out of a Big Book that could also serve as a doorstop.

19 - Electric cars have always been humming in relative silence on the road.

20 - No state has ever failed to observe Martin Luther King Day.

21 - Refugees and prisoners have always been housed by the U.S. government at Guantanamo.

From the Pew Research Center: How Millennial Are You?

If you are in my class, you are likely to be a millennial - that is if you are between 33 and 10.

Here's a quiz that sees where you stand on issues and whether you think like a millennial.

Will the millennial generation keep the republic?

Too early to tell really, but this article suggests that those born between 1982 and 2003 are committed to public service, just not politics or government.

In their landmark books on Millennials, the sociologists Morley Winograd and Michael Hais compare young Americans today to other great “civic generations” that cycle through U.S. history every eight decades, starting with the Founding Fathers and including the generation that elected Abraham Lincoln and of course the Greatest Generation that won World War II. Raised in troubled times, “as adults, they focus on resolving social challenges and building institutions,” Winograd and Hais write in their recent Millennial Momentum. The authors believe Millennials have the makings to be the next great generation.

The trouble is that Millennials believe traditional politics and government (especially Washington) are the worst avenues to great things. They are more likely to be social entrepreneurs, working outside government to create innovative and measurably successful solutions to the nation’s problems, even if only on a relatively small scale. One is Matt Morgan, a Kennedy School student, who launched a website that helps readers respond to articles with political action. “There are so many problems Washington can’t fix that we can,” he says. Another is his classmate Sarah Estill, who wants to provide police departments with technology to fighting crime. “For my generation there are more ways we can effect change than in the past -- more tools in the toolbox,” she said. “Why not use all of them?” A generation ago, government had a monopoly on public service. To Millennials, the world is filled with injustice and need, but government isn’t the solution. They have apps for that.

The author speculates on the consequences of this shift, while another suggests that this is just kids being kids.

This does raise a good questions though - what commitment does - or should - one generation have to the governing and political institutions established by the previous generation? Is the republic worth keeping? Can better systems be developed? How do we know.

This brings attention to the concept of a political generation - which we will discuss more later this semester. Political change tends not to happen because people change their minds, but because different generations emerge that have different opinions on issues while older generations - and ideas - die off.

Congress now has only two WWII veterans remaining

And both are the House - Ralph Hall (TX) and John Dingell (MI). Frank Lautenberg was the last veteran in the Senate.

Michael Barone describes the domininance this generation had on politics for the bulk of the late 20th Century. It had a greater inpact on any other group of veterans since the Civil War.

Not much notice was paid when the last Spanish-American War veteran in Congress, Barratt O'Hara, died in 1969.

Nor was much attention directed at the retirement from Congress in the 1970s of the last two World War I veterans -- Sen. Mike Mansfield of Montana (who lied about his age to enlist) and Sen. John Sparkman of Alabama (who served in the Students Army Training Corps).

In contrast, World War II veterans made a big splash in politics starting shortly after the war ended. Dozens of young veterans were elected to Congress in 1946, including future Presidents John Kennedy and Richard Nixon.

The Washington Post speculates on what his retirement might mean for the the institution and veteran's policies:

But with the death Monday of Frank R. Lautenberg (D-N.J.), not a single one of the 115 World War II veterans who served in the Senate remain, the latest evidence of the rapid decline in members of Congress with military service.

The passing of Lautenberg and the dearth of veterans in Congress is a concern for veterans advocates, who have seen a number of senior senators with clout and sympathy toward their positions pass from the scene in recent years.

“It’s a sad day,” said Louis Celli, national legislative director for the American Legion. “These were some of the most ferocious advocates for veterans that we had. We as veterans counted on the senior leadership, the World War II veterans, to represent us. We respected them, they respected us, and without them, there’s going to be a void.”

Lautenberg “was a real champion for veterans,” said Bob Wallace, executive director of Veterans of Foreign Wars. “He was very proud of the fact that he served in World War II and got educated on the GI Bill. He wanted to do the same for younger veterans, no matter what generation they served.”

Both stories highlight an interesting factoid:

For a time, the Senate was home to three men — Inouye, Bob Dole of Kansas and Phil Hart of Michigan — who had recuperated at the same Army hospital from serious wounds incurred in World War II combat.

The Washington Post story points out that while WW2 veterans flooded Congress (115 would eventually serve) soon after the end of the war, very few veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan have ben elected. They don't point out - but its worth noting - that no Vietnam Veterans have been elected to the presidency. The three who ran - Gore, Kerry, and McCain - were defeated.

Attitudes continue to shift on gay marriage

The Washington Post reports on a poll which shows that 58% of American now support gay marriage. The expected divide exists between liberals and conservatives and Democrats and Republicans. What tips the scale is self described moderates and Independents. Both groups support gay marriage by comfortable margins.

A very large gap exists between seniors and people younger than 30. 44% of seniors support it while 81% of people under 30 do. Its easy to see where this is heading.

No more WW2 veterans in the Senate

Once Senator Frank Lautenberg retires, there will be no one in the Senate who served in WW2. Only two members of the House served, both in their 80s. Once they are gone, living memory of the war will go with them.

It's worth noting that it is very likely that no veteran of the Vietnam War is likely to be elected president.

Here's a graph which shows the percentage of veterans in Congress as a whole has dwindled considerably over the decades. Perhaps this is a consequence of the all volunteer military.

Ignorance of Roe v. Wade by age group

From Pew Research Center by way of The Dish:



Some fodder for discussion.

From xccd: When will we forget?

Its a serious question. Politics tends to change not because people change their opinions, but because one set of people with a set of opinions grows old and dies and is replaced by a group with different opinions. Since our opinions are often formed - in part - by what we remember, its worth noting what types of events people in the nation are likely to remember collectively.

Not long ago the last WWI veteran died. There is no living recollection of that war. We are losing thousands of WWII veterans each day. It wont be too far in the future when the last veteran from that war dies.

Time marches on.

The Millennial Generation Speaks

Andrew Sullivan compiles a handful of comments form millennial voters about the recent election, and life in general. These are the people born from the early 1980s to the early 2000s.

- Click Here.

This is a great portrait of an emerging factor in American politics. Some other links:

- Wikipedia: Generation Y.
- Pew Research Center: Millennial.
- About Mentoring Millennial.

From the National Journal: Generational Warfare: The Case Against Parasitic Baby Boomers

Here's something to stir the pot. Might be fun to bring up at Thanksgiving in a month or so. Are the baby boomers spoiled parasites who've deliberately left things worse for their kids?

Ultimately, members of my father’s generation—generally defined as those born between 1946 and 1964—are reaping more than they sowed. They graduated smack into one of the strongest economic expansions in American history. They needed less education to snag a decent-salaried job than their children do, and a college education cost them a small fraction of what it did for their children or will for their grandkids. One income was sufficient to get a family ahead economically. Marginal federal income-tax rates have fallen steadily, with rare exception, since boomers entered the labor force; government retirement benefits have proliferated. At nearly every point in their lives, these Americans chose to slough the costs of those tax cuts and spending hikes onto future generations.

The Dow Jones industrial average rose twelvefold from the time the first boomers began working until last year, when they began to cash out their retirement. (The growth trend over the 12 years since I entered the workforce suggests that the Dow will double exactly once before I retire.) They will leave the workforce far wealthier than their parents did, with even more government promises awaiting them. Boomers will be the first generation of retirees to fully enjoy the Medicare prescription-drug benefit; because Social Security payouts rise faster than price inflation, they will draw more-generous retirement benefits than their parents did, in real terms—at their children’s expense. The Urban Institute estimated last year that a couple retiring in 2011, having both earned average wages, will accrue about $200,000 more in Medicare and Social Security benefits over their lifetimes than they paid in taxes to support those programs.

The 2016 Beloit College Mindset List

This is always depressing for us elderly.

File it under generational politics.

Are Millenials less religious than older generations?

Apparently so. Less than 70% say they've never doubted the existence of God. Older generations are less likely to have a similar doubt - the figure gets higher the older generation. Is this a trend? If so, what impact will this have on politics in upcoming decades?

Who represents future generations?

Here's a provocative read that relates to both 2301 and 2302. We are a representative democracy under the theory that people ought to be able to consent to the rules that will impact us, but many decisions made today really only have an impact - good or bad - on future generations.

How are their interests best represented?

Ron Paul's long term influence on the Republican Party

. . . may be profound: The authors wonders if he might be leading a generational shift within the party, and the efactions within it - one that undoubtedly would affect Democrats as well.

Five years ago, no one, not even Congressman Paul, would have imagined that 21 percent of voters in a hotly contested Republican caucus would support the Texas congressman’s brand of antiwar, constitutional conservatism and libertarianism. Paul didn’t just improve on his 2008 showing last night, he’s brought his philosophy from an asterisk in the Republican Party of George W. Bush to as much as a fifth of the vote in the GOP of 2012; there’s a fair chance he’ll win 20 percent again, or close to it, in New Hampshire.

. . . More significant than the overall percentage Paul claimed last night, however, is the 48 percent he won of the under-30 vote. This augurs more than just a change in the factional balance within the GOP. It’s suggestive of a generational realignment in American politics. The fact that many of these young people do not consider themselves Republican is very much the point: Paul’s detractors cite that as a reason to discount them, but what it really means is that the existing ideological configuration of U.S. politics doesn’t fit the rising generation. They’re not Republicans, but they’re voting in a Republican primary: at one time, that same description applied to Southerners, social conservatives, and Reagan Democrats, groups that were not part of the traditional GOP coalition and whose participation completely remade the party.

It sucks to be a millennial

From the Atlantic, an article detailing the impact the current recession is having on the Millennial Generation.