Ian Bremmer on the fragility of U.S. support for Israel

I would say that Biden could not be more supportive of Israel following the October 7th attacks...  But Generation Z, young people in the U.S., support the Palestinian position more strongly than they support Israel.  And you have seen that particularly on college campuses across the country, but also more broadly.  And many on the progressive wing of the Democratic Party.  And I'm not just talking about "the Squad" and Rashida Tlaib and AOC.  I'm talking more broadly are increasingly uncomfortable with the extent of the Israeli military strikes against Hamas and the Palestinian civilians in Gaza.  All of the human destruction that we are all witnessing right now.

And President Biden has made it clear to the Israeli war cabinet that the ability that the ability of the United States to continue to provide unconstrained support for Israel is a window that will narrow if the present levels of atrocities continue.  So the conditions for peace are not just about making sure the Palestinians have an opportunity to live; they're also about making sure the Americans can continue to support Israel the way they have here-to-fore.

I think it is not guaranteed that in another four weeks time, the U.S. will still be willing to provide the kind of military equipment - high-tech military equipment and support - that they have provided to Israel historically if Israel continues to fight the war the way they have been fighting it.  Even the United States, Biden and his cabinet and core members of the Senate and the House, are facing that pressure from their own progressive wing.  And that is going to grow over time.

I also think that this is a risk for Biden in 2024 because this war right now is primarily about Gaza and Hamas.  But there are American carrier strike groups in the eastern Med[iterranean] and in the Gulf.  They've already been involved in direct strikes against Iranian Shia proxies in Syria.  There will surely be more of those strikes in the coming weeks.  American servicemen and women have already taken casualties.  Not deaths, not so far, but actually injured troops because of the knock-on impact of the war between Israel and Hamas.  So if it turns out that the United States is directly involved in a Middle Eastern war that Biden has not sold to the American people - he hasn't justified - you go from no wars started under the Trump administration to two wars started under the Biden administration.  Neither of them started by Biden, but both of them the American taxpayers are paying for and one of which the Americans might be taking casualties.  That is a very hard thing to run on if you are President Biden.  And they know it.

It also, the distraction of the Middle East - and President Zelensky has been saying this - has made it harder for people to focus on the contined support for Ukraine, especially given a counteroffensive that has failed.  So you now have these two massive global foreign policy crises, both of which are not looking so great for the United States, as we head into 2024.  I expect that Trump, when he becomes the Republican nominee, and that certainly looks very likely at this point, will make a meal out of that.

~ Ian Bremmer, "Political scientist Ian Bremmer on the Isreali-Palestinian conflict," Big Think, 44:45 mark, November 9, 2023

Suzy Welch on how Generation Z yearns for stability

Many of my [business] students say they feel as if they’re at their limits.  “You’re always hearing the world is filled with opportunity,” one student told me last semester.  “And then you turn around and there are layoffs everywhere, and everyone is saying AI is going to make us all obsolete.”  She confessed there were days she wished she could crawl under her covers to escape the static and ambiguity of it all, not to mention—as she also did—the threats of global warming and nuclear war.  Such is the Gen Z zeitgeist, I suspect, that suddenly makes stability so sexy.

~ Suzy Welch, "Generation Z Yearns for Stability," The Wall Street Journal, March 22, 2023

Bill Maher on how Gen Z sees socialism

When I hear people nowadays, fact-free, if you look at Gen Z, a lot of them think "maybe communism, be good to give that another try."  They just don't understand, because they have this idea in their head that if something happened before they were alive, what does it matter?  It didn't really happen.  But stuff did happen.  Stuff did happen.  I know you weren't around for it, but it really did and other people noticed it and we learned that lesson.  Communism doesn't work and it makes people very cynical.

~ Bill Maher, "Here's Why Russia Invaded Ukraine, w/ Bill Maher and Ben Shapiro," The Ben Shapiro Show, 9:50 mark, March 14, 2022

Visual Capitalist on U.S. generations and political power

Baby Boomers rank number one when it comes to Political Power. 

Boomers capture 47.4% of political influence. This generation accounts for 32% of all U.S. voters, and holds the majority of federal and state positions. For instance, 68% of U.S. senators are Baby Boomers. 

Political spending on election campaigns and lobbying predominantly comes from Boomers, too. When it comes to money spent on lobbying, we found that 60% of the top 20 spenders were from organizations led by Baby Boomers. 

In contrast, Millennials and Gen Zers barely make a splash in the political realm. That said, in the coming years, it’s estimated that the combined voting power of Millennials and Gen Z will see immense growth, rising from 32% of voters in 2020 up to 55% by 2036.

~ Carmen Ang, "Ranking U.S. Generations on Their Power and Influence Over Society," Visual Capitalist, May 6, 2021