Yes, Millennials also cost us the election.

[frazzled]

8. That generation will hopefully learn

From its grievous errors and, I hate to say it, self-indulgent self righteousness. How do I know this? Because my generation--the flower child, hippie, don't trust anyone over thirty generation of which I was squarely a part-- did too. Or at least most of us did. We tucked our red star Mao buttons away in a drawer as the years went by, as we began to understand the severe costs to human life and freedom of the Cultural Revolution we once admired so fervently.. The ideology had seemed appealing, but the reality was unacceptably harsh. We learned about complexities and the hard choices of compromise from our own lives. We learned that neither we nor our institutions could be perfect and we adapted to that reality, even as we still held on to our core values of justice and the need to continue to strive for the right things. We just learned that the simple answers and the golden promises of utopia were chimeras. It's about plugging along in the right direction, warts and all, and trying one's best. We became a little more pragmatic, which didn't make us either "corporatists" or "Third Wayers" or any of the other childish names the latest generation likes to throw at us. We became realist-idealists, and they will too.

Idealism is a natural, and indeed necessary, part of youth. Self-regard and intransigence are its darker underside. But as this generation ages--and they will, and it comes sooner than they can ever possibly imagine--they too will work in imperfect jobs and deal with their imperfect children and learn that they are imperfect themselves. And they will become a little kinder, a little less assured of their own rectitude and judgment. They will learn of complexities and trade-offs and hard choices. And they will hold on to their ideals even as they learn that the ideal doesn't come easy. In fact, it doesn't come at all. But little bits of it do, and these things make you happy.