New Kids on the Block

Hey, ‘80s kids — our time has come.

If you hadn’t noticed, those about to take control of running the government of the most powerful nation on earth are, mostly, our age.

From Millennials like Vice President-elect JD Vance, incoming Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, and Department of Government Efficiency co-leader Vivek Ramaswamy to others such as Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency Lee Zeldin, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, and Director of the FBI Kash Patel who were all born in 1980 (just a year before Millennials) — there’s a new Brat Pack in town.

We have arrived, but what does it mean for our future?

Politics has been an old man’s game for decades: The average age of members of the House at the beginning of the 117th Congress hovered around 58 years old, with Senators around 64 years old. One of the best illustrations of this is a 70-year-old photo of a young Nancy Pelosi with then-Senator John F. Kennedy. The same people, with the same mindset, and same experiences (or lack thereof) have been leading America for more than a generation.

But time is the enemy no one can outrun. The “olds,” as we affectionately call them, are on their way out. Suddenly, it’s our cue to enter stage right.

Our generation is unique. Perhaps that’s why we’ve been the most studied.

Personally, I can attest to the fact that we often feel like the last ones left who understand what it means to do something hard and survive difficulty without letting it define or break us. We might go to a lot of therapy, but it’s not because we’re weak.

We have some well-earned trauma and disillusionment, sure, but we also have grit.

For Millennials especially, character matters. Character, like a diamond, can only be formed under extreme pressure and pain, both of which we’ve had in spades. It’s why we consider things like the values or charity work of the places we buy things from.

We started life in a season of plenty. Born into Reagan’s America, we began full of the kind of small-town American patriotism and idealism of the ‘80s that bring about immediate feelings of nostalgia. We rode our bikes around neighborhoods, unabashedly loved fireworks, and the Goonies were our heroes.

We were shaped by the films of John Hughes, Steven Spielberg, Nora Ephron, and 1990s action stars. We were Freaks and Geeks. We had Seinfeld, Fraser, The Office, and the Gilmore Girls. We read magazines cover-to-cover, shopped in mail-order catalogs, and loved the mall. We waited in lines for hours for tickets and new releases. We created reality television. We memorized phone numbers, printed out MapQuest for directions, and were the last generation to have the freedom of not having every moment of childhood or college documented by smartphones.

We were spoiled, the Boomers thought, and called us narcissistic, selfish, and lazy, while publicly labeling us the “Me Me Me Generation.”

Then, suddenly, things changed.

Most of us witnessed first-hand the attacks on 9/11. Many went on to serve and sacrifice in the War on Terror. We graduated college in the financial crash of the early 2000s and muddled through our early 20s dealing with the Great Recession.

As young adults, we scrambled to find jobs in a market that was shifting to digital faster than anyone could anticipate. Careers one dreamed of as a child disappeared, while, a few years later, as mid-level professionals finally starting to hit our stride, we were hit with disasters like COVID and faced setbacks yet again.

We work harder and longer than anyone but get paid less and rarely take vacations. We’re less likely to own a home or be wealthy. Because of all these issues, we are often considered the “Unluckiest Generation in U.S. History,” but we are also the most educated.

Here’s the reality: We are fighters, survivors, and innovators. From serving our country to becoming entrepreneurs, startup creators, and influencers at home — we’re comfortable taking risks because we’ve had to do it most of our lives merely to survive. We’re scrappy and unafraid.

This is why America needs the ‘80s kids right now.

Sandwiched between two generations who feed off incessant propaganda, we’re frustrated at the fact many Boomers believe everything they read on Facebook, while most Gen Z’ers know only what the TikTok algorithm dictates to them.

We yearn for things to be as we know they once were, but also better.

We aren’t jaded because we can’t afford to be. Hence all the therapy.

How will this play out in the new Trump administration?

Research from the Reagan Foundation shows that “Far from wanting us to isolate ourselves, millennials seem to want us to engage. However, what they want from that engagement is diplomacy and cooperation, not the use of military strength.”

We fought the wars. We have the battlefield scars and the PTSD to prove it. We want to go back to that idealism (and strength) that Reagan embodied during his meetings with Gorbachev. We want to put America first because we are the citizens who have paid the cost of previous generations not doing so. We aren’t interested in paying for endless wars while there’s so much work to be done at home.

Ours is a generation of hope and survival. We believe that we can change our stars and that America truly is a place where anyone can become anything. We believe this because we’ve experienced it firsthand.

JD Vance grew up dirt-poor in Appalachia, raised by his grandmother because he had a drug and alcohol-addicted mother. He went on to become a U.S. Marine, attend Yale Law School, and serve as a U.S. Senator. He’s now going to be the Vice President of the United States.

Tulsi Gabbard was born on a tiny island in American Samoa. Raised in Hawaii, she was first elected to office at just 21 years old, was the first Hindu member of Congress, and served in Iraq with the National Guard.

Pete Hegseth, a self-described “low-level” Princeton basketball recruit from “nowhere Minnesota,” outhustled and outworked competitors on the hardwood and in the classroom, propelling himself through two Ivy League degrees, multiple combat deployments, and a successful career as a newscaster and author.

Vivek Ramaswamy is a first-generation born American with parents who immigrated from India. He grew up in Ohio, went to Harvard University and then Yale Law School, and possessed an entrepreneurial spirit. By the time he was in law school, he was worth millions — by age 38, his wealth was almost a billion dollars.

These are not Vanderbilts, Rockefellers, Bushes, or Roosevelts taking America’s helm.

These are young Americans who have served their country, worked hard, and overcome the odds out of sheer determination and self-motivation. That’s the American dream. And we’re here to tell you that it’s very much alive and well.

So, call me crazy, but I feel like vindication is coming for us children of the ‘80s.

Buried beneath the memes and regrettable fashion choices of our youth resides something missed by the countless studies, criticisms, and magazine articles — hearts that beat for One Nation, Under God, Indivisible, with Liberty and Justice for All.

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Tiffany Marie Brannon is the writer and host of the TMB Problems podcast.

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