Last night President Obama addressed the nation with a plan for a buildup of U.S. troops in Afghanistan.  In his speech he said “our security is at stake” and used the speech to announce his intentions to add 30,000 troops to be deployed to Afghanistan.  This blog post is not so much to comment on President Obama’s decision but rather to offer insight into how young Americans feel about war and foreign policy.

Generation We strongly believes in a cooperative, multilateral approach to foreign policy and solving global problems. The Millennials already see themselves as part of an interconnected planet linked by the Internet and other technologies that are integral parts of their lives. Tolerant and accepting of different cultures, they consider isolationism contrary to their social and political mores. Further, deeply influenced by what they perceive as a failed U.S. response to the terror attacks of 9/11 and a disastrous war in Iraq, they are ready to jettison the unilateral approach to world affairs that has characterized the far right, the neoconservatives, and the Bush Administration.

Generation We seems more oriented toward a multilateral and cooperative foreign policy than their elders. Pew Values data show that 18- to 25-year-old Millennials in 2002–03 were split down the middle on whether military strength is the best way to ensure peace, while older adults endorsed this idea 61 to 35.

In 2004 Pew data, only 29 percent of 18- to 25-year-old Millennials believed that “using overwhelming force is the best way to defeat terrorism,” compared to 67 percent who thought “relying too much on military force leads to hatred and more terrorism.” By contrast, those 26 and over were much more closely split (49–41). In addition, 62 percent

of 18- to 25-year-olds believe the United States should take into account the interests of its allies even if it means making compromises with them, compared to 52 percent of their elders.

Furthermore, in November 2004 Democracy Corps polling, 57 percent of 18- to 29-year-olds (Note: Only the 18- to 26-year-olds in this group qualify as Millennials.) believed that America’s security depends on building strong ties with other nations, compared to just 37 percent who believed that, “bottom line,” America’s security depends on its own military strength. This was the most pro-multilateralist sentiment of any age group.

Moreover, when the same question was asked of 18- to 29-yearolds in 2007 in the Greenberg Millennial Survey (GMS,) when all members of that age group were Millennials, sentiment was even stronger on the multilateral side. In that survey, 69 percent said that America’s security depends on building strong ties with other nations, compared to only 30 percent who thought that America’s security depends on its own military strength.

More than any other recent generation, Generation We rejects dogma and propaganda that pits one race or nation against another. Boundaries mean little to them, especially in comparison to their idealistic vision of a peaceful world. Having lived much of their lives in a nation at war, they yearn for a united planet in which the environment is being cleaned up and resources that might be squandered on arms and warfare are devoted instead to creating a prosperous, secure world. Generation We wants the same opportunity previous generations had to raise their families in peace, and given the opportunity they will vote, organize, and act in support of that objective.

The political attitudes of Generation We reveal a distinct pattern that is markedly different from that of their immediate predecessors, the Gen Xers—the most politically conservative cohort in American history. Thanks to their open-mindedness and their overwhelming embrace of the greater good, Generation We is developing strongly progressive views on a wide range of issues and is poised to lead the most dramatic leftward political shift in recent American history.

On the political stage, Generation We is already beginning to make their influence felt. The oldest Millennials were eligible to vote for the first time in 1996. In their first few elections, Generation We has voted more heavily Democratic than other recent generations. For example, in 2002 (otherwise a terrible year for Democrats), Millennials (then 18- to 24-years old) voted Democratic by 49 to 47 percent. In 2004, Millennials age 18 to 24 favored Democrat John Kerry for president by 56 to 43 percent. (Polling data for the entire Millennial cohort aren’t available.) If young people ruled America, Kerry would have been elected with a landslide victory of 372 electoral votes to 166 for Bush. In 2006, Millennial voters (then 18- to 29-years old) favored Democrats for Congress by a margin of 60 to 38 percent. They were the swing vote role that delivered the Democratic takeover of Congress during that year’s midterm elections.

The Democratic leanings of Generation We extend beyond voting choices into party identification. According to the most recent survey by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press (released in April, 2008), Americans age 18 to 29 identify themselves as Democrats (or “lean” Democratic) over Republicans by a 58 to 33 percent margin.

This is the largest progressive shift since the New Deal—the movement launched in the 1930s by Franklin D. Roosevelt that earned him four terms in the White House, a rewriting of the social contract between Americans and their government, and nearly a half-century of political dominance for the Democratic Party, buoyed by the loyalties of voters whose sensibilities were shaped by the politics of the New Deal. Thus, the progressive shift of Generation We isn’t going to be an important trend for one or two years or even one or two elections. It’s likely to shape American politics for several decades to come.

You might wonder whether the Democratic preferences of Generation We simply reflect their youth. After all, it’s a common folk belief that young people are generally liberal and gradually become more conservative as they get older. But that’s not the case. When we compare today’s Generation We with their predecessors the Gen Xers, we see a huge crash in Republican support. Back in the 1990s, when the Gen Xers were the same age as Generation We is today, they identified with the Republicans at a 55 percent rate. Those same Gen Xers, now in their thirties, continue to be the most Republican generation today.

The fact is that party identification and other voting behaviors formed in a generation’s twenties tend to persist for a lifetime, as demonstrated by many political science studies. This is good news for the Democratic Party. On Election Day in 2006, the exit polls showed the Democrats with a 12-point lead in party identification among 18- to 29-year-old voters. Polls taken since then typically give the Democrats even larger leads in party identification among this age group, as well as substantial leads in generic presidential and congressional voting intentions for 2008.

Of course, party preference is one thing—political attitudes are another. Does the Millennial leaning toward the Democratic party merely represent a swing in “brand preference” from one vaguely defined collection of positions to another—or does it reflect a real shift in attitudes?

My research demonstrates that the latter is true. In fact, Generation We is far more wedded to progressive political andsocial views than to the Democratic party. On issue after issue, Generation We favors progressive positions, even as they resolutely reject familiar labels, party banners, and ideological straitjackets. For example, in the GMS, fully 70 percent of respondents agreed with this statement:

Democrats and Republicans alike are failing our country, putting partisanship ahead of our country’s needs and offering voters no real solutions to our country’s problems.

And more Millennials surveyed described themselves as independents (39 percent) than either Democrats (36 percent) or Republicans (24 percent).

The fact is that the progressive shift of Generation We is not about party politics. It’s about a belief in the future; about embracing possibility and hope (the themes that have driven Barack Obama’s popularity among the young); and about rejecting the divisive rhetoric, penchant for social control, and protection of entrenched interests that young Americans identify with the conservative movement.

Members of Generation We see their friends coming home from war with permanent injuries; they find themselves unable to afford healthcare, to save for retirement, or to fill up their tanks with gas. They blame the right for these problems, and they see the obstinacy and narrow-mindedness of conservatives as being antithetical to their own optimism and spirit of innovation. So they reject the failed solutions of the right, even as they refuse to commit themselves wholeheartedly to any political party.

First, whereas American Millennials are children of both the outsized Baby Boom generation and significant immigration from Latin America and Asia (which accounts, in large part, for their vast numbers), global Millennials are the offspring of a world in which fertility rates have generally been on the decline, especially in the develop in world. Nonetheless, the number of young people around the world who are currently under the age of 30 is still huge, more than half of the world’s population. In 2005, the median age of the world’s population was 28 and falling. Current estimates suggest that the number of people in the world in their twenties (which does not include the youngest Millennials, now 19 and 20 years old) is over 1.1 billion, or nearly 17 percent of the total population.

Second, in cultural and social terms, it seems likely that most non-U.S. Millennials are several years “younger” than their American counterparts. As generational scholars Neil Howe and William Strauss explain in their study Millennials Rising, this fits the differing historical circumstances they and their parents experienced in the post–World War II period. The affluence, security, and freedom that characterized life in the United States during the 1950s (and which shaped the world of the Baby Boomers) came later to Europe and Asia. Therefore, young people outside the United States are still catching up to Americans in terms of their social and cultural characteristics.

But they’re catching up fast. Thanks to the Internet and other global communications technologies, youth culture is rapidly becoming a planetary rather than national or regional culture. As Howe and Strauss put it (at a time when Generation We was still mostly in its early teens), “Millennials are today forging a mind-set borrowed from bits and pieces of their countries of origin. The amalgam is part Ricky Martin, part Harry Potter, part Lego, part Kwanzaa, and part Pokémon.”

The crucial point is Generation We around the world is an incredible force, and one that sees itself as a single, closely linked generation with much more in common than dividing them. They all watch TV together, go online together, and swap ideas and information continually. As a result, they will make crucial social and political decisions within a framework that is multicultural and planetary rather than nationalistic, making their combined global power even greater.

Ted Kennedy’s life and work has taught me how human decency and government can work to serve her people and not solely special interests.  Kennedy’s early endorsement, of then, Senator Barack Obama in January of last year was an example of generations coming together with a shared interest to form what I call a “grand alliance”.

The grand alliance is between Generation We and like-minded people from other generations.  In this alliance several groups are likely to play important roles.  One of which are Justice Seekers.  Justice Seekers, like Ted Kennedy, support the Millennials in their quest to redeem our national promise. These are the fair-minded citizens who are troubled by the large and growing gap between our stated ideals of democracy, freedom, and opportunity and the harsh reality of life in twenty-first century America.

You have heard me discuss how growing income in-equality, dwindling educational opportunity, lack of access to healthcare, and the increasing concentration of power in the hands of elites are all helping to undermine the traditional American values of fairness and equality. Millions of Americans are disturbed by these trends, and many are prepared to demand redress for these injustices.

Here are examples of some of the events and trends that have aroused the feelings of the justice seekers and that will mobilize them to support a movement for social and political change:

> The horrific aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, in which government indifference and incompetence combined with poverty and racism created a nightmare in which a great American city was nearly destroyed by a natural disaster whose worst effects could have been and should have been foreseen and forestalled.

> Corporate scandals, such as those involving Enron, WorldCom/MCI, Tyco, and Global Crossing, in which white-collar criminals lavishly and fraudulently enriched themselves and their cronies at the expense of customers, investors, and lower-level employees.

> The failure of our military to adequately equip, train, protect, and reward our men and women in uniform, even as we sent them into the line of fire in Iraq and Afghanistan for repeated tours of duty, and squandered billions in unaccounted funds paid to private contractors and Iraqi politicians.

> The transformation of our prisons into a vast system for social control, in which more than 2.3 million Americans—more than one in every hundred adults—are incarcerated, many of them charged with nonviolent offenses, such as drug abuse, for which therapeutic and remedial care would be far more effective and humane. Racial disparities are enormous: If you’re a Hispanic male, your chance of being in prison is 2.2 times greater than of a white male, and if you’re a Black male, your chance is almost 6 times as great.

> The increasing difficulties faced by young people who try to better their lot through higher education, caught between ever-growing tuition costs, ever-shrinking access to government grants and low-cost student loans, ever increasing mountains of debt, and ever-worsening job prospects.

Notice that none of these is a partisan issue. You don’t have to be a Democrat or a Republican to be outraged over the destruction of the Ninth Ward of New Orleans, the obscene money-grubbing by the energy market manipulators at Enron or those who drove the price of oil to 140 dollars per barrel, or the disgraceful conditions in which wounded veterans are treated at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. All you need is a sense of fair play and a commitment to the idea that America should be better than this.  Millions of Americans who have that sense and that commitment are ready to become part of the grand alliance that will usher in a new progressive era in our national politics.

Life is tough, and the challenges Generation We will face are profoundly difficult. We know that. But we also know that the resources the Millennials will bring to the struggle are impressive.  What’s more, there are already signs the Millennials are beginning to rise to the challenge.

Deeply affected by the terror attacks of 9/11, the disastrous Iraq War, the horror of Hurricane Katrina, and the cynical dishonesty of the Bush administration, Generation We is already responding with their unique brand of social and political awareness. Using data from the studies, as well as evidence from news stories and emerging trends that are popping up around us on an almost daily basis, we can see how the Millennials are beginning to shape their world, giving a foretaste of the changes to come.

As we’ve already mentioned, Generation We is history’s most active volunteering generation. They are looking for—and finding—ways to change the world, redefining the boundary lines between work, education, government, charity, and politics through social entrepreneurship and creative new forms of business. They are also forming international bonds, combining their unprecedented opportunities to see the world with new planetary perspective on the issues and problems faced by humankind.

Generation We is also using the power of the purse to influence business, shaping their consuming activities to influence the behavior of major corporations. For example, the widespread outrage that brought down the Boomer-beloved radio shock jock Don Imus in 2007 was initially sparked by a Millennial activist, Ryan Chiachiere.  Working for the website Media Matters for America, the 26-year-old Chiachiere found the offensive video clip of Imus using racial and sexual stereotypes to slur the members of the Rutgers women’s basketball team. He circulated the clip using one of Generation We’s favorite technologies—YouTube. The resulting furor led to Imus’s firing by CBS and his ultimate relegation to a far less influential radio slot on a different network.

I say all this only to further support and encourage Generation We to remain engaged and hopeful that change can happen.