Dear kids and grandkids. It’s me, your favorite person to bash, your “boomer” parent (or as the case may be, grandparent). I’m writing this to admit that my generation has completely screwed up America for everyone else, and unfortunately it’s going to be your problem to fix it. Why? Because as much as I hate to say it, my generation basically turned their back on everything we stood for in the 60’s and 70’s (peace, love, civil rights) in pursuit of the almighty dollar. We’re the ones primarily powering the Republican party’s rise to anarchy. I am not part of that, I hate what the Republican (excuse me Trumplican) party has become, but I am clearly in a minority for my demographic (70 year old white male). We’re the ones that control the major percentage of wealth in this country, and while in the next 20 years or so, we will slowly but surely be transferring that to whatever degree to your generation, it should come with a warning.
I want to believe that your generations will care enough to make a difference, but I have my doubts. First of all, millennials are so self absorbed in their own lives I don’t know how many of them even pay attention to the world around them. Second, you Gen Z’ers are so fragile, I’m not convinced you can be extracted from your shells long enough to actually take part. Maybe if we had universal stay at home voting it would allow those of you afraid of social contact to participate. In both cases, I have a real concern about whether you can extract yourselves from your phones or your social media feeds long enough to make a difference. This topic requires actual attention not just a few clicks or likes or whatever. However, you’re the country’s last hope to become the nation we’ve always dreamed of, but never realized. Plus, you’re going to inherit the various messes we boomers have left you so you may want to snap out of it before it’s too late.
We are now led by a blatantly racist, misogynistic, bigoted group of ass$%^s. Donald Trump talks America first but what he really means is Trump first. The most corrupt administration in our history is violating the Constitution every week, enriching themselves at every opportunity and disregarding how the majority of the country is doing. Who do they care about? Billionaires. That’s it. Tech billionaires, Oil and Gas billionaires and foreign billionaires. American citizens? Meh. They’d just as soon lock you up or shoot you like in Minneapolis just for protesting against their absurd policies. Now you may not care about immigrants or immigration, but that is just the tip of the proverbial iceberg. Let me explain the ways your lives will be or already have been changed for the worse.
Start with the classic American Dream. Owning your own home, driving nice cars, having and raising children and living a long and prosperous life. Perhaps some of you are achieving this, and if so, congratulations, you have my respect, but I hear all the time how many of you believe this to be out of reach. Housing is so expensive no one can afford a starter home, but it’s not due to what you think. So often I hear how bad the mortgage rate is at 6+%, and the government seems to think that if we just bring that down it will get better. It won’t and it’s not the problem. When I bought my first home in 1985 the rate was around 11%! It stayed in double digits for most if not all of the 80’s so don’t tell me how horrible 6.25% is. The issue is price. Starter homes need to something like $250,000-300,00, but those are simply not available in many markets. Cars now average $50,000, at an even higher loan rate than mortgages. Salaries haven’t kept pace with that for the majority of Americans hence everyone is in debt. To make things worse, my generation is holding onto homes with low interest rate loans because we don’t want to get less house for more money by moving. When we boomers do move or build, we’re using the huge equity most of us have built up, building homes that will never be starter homes or bidding home prices past the point of any reality. Add in building material inflation, the lack of skilled craft labor, to build housing, and both public and private lending policies that clearly aim to get people to overextend themselves and there you go. Unaffordable.
The traditional road to career success was go to college, get a degree and jobs will come. That is no longer true. Today, that path more often than not leads to crushing college loan debt or a degree in something unemployable. Even worse, the historical high paying professions are increasingly stymied. Believe it or not, AI is coming for many, many jobs, much sooner than you think, and with the social safety net being disassembled by the billionaire administration, lots of people will be unemployed with no means to support themselves. Do you think the Tech billionaires care? Of course not. They will lie about this, promise “unleashing” of a wildly rich future and lobbying intensely against any guardrails until it’s too late. Will the future be rich? Yes, but only for the rich. Not for you the average American.
The Trump administration has completely shredded the EPA. Zero enforcement of environmental laws, expediting of permits for any type of mining, data center or oil and gas project and the reality that American industry has always taken the easy way out when it comes to caring about the planet means you and your children will inherit and increasingly polluted world. Clean air, clean water, clean soil are slowly but surely disappearing under the guise of “growth”.
Hand in hand with the destruction of the environment is the complete obliteration of science as a means of solving problems. Climate change? Doesn’t exist according to the Republican Party and Donald Trump. The fact that the weather is more and more unstable every month, with 100 year or 1000 year storms every week should be a clue. Solar, wind and battery power? Never mind that they are the cheapest way to generate new electricity today, what the Stone Age administration wants is more coal! Meanwhile, on the health front, 50-100 years of steady gains due to vaccinations are being wiped out by conspiracy theory hysteria completely unsupported by science. Most of the people running their mouth about how unsafe vaccines are, are alive today because their parents got them vaccinated when they were kids. What is more important to you? Your kids health, or listening to quacks and snake oil salesmen pushing a web of bullshit unfounded in scientific proof. We basically wiped out measles in this country, now it’s back with a vengeance, simply because people won’t get vaccinated and don’t believe it’s a serious disease. Do you feel lucky is the medical standard in America. But no worries, you can’t afford health care anyways. We have the most expensive health care in the world and our new strategy is to see that fewer and fewer people can afford insurance. Just hope you remain healthy, and if you don’t, well tough. Guess you’ll just die.
Don’t worry though. Trump is bringing down the cost of everything, haven’t you heard? Can’t you see that on your electric bill? Your natural gas heat in the winter. Your insurance premiums (any kind of insurance). Your grocery bill. Appliances. Clothing. Toys (a little shocking at Xmas was it?). Why in some case like pharmaceutical drugs the costs are down 400-500%, right? Surely the last time you went to the pharmacy you noticed the Drug companies were now paying you to take their drugs. That’s what 500% reduction means. Do the math. What? Didn’t have that experience? No kidding.
Civil rights, LGBT rights, voting rights, 1st and 2nd amendment rights are all under attack. The right of free speech or right of assembly? Not anymore. Not if you have any protest against the policies. Carrying a gun? Nope. Can’t take those to a protest even with a legal permit to do so. Due process? What is that? While you may or may not care about immigration, what you should realize is ICE and the war on immigrants is the tip of the iceberg in restricting everyone’s rights, turning the country into a police state run by masked thugs. You may not care but you will. A government that doesn’t care about rights, isn’t a “government of the people, by the people and for the people”. It’s a government of the rich, by the rich and for the rich and to hell with everyone else.
Get your nose out of your phones, your eyes off the game controllers and look around. The America you and your children are inheriting from my generation is a complete s$%^show. While I am writing a similar plea to my generation, I have no faith in them at all. Too many of them have drank the KoolAid. Too many of them still think Trump is great despite being a President that publishes memes of dropping bombs of s%^& on Americans or ex President/First Ladies as apes. Who lies every time his mouth is open and doesn’t even pretend to care about reality. Who is more concerned about building monuments to himself than helping anyone in America other than his rich buddies.
What can you do? First and foremost, is get out and vote this year. Vote against every Republican running because the reality is, there are no good ones anymore. All of them have enabled Donald Trump by abdicating the role of Congress and just letting him do whatever he wants. Don’t get me wrong. The Democrats aren’t the party of salvation. They are incompetent, disorganized, more infatuated with fund raising or obscure policy wonk than real solutions and inclined to believe the only answer to a problem is throwing more money at it. They spend all their time worrying about offending some particular demographic and don’t like to make hard decisions. Wrong. But what Democrats are not is a party obsessed with making America white again. With destroying the social safety net whether it’s social security, medicare, SNAP or school lunches. With letting the rich do as they please, never being held accountable for anything and turning the rest of us into a country of have nots. that is the Republican Party.
Secondly, get out and protest when you see injustice, oppression or cruelty being exerted on the American public. I know the environment today is scary when it comes to that. Violent protest is not the answer, that’s what Trump and his goons want, but our history has proven that the public has tremendous power to change the direction of our country, whether by influencing Congress to do their job, the Supreme Court to uphold the Constitution or to hold the guilty and corrupt accountable. Make your voice heard, both by voting, but also with your pocketbook. Stop supporting the Tech billionaires manipulating our government by boycotting Amazon or staying off social media. Learn what is really going on by seeking out all sources of news, not just social media, podcasters and state TV like FOX. Be an American before America is gone.