First Gen X President? First Millennial President?

[bballrox4717]

I agree that Obama isn't a Boomer but part of Generation X because it seems that generations are always defined by a world altering event: the Baby Boomers began with the ending of World War II, the Millennials began with globalization, and the Homeland Generation began with 9/11. Generation X is tricky, but I would place one domino-falling event: the assassination of Kennedy. After that, you have Johnson, the escalation of Vietnam, Watergate, and all of that. There's a trend that the generation really starts off when the person does not remember a watershed moment: a Baby Boomer doesn't remember WWII, X doesn't remember Kennedy getting shot, Millennials barely remember life before globalization began, and Homelanders don't remember 9/11. This would mean:

Baby Boomers: 1942-1960
Generation X: 1960-1980
Millennials: 1980-1998
Homeland: 1998-present

The beginnings of X is still a little bit wishy-washy of course, but when you talk to people who were born around 1960 and afterwards, Kennedy and Vietnam don't really mean too much to them they way it did to Baby Boomers unless they had siblings serving. They were never activists and don't identify with the tumultuous times of the late 60's and early 70's. My mother was born in 1961: she didn't remember Kennedy and only knew of Vietnam due to her older brother. She'll tell anyone that nobody in her grade in school knew much of Vietnam and they didn't care about Watergate. The vast majority of her year began to be affected by politics around the time of Reagan like the rest of Generation X. Obama, like my mother, has more characteristics of a Generation X'er than a Baby Boomer, which was incredibly apparent when comparing him to the general bunch of candidates who have run in the 2000's.

That's why Congress doesn't respect Obama, because he has a completely different mindset than the Boomer dominated Congress, especially those who were felt they were a part of Nixon's Silent Majority or feel that politics should be dominated by "are you better off than you are 4 years ago. The same divide is felt by Generation X'ers who are baffled by complaints by Millennials about jobs, who were told that they key to life is being rewarded for hard work but are getting rebuffed by the globalized job market. I'm sure I will feel the same divide with my cousin, who was born in 2001 and doesn't remember 9/11 or the Bush presidency, which defined my childhood and teenage years.

To answer the question, the first Generation X president, if you don't believe it's Obama like I do, is due anytime now. I bet that 2028 or 2032 will see the first realistic Millennial presidential candidate appear in a wave election similar to Obama, though conceivably we could see the first Millennial early in 2024 or we'll need to wait until 2036. My apologies for the generation rant.