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Letter: Millennials will save us

I view this year’s presidential election with the same dismay that I view all the mass murders, the police assaults on innocent black people, and the recent rash of shootings of policemen; all symptoms of a very sick, sick nation.

I’m one to always look for the silver lining, although it’s extremely difficult for me on this matter. I think back to the Democratic primary when I was thrilled, absolutely thrilled by the support the millennials gave to Bernie Sanders, an avowed socialist. Maybe this country is finally getting over its mindless aversion to everything Marxist, I thought.

The millennials are the wave of the future. Every year, 3 million millennials reach voting age, and the haters who elected Donald Trump are dying off. I expect changes in the congressional elections in two years, and in four years, if Trump makes it that far, and I don’t think he will, he stands little chance of being re-elected. Sanders will probably be too old then, but Elizabeth Warren, and a lot of others, are waiting in the wings.

I understand the millennials don’t have much admiration for us baby boomers, but this boomer admires them. I remember watching a voter forum with only millennials, and I was impressed with their grasp of the issues. Even the Trump supporters expressed their views much more clearly than he ever did.

There is a misconception that the boomers were primarily left-wing radicals and anti-war. I was, but I knew I was in the minority. We just made a lot of noise, that’s all. We disrupted the 1968 Democratic Convention (I was there), so who was elected president and again in 1972? We had the enthusiasm, we just didn’t have the numbers. I suppose we had something to do with the end of the Vietnam War, but, other than that, all we did was debunk reefer madness.

The millennials have the opportunity to do so much more. Trump says the demonstrators protesting his election are “professional protesters.” Some are high school kids, not of voting age, but they soon will be, and they’re taking to the streets and telling their elders they don’t think much of the decision they made on Nov. 8.

Fred Malo Jr.
Carbondale


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