What the youth is embracing is, for the most part, a renaissance of classical liberalism. They believe in a reluctant foreign policy, freer markets, and an overall smaller government. It could be argued that all of this is merely youthful idealism run rampant; that these opinions will change as they come of age. I would disagree with this assertion, however, on the grounds that it misunderstands what is happening amongst the politically savvy youth.
The young are not simply parroting the acceptable opinion of the media elite because they can get around it with the internet. They have demonstrated a passion for understanding history and economics in ways that don’t fit into the 20th century paradigm. Those who promote such schools of thought like “Austrian economics” are internet savvy and have managed to get all the information one could ever want on these subjects out in the public domain and, in many cases, free of charge. Indeed, the internet is libertarianism’s domain. It is not, as is often asserted, modern liberalism or the Democratic party’s.
That being said, the Baby-Boomer generation is stuck in a belief that Social Security is immune to reality and that if we aren’t attacking other nations at all times then we’ll be destroyed. This may have had its place in the 20th century (I would argue that it was just as nonviable then as it is now), but in today’s world, the youth of America do not want to go die in order for war-hawk, career politicians to beat their chests. They do not want to live in a world were they will have to work until they are dead because their ability to save is undermined by a fiat money system. They aren’t buying the false promises that the government will be able to provide for them from the cradle to the grave because they understand one truth that has escaped the Americans of the 20th century (at least post-Hoover): that government is fallible
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