The Y Manifesto, Or How We Will Learn from the Tea Party

Take a deep breath. Do you feel that? There’s still air in your lungs. You can still breath. You can still feel.

And you can still fight.

First off, we have no time for a shortsighted blame game. This isn’t Trump’s fault. He’s only the outcome. This isn’t Hillary Clinton’s fault. This isn’t Bernie Sanders’s fault. This isn’t third party voters or Florida or Paul Ryan or James Comey’s fault.

This is the fault of aging, white Baby Boomers.

Listen:

In the 1960’s, Boomers were teenagers. They were idealistic. They put flowers in guns and watched men walk on the moon. JFK was elected and assassinated. The country was never innocent, but it was the moment when Boomers finally realized it.

In the 1970’s, Boomers were twenty-somethings. They were weird. They were experimental. They had terrible taste and fell in love with disco and bell bottoms. They rebelled against the establishment. They hated Nixon. They were losing hope.

In the 1980’s, Boomers finally had money. They were yuppies. They did harder drugs and made cocaine mainstream. They were excessive and had bad haircuts. They thought the coolest thing ever was owning a boat and looking like a character on Miami Vice.

In the 1990’s, Boomers were our parents. They had kids to feed. They wanted a house. They were responsible and thoughtful and wanted their children to have everything they couldn’t have. It was a time of reflection and a time of prosperity.

Then came the millennium. In 2000, they were scared. People who didn’t look like them or believe the same things they did blew up the World Trade Center. The Boomers sheltered us. They wanted us to be safe the only way they knew how. At this point, they were in their 50’s. They weren’t getting any younger, and it scared the hell out of them.

So, here we are. It’s the 2010’s. With their last dying breath, the Boomers clung to who they used to be. White Boomers reminisced about their childhoods and how great and simple everything was in the 1950’s and early 60’s. They wanted to “Make America Great Again” without realizing that, for people of color, America was never that great to begin with.

For four more years, Donald Trump will be president of the United States of America. And that gives us 1,455 days to get him out.

Forget the term Millennial and all the negative connotations that come with it. We are the Y-Generation, as in why did you turn our country into this? Why did you ruin our environment with your obsession with oil? Why do we have to fix all your mistakes?

The good news is that we have the perfect road map. The Y-Generation has overtaken Boomers as America’s largest generation. We have the numbers. We have the means. And we have the Tea Party to emulate.

You read that right. This is our manifesto.

We Will Organize

Between February and April 2009, Tea Party protests rose to 750 towns and cities across America. People who had enough of bailouts and reckless behavior came together. Along with them came those with shadier agendas, those who feared a black man in power to the point they would question his very birth.

We will be bigger. Within the next three months, we will organize protests in more than 750 towns and cities in this country. We will revolt against the misogyny, racism, and overall disrespect that has defined this election.

We Will Start a Grassroots Movement

The Tea Party drew thousands of disgruntled Boomers into political activism for the first time since they were young and idealistic. They created a political culture. The Tea Party taught their members how to find their legislator and how to get him on the phone. They made their opinions known and were as loud as possible. Between 2010 and 2014, they groomed their representatives to take over the House, a goal they accomplished.

We will be stronger. We will abandon slacktivism for true activism. We will make our opinions known and make sure our legislators know they won’t be around four years from now without us. We will find talent within our pool and groom them to take back the country. We will embrace the passion that came from Bernie Sanders’ campaign and turn it into real results.

We Will Stop Fighting Fair

This will be hard. Deep down, we believe in civility and finding common ground. We want to work together and find a solution for everybody. It doesn’t work. While we compromise, they choose not to nominate a Supreme Court Justice. While we contemplate, they take decisive action.

When Democratic Congress members held town hall meetings to explain the benefits of The Affordable Care Act — legislation protesters renamed “Obamacare,” the Tea Party packed the room. They shouted and booed and recited the Pledge of Allegiance. They rattled our reps.

We will be louder. When they talk about building a wall, we will raise our voices to tear it down. When they attempt to repeal Roe vs. Wade, we will scream at the top of our lungs. When they attempt to isolate our country and reduce the contributions of immigrants, we will pick those immigrants up and carry them on our shoulders.

We Will Go to Washington

On Sept 12, 2009, 75,000 Tea Party supporters gathered at the National Mall. It was the continuation of a long tradition of parties becoming powerful. They took all their anger and frustration and directed it toward a common target — the President of the United States. The Tea Party showed the highest levels of disrespect for the most thoughtful of presidents. Obama was depicted as the Joker, as Hitler, as a man who simply wasn’t legitimate.

We will be bolder. We will paint the same contrast. In the same way they showed no respect for our Commander-in-Chief, we will show no respect for theirs. When Donald Trump comes to town, we will boo. We will demand his tax returns. We will question his legitimacy. We will hold him accountable for everything that goes wrong with the country.

And soon, we will march on the National Mall. We will gather a base twice the size of the Tea Party in 2009, if not bigger. We will make ourselves known.

We Will Grow Up

The clearest separation between the Tea Party and Y-Generation movements of the past is the Tea Party’s maturity. White Boomers are not just passionate — they are prepared. We have attempted our own movements with limited results. Occupy Wall Street lacks a clear vision and clear leadership. Black Lives Matter is deeply passionate, yet unfocused.

The Tea Party stopped being street protestors. They found rich backers who poured money into campaign ads that spoke to common people. Insurgent Tea Party Republicans scored upsets across the nation and took down incumbents who weren’t far enough to the right. They installed the very outsiders who would guide the nomination of Donald Trump.

We will be wiser. We have the means to find like-minded backers to help take our country back. We will reach out to compassionate progressive entrepreneurs in successful businesses and startups around the country. We will seek out influencers who are as shocked to find Donald Trump in the Oval Office as we are. Instead of rallying against “The Establishment,” we will become the new establishment. We need leaders at all levels to guide us forward.

Thank you, Boomers. Thank you, Tea Party. You’ve done something no one else could do. You’ve given us a face for our frustrations. You’ve helped us feel a new kind of failure. We are no longer complacent. We are no longer content. We have fallen hard.

In four years, we will rise.

This is our manifesto.