OK, Non-Boomer!

I know that I’m supposed to avoid insulting young people, but this Boomer has a bone to pick.

Alice and I just did what we do. When the Democratic Party gathers the clan, we try to make it, regardless of inconvenience. Last week was typical on the convenience front. There were a million things that had to be done by Shabbat, but we went out to hear our legislators speak.

They were great…and we were great! They spoke about their radical faith in the future, and how they would keep trying no matter what. John Waldron took down our Superintendent of Public Instruction. Retrograde! Regina Goodwin talked about racism in the funding of universities. Indefensible! They said passionate things and we clapped and hooted. On at least two occasions, I led the clapping, which got me appreciative glances from the people sitting next to me. My wife! It felt good to be a citizen activist.

What felt appreciably less good were the demographics of the audience. What happens in Tulsa is that we end up with the same audience for everything: grey haired Boomers in Birkenstocks and sling bags. If there is variation at all, some are rip-stop nylon and the rest are multi-colored wovens from indigenous artisans in Guatamala. The age spread is 71 to 71.5. Many of us look like Bernie Sanders, without the grumpiness, and with better hair cuts. This is Tulsa, after all, not Brooklyn or Cambridge. Say what you want, but Tulsans are nicely groomed. And we are ready to do our part for the team.

Conspicuously missing are our forty-year-old children, college students, first-jobbers, and everybody in between. That would mean Gen X, Millennials, Gen Z, and the micros, who fill out the gaps between the big-ass divisions. How exactly are we going to defeat Trump and the MAGAs when half the team is missing in action?

I think I know why some of this is happening, and why African-American are also missing, despite their professed unhappiness with the current administration. In the run-up to Trump we had two notable failures. Occupy Wall Street was a conspicuous bust. It took on all the ills of a broken world and failed to focus on achievable goals. Black Lives Matter was more tightly focussed, but could not turn its energy into legislation, which is the best way of judging the success of a movement. It was also riven by the strains of intersectionality, meaning enthusiastic Jews backed away from the effort when they discovered that black activists looked at some of them with cynicism. Say what you want, but Jews are good at activism, and it sometimes make sense to hold them tight.

All of this together had the unfortunate effect of dampening the current effort to mobilize everyone. When you fold in the issues of childcare, dinner, and simple things like mowing the lawn, you get a roomful of Boomers feeling good, but lonely, standing on the barricades without young people next to them.

But if that is clear, so are the solutions. A tight focus on goals like winning the midterms. Powerful language that feels real and propulsive. A sustainable schedule of public protest, like the Israeli liberals who demonstrate every Saturday night. And smaller things like ready childcare so that parents can get to the gatherings of the clan.

And the next time you Boomers attend any event, make sure that you have recruited at least one younger person. It means that after you are dead and gone, someone will remember you as a warrior for justice.