At the Democrats’ family dinner table, the divide is generational.
Democratic millennials are for Bernie, with youthful enthusiasm;
the party’s boomers are for Hillary, with middle-aged resignation.
The millennials see income inequality in their meager paychecks and the burden of college costs in their student loan bills. In Bernie Sanders, they see a candidate who is passionate about them. Bernie looks old, but he sounds young.
The last time revolution was in the air, young Bernie Sanders left Brooklyn for Vermont, which was then — and still is — a haven for hippie revolutionaries.
Around that same time, Hillary left for Arkansas on the arm of her equally ambitious husband. There she put away her tie-dyed bell-bottoms and learned to sell liberal policies to conservative voters.
Hillary, always on a listening tour, has adjusted her rhetoric and set higher goals in response to the new Democrats Bernie has inspired. Bernie, ever consistent, is still yelling about revolution, still blaming everything on greedy corporations, still making the same speech, even at a moment when a little show of pragmatism might win over the undecided voters he desperately needs. But that’s Bernie. He’s always been more about taking a stand than achieving a practical goal. Bernie is all about the destination; Hillary is all about the roadmap.
At the dinner table, Democrats are keeping their disagreements civil, even as the campaign rhetoric gets more shrill.
Most Democrats don’t like it when Bernie and Hillary yell at each other, as they did in Brooklyn. Some won’t admit it now, but come November they’ll all be singing the same tune, if not necessarily with the same level of enthusiasm.
That’s what happened in 2008, after a nomination battle just as bruising as this one.
Rick Holmes writes for GateHouse Media and the Metrowest Daily News. Contact him at rholmes@wickedlocal.com, like him on Facebook at Holmes & Co, and tweet him @HolmesAndCo.
This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: HOLMES: Sanders, Clinton speak to Dems of different generations