Liberals were Cool. Then Your Mom Became One.

Oppositional defiance disorder meets mommy issues, but make it political

While middle class white women over thirty are hardly the most oppressed group in American society, we are uniquely burdened with one thing: making movements uncool. And we’re very good at it. As soon as a political movement, or even just a brand (remember Stanley cups?) becomes associated with us, it becomes irredeemably cringe. If something exists, we can make it lame.

The other day, I was reading

Matthew Yglesias

’s

Slow Boring

and came across this article, which touches on the political vibe shift since the 2000s. Back then, it was cool and counter-cultural to be a liberal. Matt specifically invokes the (at the time) edgy anti-Republican lyrics of the band Green Day, and all the ways young people gave the middle finger to the conservative establishment, led by GWB.

I was a teenager in the 2000s. GWB’s presidency encompassed my teen years. I remember this time very well. Everyone in my school believed that we were in danger of being drafted in the Iraq war, thanks to forwarded viral emails—the original TikTok—about a draft that would somehow also cover Canada. One kid at my school had a plan to join the army voluntarily, win a purple heart somehow, and assassinate George W Bush during the purple heart ceremony. When I was fourteen, I dated one of that kid’s friends: a sixteen-year-old named Tony who saw himself as a bad boy rebel. He was a militant liberal, often railing against the “religious hicks” who lived in his rural Pennsylvania hometown (we went to boarding school, and he was there on a scholarship.) He was obsessed with Michael Moore, and when his parents bought him the DVD of Bowling for Columbine, he licked the box lasciviously in backseat of their car while they drove us to get lunch. He told me he wanted to buy a pair of skinny jeans (verboten at the time) because it would “scare Republican church ladies” who might think he was gay. He was Italian, raised Catholic, and hated all forms of religion. He made many (very unfunny) sexual priest jokes. One might call him an example of an early “Reddit atheist.” He was eventually expelled for selling weed.

Anyway, I’m sure that Tony had some legitimate political beliefs. Two of the things he talked about as evidence of his anti-church-lady identity were his support for gay marriage and marijuana legalization—two things I’m sure he had genuine reasons to support. I don’t think Tony became a liberal to shock people. But it’s interesting that you don’t really see boys like Tony anymore. You don’t see teenagers listening to Ezra Klein, or even watching The Daily Show, to showcase their edginess—and Michael Moore is now relegated to making data-free election predictions on MSNBC, for the eyes of your boomer aunt.

As Matt Yglesias has pointed out before, liberals are seen as The Establishment these days, which partly explains why it’s no longer cool to be a liberal. But I’m going to add something else to the conversation: a great deal of political vibe shifts, especially among young people, is about…how do I say this nicely…being mad at Mommy.

While some middle-aged white moms have always voted both red, and others blue, there is usually a prototypical “white suburban lady” who teenagers try to shock, and she embodies the least cool politics. In the 2010s, she was Karen. In the 2000s, she didn’t have a name, but we all knew her type. She was a “fundie,” or religious fundamentalist. She was racist and homophobic. She said dumb things like, “It’s Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve!” She was fiercely, and stupidly, patriotic. She was anti-intellectual, uptight, and scoldy.

She’s now a liberal.