Generation Jones could give GOP surprise win in midterms

The Washington Times ^ | Nov 2, 2006 | Suzanne Fields

[politico 2006]

...there's a voting cohort between Generation Xers and boomers that bears watching. They're the not-so-young of Generation Jones. If they're not "the lost generation" they're invisible to most of our culture commentators. The Joneses, who were born between 1954 and 1965, are usually included in the boomer cohort, but Jonathan Pontell, a pop culture consultant who coined the name, says that's a mistake. He thinks the Jonesers may be crucial in next week's congressional elections. "Coming of age politically in the late 1970s and early 1980s," he says, "Jonesers were the much discussed 'ReaganYouth,' and is the most conservative U.S. generation by a considerable margin." He credits Jonesers, particularly the women, with tipping the election for George W. in the swing states two years ago when they comprised approximately a quarter of the electorate. They are disproportionately represented among theme voters, such as NASCAR enthusiasts, Office Park Dads and Soccer-Security-Mortgage Moms. They cluster around issues of "moral values," and were polled as pulling away from conservative candidates after the Foley scandal. Now the latest polls show that they have conspicuously returned to the Republican base (apologies to Peggy Noonan). What makes them different from the boomers is that during their formative years, while their older brothers and sisters were indulging the hedonistic pleasures of Woodstock, they were at home watching the Brady Bunch and supping on mashed potatoes with both parents at the dinner table. They were not traumatized by the Kennedy assassination, but were terrified by Jimmy Carter's Iranian hostage crisis. They weren't interested in kicking Richard Nixon around, but were grateful to Ronald Reagan for restoring America's strength in the world... Next week we're likely to learn which candidates kept up with the Joneses. Copyright © 2006 News World Communications, Inc. All rights reserved.

[MoochPooch]

I'm a Jones, & I am probably a good subject for this article.

Parents rabid Democrats. I rabidly rejected that party & joined Republicans -- anything that sounded normal.

[Defiant]

I thought that was in the 50's.

[Defiant]

Now I know why you post anonymously.

[pray4liberty]

I was born in '57 and I've been telling others for years that most of my generation is more conservative. We graduated from HS in '75 and grew up looking back at those 60's college brats with disdain for what they did to our country. Now those same brats are in their 60s, they run our country, and still they think it's all about them.

I graduated three years after you. My sentiments exactly. But to call us JONES? There has to be a better name than that. It's a slam on us...we are the "forgotten" uncategorized generation. The ones you describe are the ME Generation. We have always been more mature than that. We are the WE Generation. We do for others, not just self.