New Era Colorado

New Era Colorado has figured it out: the immense potential political power represented by the youth contingent. Perhaps, though, the youth contingent first needs to be awakened Young people say they plan on voting in November ... - Washington Post . Or, in this post-mortem on the “tired radicals” of the First World War era, Walter Weyl wrote, “Adolescence is the true day of revolt, the day when obscure forces, as mysterious as growth, push us trembling out of our narrow lives into the wide throbbing life beyond self.”

New Era Colorado — the Colorado nonprofit nonpartisan political organization dedicated to engaging, educating, and training a new generation of active citizens — represents such life beyond self. A representative, Ainsley Tucker, will join us as we behold this prospect of another generational roll-over.

The past five Anglo-American centuries suggest that history unfolds in cycles, sometimes with discontinuities, as eras beget generations even as generations beget eras. Generations, even neighboring generations, can have markedly different attitudes, behaviors, and self-identity. The Boomer Sixties weren’t an extension of the Silent Fifties. Who knew? No linear-thinking social scientist of that earlier era predicted the youth explosion and its consequences. 

While each historical era stands on its own, New Era Colorado is all about tapping into that same sort of generational energy. Whether that ambition represents hope or threat is a matter of one’s perspective. Perhaps we can flush some of that out by means of this (purely rhetorical) debate —  RESOLVED: It may take a fresh, pure, unencumbered frame of reference to address what is seen by some as an entitlement-oriented, politically-dysfunctional, money-centered, military-overextended, environmental-despoiling, anxiety-ridden, bankrupt era.

The City Club, its membership representing every generational archetype, is an ideal forum in which to discuss what this all means.

- Steve Smith.