Mike and Morley

The gap between the support Millennials have for the beliefs of the protest movement and their less than enthusiastic backing of it, suggests both the opportunity for success Occupy still has and the danger to the movement if it fails to focus its strategy on attracting Millennials to its cause. With municipal authorities disrupting and dismantling the Occupy movement’s encampments in cities across the country, many are questioning if the movement can survive without its most visible symbol of sustainability. Now that its physical presence is under siege, the... Read more

The New York Times reports that many in the vanguard of the MyBarackObama.com phenomenon of the 2008 election are too worried about their economic prospects to expend the same energy on behalf of President Obama’s 2012 election campaign. Although the article also points out that there is an enormous outpouring of fresh blood now working on the Obama campaign from Millennials too young to have been eligible to vote in 2008, the report nevertheless highlights a critical issue for the Obama campaign’s plan to win re-election. President Obama will be re-elected if he can engage and turn out America’s youngest... Read more

   In our newest book, “Millennial Momentum: How a New Generation is Remaking America,” we describe why the leadership of all the nation’s institutions will be challenged during this decade by the emerging Millennial Generation, born 1982-2003. These young people believe in individuals taking action as a group at the local level to bring about a more “accessible, equitable, community-driven” world. That closely describes the “Occupy” protests. Shortly after our book was published, these protests sprung up seemingly spontaneously in more than 1,400 cities across the country,... Read more

While most religions believe their doctrines and practices to be eternal verities, all denominations, like other institutions, must continually enlist and renew the commitment of each new generation if they are to survive and carry on their work. At perhaps no other time in the nation’s history has this task been more challenging for America’s religious faiths than it is now. It is not that the country’s newest generation of young adults, the Millennial Generation, rejects the spiritual values that deeply permeate the nation’s culture. Americans, to a greater extent than those who live in other Western countries, believe... Read more

Since the Republic was conceived, communication technologies have rapidly evolved to reduce the time and distance that separate Congress from the public. But as the most recent poll results show, at least in this case, familiarity breeds contempt. Too many of Congress’s procedures and practices have remained trapped in a time warp. To reverse the slide in its credibility, Congress needs to create a new connection between citizens and their representatives. It should start that process by adopting some of the millennial generation’s (born 1982-2003) favorite technologies, especially social media, to build a more transparent, open and participatory legislative process.... Read more

What will American families be like in the Millennial era?  Millennials (young Americans born from 1982-2003) are now beginning to marry and form their own families—or at least thinking about it. What will American families be like in the Millennial era? If history and generational theory provide any guide, Millennial families will be very different from the Baby Boomer and Generation X-parented families of the past four or five decades. Social scientists define a generation as the aggregate of all people born over about a twenty-year period in a demographic group.  Together those who comprise a generation share a common location... Read more

The 2012 election will present the United States with a stark choice between two radically different visions of the country’s future. Which of these competing visions becomes the nation’s future is likely to be determined by the strength and effectiveness of the Millennial Generation’s participation in next year’s election. Whatever is said at this week’s debate, the Republican Party is sure to nominate a candidate committed to the vision of its Tea Party base, with even Mitt Romney now tacking in that direction. The mantra of smaller government, lower taxes and an unwillingness to engage in collective effort... Read more

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America is about to enter a presidential campaign that promises to be filled with divisive rhetoric and sharp differences over which direction the nominees want to take the country. This will be the fourth time in American history that the country has been sharply divided over the question of what the size and scope of government should be. Each time the issue was propelled by vast differences in beliefs between generations that caused the country to experience long periods of Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt (FUD), before ultimately resolving the issue in accord with the... Read more

President Barack Obama has told his supporters that the 2012 presidential election will be about two contrasting visions of the nation’s future. In his vision, “everyone pays their fair share,” so that there is “shared sacrifice and shared opportunities” and the government plays a big part in helping the private sector prosper. By contrast, the newest Republican candidate, Texas Gov. Rick Perry, pledged to those listening to his announcement speech to free the nation from “the grips of central planners who would control our healthcare, who would spend our treasure, who downgrade our future and micromanage our lives”... Read more