february 2009 Yes We Can The Emergence of Millennials As a Political Generation neil howe and reena nadler next social contract initiative New America Foundation © 2009 New America Foundation This report carries a Creative Commons license, which permits non- commercial re-use of New America content when proper attribution is provided. This means you are free to copy, display and distribute New America’s work, or include our content in derivative works, under the following conditions: • Attribution. You must clearly attribute the work to the New America Foundation, and provide a link back to www.Newamerica.net. • Noncommercial. You may not use this work for commercial purposes without explicit prior permission from New America. • Share Alike. If you alter, transform, or build upon this work, you may distribute the resulting work only under a license identical to this one. For the full legal code of this Creative Commons license, please visit www.creativecommons.org. If you have any questions about citing or re- using New America content, please contact us. Executive Summary The 2008 presidential election unleashed a potent new and conventionality, a preference for group consensus, an force in American politics. It is the Millennial Generation: aversion to personal risk, and a self-image as special and Americans born since 1982, now age 26 and under. as worthy of protection. The generation that has already Politicians and pundits alike were surprised by the waves transformed K-12 classrooms, the enlisted ranks, college of young volunteers who manned the campaign front lines, campuses, and the entry-level workforce is now beginning phone banking, blogging, canvassing door-to-door, and to transform politics. organizing large groups of peers to do the same. Politics was suddenly cool, pushing Time to jump ahead of long- Who is this Millennial Generation? Cynical Gen-X slackers time favorite Cosmo as the most popular magazine on col- are giving way to a new kind of youth—civically engaged lege campuses.1 Youth turnout in the primaries jumped organizers like tweenager Talia Leman, recent guest on dramatically—in many states doubling or more since 2004 the Today Show, who used the Web to persuade middle while older adults showed only marginal gains.2 In the gen- schoolers across America to donate funds to build schools eral election, Millennials turned out in record numbers for in Cambodia and provide clean water to African villages. their age bracket and cast their votes overwhelmingly, by The hard-edged Gen-X celebrities are giving way to a nicer, roughly two-to-one, for Obama.3 So decisive was their pref- friendlier model, like teen icon Miley Cyrus, who recently erence that, without it, the sizable 7 percent popular-vote threw a community service-themed “Get Ur Good On” margin for Obama nationwide would have been effectively Sweet Sixteen party. The Millennials are pressured and pro- erased. Not since the 1930s have youth had such a large grammed. They are bonded to their parents and networked quantitative impact on the national outcome. to their friends. They want the system to work and are eager to contribute. They are optimistic about their future. Rejecting the pundits’ outmoded (Generation X) image No one would have described young Boomers this way in of the disinterested and disengaged youth voter, these the 1970s or young Gen Xers this way in the 1990s. Millennial youth have now made their first major impres- sion on American politics. This is just a prequel. In the In 2008 there appeared several excellent accounts of coming decades, we predict they will become America’s how Millennials approach politics, covering mainly their next political powerhouse. policy views, their technology, and their organizational style. These include Millennial Makeover by Mike Hais and Morley Winograd, Generation We by Eric Greenberg and Karl Weber, and The Progressive Generation by David Millennials have brought with them a very dif- Madland and Amanda Logan.4 Our essay will focus more ferent set of attitudes and behaviors than the on the Millennials’ underlying beliefs and life priorities, youth who preceded them: a confidence and on why they differ so dramatically from those of older gen- erations, and on how this generation is likely to change the conventionality, a preference for group con- substance and tone of America’s political life for decades sensus, an aversion to personal risk, and a self- to come. A long-term perspective is important. We predict image as special and as worthy of protection. that Millennials over their lifetime will greatly strengthen the connection between citizen and community, between ordinary people and public institutions at all levels of gov- ernment. By the time they reach the age of national leader- The emergence of Millennials on the national politi- ship, they will forge a new social contract. Some genera- cal stage is the latest chapter in a generational story that tions tear down civic trust, and others build it up. Having has already been building for many years. Over the past watched so many of their elders tear it down, Millennials decade, parents, teachers, military recruiters, faculty and are poised to become a builder generation. (most recently) employers have all noticed that Millennials have brought with them a very different set of attitudes and If history offers an example of a youth generation simi- behaviors than the youth who preceded them: a confidence lar to the Millennials, it is the G.I. Generation (born 1901- 1924), who grew up in an era of tightening child protection About the Next Social and improving behavior, earning a reputation as upbeat, Contract Initiative team-playing, and civic-minded youth. In their adult years, The New America Foundation launched the Next Social the G.I.s pulled America out of Depression, saved the Contract Initiative (NSC) in 2007 to design and advance world from fascism, unleashed nuclear power, founded the framework for a 21st-century social contract, along with suburbia, and took mankind to the moon. It may be that a detailed policy agenda to support it. The premise of this the Millennials will dominate the history of America in the initiative is that, given the unimaginable changes of the twenty-first century just as the G.I.s have dominated the last half-century, we should think from scratch about the history of America in the twentieth. appropriate roles of each sector of society—government, employers, individuals, and civil society. The programs To explain how the Millennial story could unfold, we need and policies of a new social contract should be designed to to appreciate what political generations are, how regularly support entrepreneurship and risk-taking, encourage long- in history they appear, and how they are shaped by their term growth and broadly shared prosperity, and support formative years and collective life story. Because most individuals and families not as employees, but as citizens. political scholars regard youth merely as an age bracket, Perhaps most importantly, NSC operates on the belief that they cannot account for sudden shifts in how people in economic security and opportunity are not mutually exclu- their teens or twenties think and behave. By looking at sive alternatives. birth cohorts aging through time—that is, by looking at political generations—we believe we can explain these NSC draws on the strength of existing domestic policy pro- nonlinear shifts. grams at New America including the American Strategy, Asset Building, Economic Growth, Education, Fiscal Applying this method over the past twenty years has enabled Policy, Health Policy and Workforce and Family programs, us to make useful predictions about the behavior of young as well as its own staff, to fulfill this mission. In the tradi- people and draw a detailed picture of Millennials as a gen- tion of New America, NSC strives to develop innovative, eration—all of which is recapitulated in this essay. Finally, principles-based solutions for a 21st Century economy and we offer a detailed thematic overview of the Millennials’ society. If individuals are to take advantage of the opportu- political views, with special emphasis on views that are nities inherent in a dynamic economy, they will need the likely to remain unchanged as Millennials grow older. security provided by social insurance, individual assets, and portable benefits. In doing so, they will fulfill their One of our major conclusions is that Millennials think own goals and bolster our collective faith in the continued about politics in ways that cut across the “liberal” and vitality of the American Dream. “conservative” labels used by older generations. Another is that Millennials constitute a new political generation with In the course of our research, analysis and outreach, it has attitudes towards politics, government, and social issues become apparent that deeper, macroeconomic forces are that today’s policy makers cannot afford to ignore. Already, also undermining the social contract. Indeed, one lesson they show early signs of becoming a political generation from the growing financial crisis is that finding the proper of unusual power that will strengthen civic trust, build balance of rights and responsibilities among the various national institutions, and forge a new sense of teamwork sectors—including the proper allocation of economic and optimism in American politics. As their influence risk—is not a philosophical luxury, but essential to a healthy rises, the Millennials are likely to translate these priorities economy and a stable society. This has led to an increased into a new social contract, radically re-drawing the institu- focus on developing policies that promote growth, innova- tional connection between citizen and state. tion, and the reestablishment of the reciprocal connection between increases in productivity and higher wages. Political Generations in conflict,”8 as in George Forgie’s brilliant Patricide in the American History House Divided: A Psychological Interpretation of Lincoln “Amongst democratic nations, each new generation is a and His Age.