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Love Hurts: Millennials Feel the Bern
What is it about Bernie Sanders that appeals to so many millennials?
The battle between generations is as old as time itself. Each generation blames the one before it and is suspect of the one after it. Right now, the generational battle being waged, real or imagined, is between baby boomers and millennials. Numbering 76 million and 73 million respectively, baby boomers are typically defined as those born between 1944–1964 and millennials, between 1980–1994.
The two Democratic presidential front-runners, Joe Biden, and Bernie Sanders fall a little north of the baby boomer demographic. But both are best identified by it. While the other Democratic candidates run the spectrum from baby boomer to Generation X to millennials, it’s one candidate who has the fervent support of millennials — the oldest candidate in the race, Bernie Sanders.
Now assigning a group of people to an identity based on the year they were born is both arbitrary and narrow-minded. These labels can then be weaponized to fuel conflict when, in fact, none may be present. Given that, exactly how a 77-year-old man has managed to capture the almost undivided attention of millennials has been confounding pundits since he was the Democratic runner-up in 2016. But digging a little deeper, it becomes much less perplexing.
