Don’t watch much television but spent some time watching Stranger Things with the fam over the holidays.
Poorly acted and tons of filler content, but the show is popular because it perfectly presents life in the 80s in a way that many who were around at the time can really appreciate.
Indeed, Gen X is having a moment. And its about time.
With Street Fighter coming out next year (cannot wait to drag the ladies to that one as payback for that Barbie movie disaster) along with a live-action Voltron and tons of other societal callbacks to the beautiful era of Gen X childhood an entire generation is suddenly finds itself at the peak of social awareness.
It makes sense. We’re the boss now. The grown up at the tables. We run things– and we’re doing a very nice job I must say.
We can attribute the great recession to the boomers and the relative, steady upward trajectory of all things to Gen X swinging into management positions.
But more is required than steady stewardship of our nation’s private sector.
We need Gen X leadership in government.
Now this is actually trickier than it seems because Gen X was raised, by and large, to stay out of the limelight and do our best work behind the scenes. We aren’t the selfie or social media generations. We never sought to glorify ourselves.
Indeed, we grew up in an a cold war era when patriotism and self-sacrifice for the greater good were necessary and expected. Drawing needless attention to yourself in the face of the potential for literal annihilation at the hands of the soviets–something we were very much brought up to believe was a legitimate threat– was pointless and absurd.
Plus we were constantly presented with archetypical heroes in cartoon shows that would NEVER fly today who faced real risk, and even death (e.g. Optimus Prime) in a good versus evil universe that makes the Marvel movies seem like playtime. The stakes always seemed so staggering and the risks so great that it was best to let the true heroes handle things.
So we’d go off and ride bikes in a world that seemed strangely far more dangerous and yet far safer than today’s world does, knowing that the great social battles had already been won by our predecessors even if the global war still waged beyond our control.
Stated simply, we grew up in a world that didn’t seem to need us.
And for a while the world seemed to agree.
Social media arose just as we were leaving our useful 30s and into our forgotten 40s and 50s. So social awareness seemingly skipped us entirely. The world remained dominated by the boomers with the millennials dominating social media and societal trends–who were themselves quickly forgotten for the splashier hype monsters of Gen Alpha.
And then something happened.
Joe Biden.
His rapid decline in office showed everyone that the boomers were done. Trump II came along and his decline is obvious as well.
It is, without question, time for a new generation of leadership.
And we look around, and there just wasn’t anyone out there ready to step in.
The media predictably looked to social media darlings and the hype of millennials and gen z. We see so many notes about silly AOC and Mamdani, supposed darlings of the youth. Silly.
These are grasps for so many straws.
We all know who is control now. Gen X is waking up fully aware of its new found powers and it is having a little bit of fun out of the gate.
So let Stranger Things wash over you. Then prepare for Street Fighter and Voltron before a pile of additional of Saturday Morning Cartoon remakes find their way onto the big screen.
Prepare for Swamp of Sadness memes and reminders that Goonies Never Say Die.
Some will call it cultural strip mining. Fine.
What it really is is the bugle sounding and the torch passing.
Its our time now Gen X.
The kids don’t know what they’re doing yet– and they know it.
You don’t need me to tell you that.
You need me to tell you that there’s no one coming to save us anymore.
I know this sounds nuts… but we have to pay members of Congress more money.
A lot more money.
I know that sounds nuts because the people we have in Congress right now are complete losers– folks that just represent the parties and NOT the people.
But that’s exactly the problem.
Because the position pays so LOW compared to other high-powered professional careers it only attracts LOSERS who only care about attention and NOT about doing what the people need done.
And I get it– powerful people like Troutman should WANT to serve in Congress no matter how little they get paid but that’s just not reality.
We need to be smart and get our heads out of the clouds.
If you want the best people working for you YOU HAVE TO PAY THEM.
$1.9MM a year sounds about right.
Nuts right?
But that’s what the top lawyers and business owners make (or even more).
So if we want REALLY qualified people in office we have to pay the position what its worth.
Then qualified people will run for office and the losers in Congress will all LOSE their jobs and the nation will WIN again.
The universe does these little things once in a while to make sure you know its paying attention.
So am I.
And I know you’re tired of masked ICE agents running around out there.
Yes, even you on the right. I know, you’re also tired of open borders and “illegal” immigrants “invading” our nation– I get it– but you don’t like masked federal officers pouring through your towns shouting profanity-laced demands and making you feel like weak little children do you?
Of course not.
We’re a free people.
This is an affront to our dignity and our intelligence.
So what are you going to do about it?
Complain? Whine on the internet? Protest? Send letters?
The more you fight the worse it will get. Trump wants you to protest. He wants to see anger on the streets. He wants an excuse…
You know what I mean.
You have to be smarter than that.
You have to make a deal.
The law must be enforced. But rights must be protected.
So you need to make a deal to deliver both.
Its not that tough– but the system can’t deliver this result. Because the system is at war with itself.
Ultimately all of this is because of the broken party system. There’s a reason so many people are backing my plan to END the party system entirely and BAN partisans from government.
The Democrats can’t deliver for you. They don’t know how to make a deal. And Trump doesn’t respect them.
The Republicans won’t deliver for you. They have to obey Trump because they’re puppets for him. They can’t question him long enough to make a deal.
Like Neo said in the machine city at the end of Revolutions I say to all the partisans out there:
“You cannot stop him. But I can.”
A deal must be made. And only a man like me can make that deal.
Because I know how to make a deal.
I’ll help you all out.
A deal goes like this.
“You want illegal immigrants out. We want the rights and freedoms of citizens protected. Let’s get it done.”
There are many ways to make this deal. But only the right person can get it done.
I’m sorry you can’t vote for me for another 10 months. Its a long wait. And things will probably get worse out there while we wait.
Talked to a ton of people about the campaign this week. Tons of support.
Money pouring in.
Talked to someone who had a very interesting observation.
“You’re acting like you’re David fighting Goliath.” He said. “You have this all wrong. You’re Goliath.”
He’s not wrong.
As an independent I am stepping gingerly. His point was clear– “the policies you’re running against have 20% support– the vast majority of people stand with you.”
This was worth chewing on.
The result was never in doubt.
But the approach may change. It may be time to get more aggressive.
