“Populists (and ‘national socialists’) look at the supposedly secret deals that run the world ‘behind the scenes.’ Child’s play. Except that childishness is sinister in adults.” – Christopher Hitchens
I’m a millennial. That means that I am inherently lazy, vapid, and uninformed. At worst, that’s how our generation is portrayed. At best, the description is a cruel reality – a manifestation of well-deserved political insecurity. (I am none of those things.)
Our 2008 enfranchisement first threatened the status quo by allowing our generation to seize political capital as gatekeepers to the mysteries of the Internet. Now, we find ourselves unwitting spectators to a quadrennial circus act that has misappropriated our soapbox – twisting and mangling discourse into 140-character indictments that were previously reserved for our narcissistic quips.
Many Americans are struggling. Our generation is uniquely positioned to learn of human suffering in real time. But, the very globalism that allows this exposure has made us deaf to domestic economic unrest. We are objectively educated, but emotionally unemployed. We chastise blue collar workers who have lost their careers as bitter rubes. We are a pop culture bourgeoisie unlike any other: ordaining the Baby Boomers’ economic resentments as improper, but lamenting about our earning potential that is voluntarily encumbered by student loan debt.
What result?
Neither right-wing nor left-wing populism is desireable for our country. So, what is an Irked Moderate to do? Teeter on a soapbox outside of the tents and call upon the promotors of this year’s Political Circus to pack up, leave town, and come back with better acts.
the irked moderate 