Among the ways that MAGA officials sought to denigrate the recent No Kings demonstrations was to scoff that participants were a bunch of old people. Pretty much Boomers, in other words. The implication was that because of this they could be easily ignored.
Joining in this scorn was a video opinion piece by Emily Holzknecht and Binyamin Appelbaum featured on the digital front page of the New York Times both the day before and day of the No Kings events on October 18. This screed attempted to blame what they regard as the failure of the American Dream for subsequent generations on the 76 million individuals who happened to have been born between 1946 and 1964: the Baby Boom generation.
Dumping on the Boomers has become fashionable, especially since it is pretty safe (though not very seemly) now that most of this generation are elderly and past retirement age. It's not the first time the New York Times has fingered the otherwise unidentified Boomers for what are clearly disturbing features of contemporary America that affect all of us. But instead of analyzing what and who might be specifically responsible, they scapegoat an entire group, a practice familiar to us from dark places and periods in not always distant history.
But apart from its curious timing, this piece had several distinguishing features. It was plainly accusatory and smilingly contemptuous. At times it felt like hate.
It employed lots of imagery, including using a child to advance their script--it always helps to make bigotry as cute as possible. And it more or less began by sneering at the signs carried by Boomers at this year's protests against a racist, sexist, oligarchic and increasingly fascistic cabal with a stranglehold on the federal government.
Around this time, with no overt reference to this Times hit job, Rachel Maddow addressed this critique common to MAGA and the Times, and expanded on Boomer (and older) participation through an interview with Bill McKibben, who is among other things one of the founders of Third Act, an organization for older activists, especially on environmental issues, with local chapters and a national at-large chapter. (The only clip I could find of her comments on You Tube was in the form of one of those annoying short loops, but the McKibben interview is here in full.)
Maddow listed some of the reasons that older protesters "is a good thing," including the higher propensity of older Americans to actually vote, and because every generation gets statistically more conservative as it ages, so the willingness of Boomers to put themselves out there should be scary to MAGAdom, which it is.
McKibben admitted (with pride) that Boomers have been "over-represented" in this year's protests, which really means that a higher percentage of this largest generation is out there again, than that of any younger generation. And gee, ain't that awful of us?
Clearly the Boomers forcing their metaphorical or actual walkers onto the field of play aren't the only people out there, but their presence is important and for the most part, welcomed by other participants. For one thing they add to confidence that participation is reasonably safe, and whole families can attend. They bring experience, and a certain spark. As McKibben said in that interview, younger people know this administration is bad, but if you've lived through a dozen or more presidencies, you have a clearer idea of how dangerously aberrant this one is.
As defined by demographers but with some support in cultural history, the Baby Boom forms a huge generation. Though it is known by the large numbers of its "members" at the forefront of activism and cultural change, in fact even larger numbers stayed on the fringes of this, or opposed it. Something that actual Boomers know from experience. Apart from this lived distinction, this generation includes just about every kind of person, with every kind of job and personal history, in every place in America. To make the Times' generalizations is preposterous, and should be acutely embarrassing.
The signs that Holzknecht and Appelbaum ridiculed, that said something like "I can't believe I'm still out here protesting," told one likely truth: that within the over-represented elders cohort, is the over-representation of those who'd been out there before. They were among those who marched and agitated and voted for changes in society that, for instance, very likely benefitted those authors, who without them might not have gotten within a mile of the New York Times front page.
Out in those protests today, those boomers provide experience in peaceful means, in how to conduct a non-violent but spirited protest. I'm only guessing but I'd bet that they were also over-represented in the 20,000 people in New York alone who took some form of training to keep these events peaceful. And I'm sure they were grateful that the tradition of training and monitors on the march has survived from Civil Rights and anti-war days. They contributed to the most stunning fact about No Kings Day: some 7 million protesters, with 0 protesters arrested.
Those scorned Boomers who joked about being veterans of years of demonstrations may have other stories to tell about them. Boomers were prominent participants when protests were threatened with violence and sometimes they were the victims of it. Many of us knew the smell of tear gas more than once. These protests were seldom popular. Some were very small, like a Civil Rights vigil held in the rain, or an anti-war vigil in the snow, with passing cars honking not in support but with ridicule. They often seemed futile. But we persisted.
I recently reviewed photos of early 1960s Civil Rights protests, and noticed something I'd forgotten: how so many included a particular gesture of crossed arms linked. And singing together. I am nourished today by those revived memories. I'm proud to have been there.
Younger people know things are bad, but it may take a perspective gained by blood, sweat, tears and time to better define what's wrong and what it means. (I'm thinking of one of those Boomer signs, "Accusing others of crimes that you commit--that is fascism.") The memory of early boomers can even include our parents' time through their stories and cultural artifacts: the Depression, World War II, Hitler, the Holocaust. Among white Americans, we may well have been closer to family members who were immigrants, such as our grandparents and parents.
McKibben called it "wisdom," and I'm sure there are elder Boomers with that. Knowledge synthesized and tested over time is something Boomers offer to younger protesters, and younger people in general. If only they can refrain from giving in to shadow resentment and fashionable scorn, and join in figuring out who is actually responsible for what's going wrong, and together doing something about it.
Well, I can't match the Times for slick visuals. But I can arrange some photographs...
These Boomers at No Kings around the nation on October 18...
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| Superior, Wisconsin |
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| Manitowoc, Wisconsin |
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| Eureka, CA (also top photo) |
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| Michigan |
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| West Palm Beach, Florida |
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| 2023 Climate Crisis Protest in New York |
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| 2019 LGBTQ in Washington |
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| 2017 Women's March in Washington |
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| Earth Day Denver 1970 |
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| Women's Liberation March 1970 |
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| Anti-Draft in late 1960s |
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| Anti-War in late 1960s |
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| 1975 Boston |
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| 1965 Voting Rights Protest, Montgomery, Alabama |
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| Mid- 1960s Washington |
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| 1964 Freedom Summer. I was scheduled to help re-supply Freedom Summer workers the following fall from my college, but an older student claimed my spot at the last minute. |
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| That's me, captured on a B-roll film camera as I got off the train at Union Station to participate in the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. Born at the very beginning of the Boomer generation, I was not yet 17. And yes, I wore a suit and tie. Most of the men at the March did, too. |
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