When only one percent support you...

Just to wrap up the week and finish off some thoughts about "stepping off the stage" and acknowledging the needs and desires of younger Americans, I will share a startling result from a recent poll that asked various age groups some political questions.

Among Americans ages 18-30, ONE PERCENT!!! said they strongly supported President Biden running for another term. OK. I am fine with youth finding its own path and rejecting the restrictions and traditions of the past, but ONE percent? That's, well, emphatic.

Almost 40 percent of those same 18-30 year olds said if the next election were Biden vs Trump they would not vote at all. That is more a rejection of the gerontocracy than a political point of view. They are deeply skeptical of grandparents (sometimes great-grandparents) making key governmental decisions and constantly repeating stories that formed those old-timers 30, 40 and 50 years ago.

Conversely, I assume old-timers are more comfortable with leaders who don't have to get explanations of everything from Polaroid cameras to rotary phones and phone booths. With leaders who know "I'm A Believer" from the Monkees as opposed to the finale to "Shrek the Musical." To leaders who paid under a grand per semester for graduate school.

For whatever reasons, government at the highest levels is all about being quite old and being quite wealthy. If you are Gen Z, you are neither.

When I was just out of high school, The Who sang, "Hope I die before I get old." and that sounded rational and more like a celebration of youthful energy and new ideas than a specific condemnation of grandpa. Roger Daltrey is now 78, just a year younger than Mr. Biden, and now if he chose to belt out that anthem it would be with a keen sense of irony.

Changing for change sake, without a plan and driven by exhaustion or fear or boredom, is often a poor choice. But sometimes simply making a change, with faith that we can adjust to whatever results, and feeling confident that good things can come out of taking a chance is exactly what people and governments and companies and entertainers should do.

I'm not sure of the campaign strategy that will guarantee electoral success in our weird and pugnacious country, but creating pessimism among our youngest voters means politicians are writing them off. If we turn off enough groups of voters who have not seen much change in their daily lives, no matter who runs government, soon we have rule by the elite. 

Maybe we are most of the way there now, but I am willing to bet on the energy, passion, and intelligence of young people (for me, people under age 50) to move us forward.

America is not some dystopian nightmare when viewed holistically. It has been and continues to be hostile to minorities and to women and to the young (unless they are still in the womb), but the nation retains a lot of positives and inspirational people and ideas. 

We're a mess, but we aren't hopeless. 

And what group has more hope, more untapped idealism, and more energy than the young? My age group has had a long time on stage and some progress was made.

Time for a new cast to step up.