Millennial politics

Millennials were trained since birth to be enablers of capitalism.  They were taught to produce all the time-- taught that it's good to produce all the time-- and taught not to speak up or think too much or challenge any rule or idea that gets in the way of constant, mindless production.  The millennial generation is a generation of yes-people conditioned to accept their surroundings, to make-do with what they have, to toil tirelessly even when the cause is unjust.  This is how you get ahead.  This is what life is about, for millennials.  Perpetuating the system, doing what you're told, so that eventually you can go on vacation or enjoy exotic foods or go to a microbrewery or watch "Hamilton."  Those are your rewards for doing so well.  Millennials are dogs in a small yard begging for treats.  We'll do anything for treats.

This mentality has obviously not been conducive to a millennial political consciousness.  The ultimate form of politics, for millennials, is a non-politics or an anti-politics, especially as embodied by the millennial god, Barack Obama.  When "they" went low, Barack Obama went high.  While the Democrats and Republicans quarreled, Barack Obama sought the common ground.  Not red or blue states: purple states.  The great American consensus.  Barack Obama wasn't trying to hurt anybody-- he was just trying to do the right thing.  He thought-- or made other people believe, at least-- that the sheer force of his personal magnetism, good will, and thoroughly decent, common sense politics would allow him to make gains for the American people.

But what exactly did Obama do?  We're not four years out from his last days in office, and his legacy is increasingly hard to parse out.  Because it didn't matter how good-looking or charming or articulate or amenable Barack Obama was: Republicans weren't going to work with him.  Republicans are awful, thoroughly fucking irredeemable.  But Barack Obama couldn't believe that.  And that unwillingness to acknowledge the immovable fact of Republican shittiness dramatically hampered his administration.  Just as the unwillingness to embrace a non-capitalist critique of class will hamper millennials until they die.

Millennials just want things to be "okay."  They have no instinct for justice-- they weren't taught to recognize or correct problems-- they were taught to obey.  Barack Obama was going to make things "okay" as long as we played along.  The bad guys couldn't touch him-- he was cool, he made funny appearances on TV, he had a beautiful wife and adorable children.  He was the millennial ideal: rich, powerful, attractive, and relevant... But also, safe.  Not loud or proud or challenging in any way.  A man who refused to enter the fray.  A man who was too wise, too savvy, and too thoroughly enmeshed in the morays of capitalism to even think about struggle.

Barack Obama sealed the deal, for us.  We came of age, we voted for him once or twice, and we told ourselves that this is it: this is the best it's ever gonna be.  If Barack Obama can't do it, with his style and grace and good manners, then who can?  Barack Obama is the young professional president, designed for the upwardly mobile college grad, engineered by the Democratic party to quash any aspirations toward real equality, real justice, real change.  The perfect millennial leader. 

He reached out and held us and now we just want to stay in his comforting embrace forever.