Millennials are inheriting a political culture that has retained the political animosity of the past with the growing intolerance of the present.
For the future, it bodes a political reality shaped by tribalism and emotion more than political position. Cultural identifiers could become paramount and will make political argument more difficult.
“One of the most troubling features of our current political and social climate is how powerfully it is shaped by sheer animus,” Alan Jacobs noted for The American Conservative.
For sure, complaints of political polarization have been constant for years, but it’s not necessarily a bad thing, and doesn’t compare to the rancor that can be found in American history. What’s concerning is that the divisions have increasingly gone beyond the political. In the new reality of the Red Tribe against the Blue Tribe, it has a division of culture, entertainment, and lifestyle. Common ground and basic community bonds have frayed.
That has spurred a certain intolerance, and one in areas of American society that is most threatening. College students are more comfortable with the administration limiting free speech and some students don’t feel comfortable voicing minority opinions on campus. Even conservative professors feel they have to “pass” on campus and obfuscate their political opinions.
What’s worrisome is that millennials on campus, so far, have embraced the tribalism of their parents. They’ve embraced opportunism to silence critics instead of a liberalism that favors tolerance and open inquiry.
As Jacobs put it, “people of one Tribe evidently believe, quite openly, that members of the other Tribe deserve whatever nastiness comes to them — and are willing to help dish out the nastiness themselves.” That’s a breakdown of communication and a breakdown of empathy. Rather than improving society, tribalism lets people fault the other side for all problems while crediting its side – the “Good” side – with all solutions.
Whether the rise of Trump, who has crafted a campaign with extraordinarily little substance beyond advocating a strong man unfettered by Constitutional restraint to “Make America Great Again” or of Sanders, who blames problems in America on “corruption” and “special interests,” the political situation of 2016 has reflects little flexibility or realism.
America is a nation of more than 300 million people. Its problems are complex, and a political atmosphere that rejects nuance and flexibility does not give much room for optimism. Those problems have been around as long as America has been functioning; no golden age exists. However, the political situation that millennials inherit is different than what their parents and grandparents had. To give into narrow tribalism threatens their future.
One problem of tribalism, as Jacobs noted, is that political power isn’t always held by one party. When restraints on power are removed, and the ruling party shifts, policy decisions are worse. Prudence and restraint become irrelevant, and opportunism rules. Millennials will confront those issues as their political and economic power grows. If they want to fix lagging economic growth, expansive foreign intervention, and the education system, they’ll need to avoid the charismatic and the opportunistic. Unfortunately, they don’t have many role models at the moment.
