Building a Greater Society: A Guide to Political Revolution for Millennials and Generation Z

By Connor O'Hanlon

As a young leader in one of the most vital swing counties in Pennsylvania, Connor O'Hanlon is constantly asked this one question... "Where are the young people?"

• Language: English
• Publisher: Manuscripts LLC
• Release date: Oct 7, 2024
• ISBN: 9798889262213

Book preview

Building a Greater Society

A Guide to Political Revolution for Millennials and Generation Z

Connor O’Hanlon

copyright © 2024 Connor O’Hanlon

All rights reserved.

Building a Greater Society

A Guide to Political Revolution for Millennials and Generation Z

ISBN

979-8-88926-222-0 Paperback

979-8-88926-223-7 Hardcover

979-8-88926-221-3 eBook

For the people who always believed in me,

even when I didn’t.

And for those who doubted me,

thank you for adding fuel to the fire.

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Contents

Introduction

Part 1

How Did We Get Here?

Chapter 1

Defining the Generations

Chapter 2

The New Deal Era

Chapter 3

World War II

Chapter 4

The World’s Superpower in the 1950s

Chapter 5

Political Upheaval in the 1960s

Chapter 6

The Rise of Neoliberalism in the 1970s

Chapter 7

Reagan Wages War on the American People in the 1980s

Chapter 8

The End of the New Deal Democrat in the 1990s

Chapter 9

American Politics in a Post-9/11 World

Chapter 10

Modern American Politics—How We Went from Yes, We Can to Make America Great Again

Interlude

Part 2

What Can We Do about It?

Chapter 11

Redefining the American Centrist

Chapter 12

Passing the Generational Torch of Inspiration

Chapter 13

A New Hope

Chapter 14

My Story

Conclusion

Acknowledgments

Notes

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Introduction

Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.

—President John F. Kennedy

The United States of America finds itself at a crossroads once again, where political conflict and interpersonal unrest dominate news cycles, undermining the institutions of our republic, and the blame constantly shifts to different scapegoats. Primarily, the youth of America receive blame for both complacency and urgency, entitlement and privilege, yet have to take the back seat in decision-making in their lives. The youth of America today parallels the powerful movements of our history—from the American Revolution to Reconstruction, Women’s Suffrage, and the civil rights movement. The millennial generation and Generation Z are inheriting the world of our ancestors, which is full of riches but poisoned and plagued with poverty due to the mishandling of our elders. Our world is full of wonders stamped out by the selfishness and the greed of a powerful few, and that dynamic must change.

From a geopolitical and global economic standpoint, the ever-evolving global environment may seem, and at times be, overwhelming. We have the capability and the innate power in ourselves to make positive change. We have the unique ability to identify problems and develop the tools to solve the tasks at hand. We have lost this can-do attitude in current political and media narratives and must strive to bring it back. Expecting any single person alone to change the world is naive. However, we can make the changes we want to see in our communities and inspire others to do the same, creating the ripple effect necessary for a mass movement toward the ideals of our nation: justice, equality, and freedom. We must embrace these ideals, put them into practice, and achieve them as outcomes for all. We know the forces of authoritarianism and totalitarianism are on the rise throughout the world, and the slide toward fascism at home and abroad should be alarming to every one of us.

This book is a wake-up call to the apathy toward the situation around us.

To tackle such massive problems as the climate crisis, wealth inequality, racial injustice, and growing fascism, we must form a movement based on age. Throughout the following chapters, I will highlight the historical parallels and point out how current issues impact millennials and Generation Z. I will build an argument for what unites us as a class and what will best serve our collective political interests. I will draw big generational differences and highlight when a problem is unique to our time, like the COVID-19 pandemic and the threats to our democracy heading into the 2024 election and beyond.

We have seen a rise in conflict between the numerous generations. I’m not saying we should be at war with or hate baby boomers or Generation X, but we must recognize the shortcomings of these generations and how the reluctance of baby boomers to pass the baton of power is stifling the country’s progress and development. This book will discuss and analyze how Generation Y (known as millennials) and Generation Z (zoomers) will inherit many of the world’s issues created or ignored by the baby boomers and Generation X.

It is important to recognize generational divides have always been somewhat arbitrary and controversial. What constitutes a generation has evolved over time. In the past, people typically based their distinctions on social, economic, and technological events and advancements. This is a broad and subjective way of measuring a group of people.

Keep in mind that broad generalizations always have exceptions. You may not fit into the category ascribed to you and may be in opposition to the general consensus of your generation.

In part 1, I will examine the stereotypes and tropes of all the generations—from baby boomers to Gen Z—and how these classifications impact our political landscape today. I will provide a brief historical overview of the United States from the Great Depression to today to understand the generational differences and the issues faced by the American people at different times. These items will create the foundation on which our unified front will fight.

In part 2, I discuss pragmatic and practical applications of how to garner a movement and implement change locally through small yet concrete steps. I guide you on how we can win and where we must be willing to fight politically and potentially lose to achieve our long-term goals. I will discuss the rhetoric around messaging for campaigns and why we must rework the left-wing discourse to succeed electorally. Lastly, I will provide you with my personal experience in community organizing and the stories of others that will hopefully inspire you to take action in your own community.

In light of the attempted coup on January 6, 2021, I feel inclined to note I wholeheartedly disavow violence as a means to bring forth change in today’s world, and we must always be aware and hypervigilant to counteract violence in our society to protect the integrity of our democracy and safety of our families and neighbors. I truly believe I can make a difference by presenting nonviolent answers to the problems we face today. However, we must remember that violence has been a major factor in many movements throughout history that have successfully overthrown oppressive systems. I say this not as a warning but as a reminder to those who discount marginalized people. When the power of the people is stripped away and held by a few, it only takes a small spark to ignite the fire of systematic upheaval.

As I take you on this journey into the political realm, I want to assure you that my opinions and thoughts on historical events, political alignment, and organization stem from my personal experience melded with time-tested strategies. As someone who is technically a millennial but born in the cutoff year between millennials and Generation Z, my cultural and societal experience doesn’t mirror either perfectly but provides a unique hybrid of both.

The first election I could vote in was in 2016, and the discourse of that period has shaded my perspective, catapulting me into taking direct action. Later in this book, I give a detailed look at my experience trying to claw my way into the political system and how I learned to gain power within it for positive and progressive change. However, it all started for me as a pissed-off college student in State College, Pennsylvania, back in 2015, long before anyone would’ve thought I could be a political leader.

I want to emphasize that from 2015 to 2018, I had little to no actual organizing or political engagement outside of my own education and voting. You might find yourself reading books, listening to podcasts, and maybe checking out the occasional protest, which is a wonderful place to start. My life changed when I voted in the 2018 Pennsylvania Primary Election. I learned about the importance of local elections and how organizations and individuals can have such a significant impact on them. I decided it was time for me to do more. As I detail later, I volunteered and worked on campaigns, shortly after deciding to run for office myself! And in less than two years, I went from the passionate yet politically directionless to the chairman of the local Democratic Party. Since then, I have run for office again, trained dozens of candidates to run for office, organized rallies, canvassed thousands of doors, collected thousands of signatures, and helped many more find their path into the political arena.

In writing this book, my goal is to inspire you to change your perception. Politics can be a dirty word for some people, but politics is omnipresent in this world whether we like it or not. So why leave it to the rich and the powerful? Why let the power that is rightfully ours default to someone else because they have a few more grey hairs? I love and respect my elders, but it is about damn time for us to take the baton. No matter where you are starting—a political novice, a well-read academic, or even a doubtful cynic—I hope this book can teach you new strategies and inspire you to believe we can make a difference. In times of discord and upheaval, the strongest form of power is solidarity. Together, we can build a greater society.

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Part 1

HOW DID WE GET HERE?

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Chapter 1

Defining the Generations

Every age and generation must be as free to act for itself in all cases as the ages and generations which preceded it. The vanity of governing beyond the grave is the most ridiculous and insolent of all tyrannies.

—Thomas Paine

Each generation faces unique problems and, throughout time, has addressed them differently. In the modern era, young people are pushed aside as we wait our turn, yet we see the world burning around us. To best understand the dynamics laid out throughout part 1, we must first define the generations in the political arena today.

The baby boom started at the end of World War II. In 1946, 3.4 million babies were born in the United States, and this number continued to climb over the next two decades. The baby boom ended roughly in 1964 when birth rates finally tapered off. By 1964, there were 76.4 million baby boomers in the United States.¹ The boomers are generally the last generation defined by the social and economic events in our country and the world. World War II had numerous effects worldwide that we still feel today, and this is one trend we certainly feel as young people in America. The reshaping of the globe through geopolitical means, which I will dive deeper into later, set the stage for the political alignment of the baby boomers as they came to adulthood.

The generation following the baby boomers is Generation X. They never really got a fun name like boomer or millennial. These people were born between the years 1965 and 1980. In a way, Gen X is a lost generation. Many of them fall under the categories of either millennial or boomer in their mindsets, and I would posit this is because of the outcomes different people achieved. When I claim Gen X seems lost, it is because the generation has no self-identity. You can interpret this as positive because it doesn’t portray them as a monolith but also sometimes overlooks people’s struggles in this age range. A lot of the problems I discuss in this book will focus on the old versus the young, and Gen X finds themselves caught in the crossfire. Despite this, Gen X has lived through trying times and really is the prototype of younger generations today. Because the technological advances for these people were so great, it is safe to say they understand technology better than boomers and have experienced life on both ends of the tech boom.

Not all of Gen X are in this category, though, which is why their identity is hard to pin down. My parents are the first of this generation as they hover on the edge of boomer status. They have more of the mindset of the boomer generation rather than the youngest folks in their same generation. The potential outcomes for people in this age range are tremendously different. Many of the older Xers didn’t have to go to college to get a job, and many of the jobs they could get were union jobs. This is more in line with the boomers as they had to be able to provide for their families at a very young age.

If you were born in 1965, you would’ve been able to get your first real job at eighteen, which was somewhat before the destruction of the union job and when Reagan was just starting the war on labor. Of course, this leaves the younger Xers growing up during the ’80s and getting jobs in the ’90s, which was a totally different economic situation. The tech boom created a unique job market, and speculation about opportunities was unlike anything any other generation had seen. Though I discuss the wealth gap disparity more in chapter 7, it is important to note that from the beginning of Generation X entering the workforce through the last of the generation hitting age eighteen, the wealth gap had grown significantly.

Out of the Generation X abyss comes the millennials. Millennials, born between 1981 and 1996, are notorious for our impact on the world—or so some people would have you believe. I belong to this generation, as I was born in 1996. We are infamous in media portrayals and in boomer lingo for killing industries and for being the most entitled and lazy generation in decades. Millennials are the colloquial punching bag that has been an easy target for the last ten to fifteen years as our political and economic structures have continued to fail. As our coming-of-age story began, many labeled us every derogatory name in the book for a young person. Frankly, many people forget the youngest of the generation is already an adult—not a high school student.

When it comes to the lazy stereotype, it seems to me that every young generation’s parents or grandparents call them lazy. Obviously, some people don’t want to work or don’t have ambition, but that isn’t unique to one group of people. Older millennials joined the workforce or graduated from college at the worst possible time, with maybe the exception of the Great Depression. As the Great Recession hit, these young people took the first blow to their employment and wages as they were the newest hires. Rationally, in a capitalist society, this would make sense as they have less tenure and are less likely to have a family to support and a mortgage to pay. Of course, this is no justification for the actions that led to the Great Recession or the subsequent events.

The expectation is people in their mid to late twenties get entry-level jobs that require multiple years of experience and have the same starting wages from the early 2000s if you are lucky. I would be remiss not to mention that the folks in this bracket also find themselves in economic turmoil due to the COVID-19 pandemic and its reshaping of the global economy, similar to the older millennials dealing with the impacts of the Great Recession.

The final generation I will cover in this book is Generation Z. Born between 1997 and 2012, the zoomers have yet to fully grow into what they potentially could. Many people mistakenly associate the things that zoomers do with millennials and vice versa. It is reasonably safe to say these two generations have a loose alliance as they face many of the same issues and align on various topics.

The biggest difference between Generation Z and all the previous generations is zoomers have grown up with full internet access and smartphones. This might be a slight exaggeration for those born in 1997, but those born after 2000 grew up in a vastly different world than their parents. The acceleration in technology and the changing landscape of geopolitics have shielded zoomers from some issues and exposed them to others. The post-9/11 world has brought with it a lot of challenges and changes. Culturally, our country changed overnight to hide children away from the bad guys, and many of these effects stem from little changes parents made in the early 2000s.

We have all heard the stories of our parents or even grandparents saying kids don’t go outside anymore and don’t get enough exercise. By and large, this is true. Even when I grew up in the late ’90s and early 2000s, my friends and I would have to ring each other’s doorbells to see if they were even home. I grew up on the precipice of this change. In some ways, this change came from a swing in protection for children. Many parents were overly sensitive to the threats seen on TV or in movies. Many of these are overblown, but they still scare people into certain actions. This caused a ripple effect, with kids less likely to be outside with their friends without parental supervision. And if allowed to go outside, they certainly would have to be home before dark. But why does this matter?

When kids can’t go outside and play, they are way more likely to become idle and look for other outlets to hang out with their friends or get their energy out. This is where technology comes in. The zoomers have had cutting-edge technology like the iPhone and gaming consoles that make games lifelike. These forms of entertainment without any outlets for physical fun can lead to issues like addiction and obesity. These issues are not solely a concern for zoomers, as obesity is something many Americans associate with. Still, it has been worse for the younger generations as our food supply has arguably been poisoned with artificial flavoring and corn syrup. When it comes to technology, kids today are whizzes, but how have they become so good at using these new phones and computers? Well, they use them a lot, of course.

Now that we have a base knowledge of each of the generations we will be talking about in this book, it is important we look at some of the stereotypes of each generation and where they stem from. The stereotypes of the millennials and zoomers are most important to digest as we are the most scrutinized. We must understand how to counteract perceptions to be successful in organizing a broad intersectional movement to better our society.

When we think of baby boomers today, some stereotypes certainly come to mind as a young person, however, the consensus can be quite different from what you or I might personally believe. Stereotypes of boomers can include hardworking, disciplined, and team-oriented. It can certainly be hard to generalize people in such broad terms, but this is what many people believe. If you are a millennial or zoomer, I’m sure you have heard your parents and grandparents talk about what it was like for them growing up. I will try to provide the context that can help you pry opinion from reality for the boomers’ perceptions later in this book.

I know I’m personally bombarded daily in my jobs by boomers complaining about how easy it is for kids these days and how we don’t want to work. I’m sure I’m not alone in that situation. However, the stereotype of hardworking boomers can hold some weight as they are more likely to hang on to their jobs and retire later. As of now, they are less likely than previous generations to downsize their homes and move into retirement communities. We will see if this changes as more of them get to retirement age.

What about them having discipline? What exactly does this mean? I would argue that this is a subjective term, but it is another reason for the skewed perception of young people today. I will give you an anecdote I heard about how boomers may argue that they had discipline. When I was your age, I had already bought a house and car. I was already married and had kids. I had to work and have self-discipline to save up my money. I worked through college. I bought a starter house and saved until I could move and buy a nicer, bigger house. I busted my ass doing jobs nobody wanted to do, and that is how I made it. Why don’t you just do that? Does this qualify as discipline or a sign the times changed since the boomers were in our position? I’m of the opinion that times have changed, and the requirements of us today are much different from those of the boomer generation when they were our age.

Boomers largely have a strong sense of community, which they value. I think the clearest example