On Nov. 8, 2016, it looks like we will be choosing between two baby boomer candidates for president of the United States: Trump and Clinton. The media, the polls, and the researchers will have you believe that choosing between these two candidates will, for many voters, be like that multiple choice exam where you would prefer to just circle “other” or “none of the above.”
The political pundits define this as an election between two candidates who both have high negatives.
A baby boomer who is a distinguished professor at the University of Oregon and has been closely following campaigns since 1972, confesses that he has not seen an election like this one in his lifetime. This is a baby boomer who has it on his bucket list to someday go to New Hampshire to work in a political campaign.
He is, as they say, an engaged voter.
We have been hearing complaints that the rules governing the way you run a campaign have all “gone out the window” for the Trump campaign. The Clinton campaign, on the other hand, seems to rely on a more traditional methodology. In some ways this is a microcosm for the choice that we, as Americans, will be making in November: “change” versus “establishment.”
Do we choose a new direction, a new mode of operation, and go with Trump? Or, do we keep the status quo by selecting Clinton?
By the time Trump or Clinton leave office, they and their fellow baby boomers will be at a different stage of life. The baby boomer voter of 2016, will be looking ahead to the golden years, as opposed to the golden parachute. Baby boomers will have traded in social causes for Social Security.
Even our two candidates of 2016 will reflect that.
Trump is on his last escalator ride, having spent his entire life building a brand.
Clinton will have been to all the political chicken dinners that she can stomach. Could this be the last time that baby boomers will be at the center of the political universe?
Maybe this election is about the next stage of life for baby boomers. Maybe it is one last accomplishment for Trump or Clinton, who, like so many other baby boomers , feel that they have one more big accomplishment left in their chosen field. But for now, in these next few months, it is about the campaign, the persuasion, the communication, the voter.
For the baby boomers running for office, their fellow baby boomers will be watching, voting, and wondering about their own lives through the eyes of the baby boomer candidates.
Rick Bava founded and was CEO of the Bava Group, which became the premier communications consulting firm serving the Fortune 500 community. Bava became known for his popular blog columns “Rick Bava on the Baby Boomer Generation.” He is the author of "In Search of the Baby Boomer Generation." For more of his reports, Go Here Now.
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