OPINION: Can Baby Boomers be “brat?”
Image via Ava Jelepis/The New Political
Ava Jelepis, a Freshman double majoring in Journalism and Political Science, argues that despite the rise in prevalence in getting the younger generation involved in elections through social media, there is still room for the older generations in campaigning.
“Kamala IS brat.”
Three words tweeted by pop star Charli XCX, in reference to her new album, “brat” quickly became a Gen Z phenomenon after she used the tweet to endorse Vice President Kamala Harris in her 2024 campaign for president. While flipping through the channels on my TV, I couldn't seem to escape the word. The term “brat” had taken over, and has positively affected the Harris-Walz campaign, with Harris going as far as to rebrand her online campaign in favor of “brat,” changing the profile photo of her campaign account, Kamala HQ, to the same green color and font as seen on the album’s cover art.
This new rebrand has been paying off, as the polls show that Harris leads in the votes from 18 to 29-year-olds, according to an August 2024 poll. However, this left me wondering: with political campaigns moving the internet, and the current target being young voters, where does this leave the older generations, like Baby Boomers, that make up most of the voters in America?
The ways Americans consume information have vastly changed over the past decade. From flipping pages in a newspaper to turning on the TV, to now being able to scroll mindlessly on apps such as Instagram, X, and TikTok. I come from a family that always seems to have the news on. My mom, in particular, has always made a point to make sure that I join her in watching the news to keep up with current events. Recently, the roles have somewhat reversed and I have been the one having to inform my mom of the latest political “memes” that she doesn’t always understand, even after I explain them. A few weeks ago, when the “brat” memes were at their peak, my mom and I were watching the news together. She turned to me and asked, “What is “brat? Is that bad or good?”
For my friends and I, this is something that doesn’t have to be explained, and we understand it right away. But for my mom, along with a series of other older voters, it's more difficult to grasp the meaning. I tried my best to explain it to my mom, telling her that brat means “carefree” and “powerful”, but my mom's next question was “Who is Charli XCX?” I realized most older people might not know who Charli XCX is, and many may not care. These new forms of campaigning seem to have been creating somewhat of a gap between younger and older voters. However, there are a few things people have been doing to help bridge the gap and make these new terms more understandable for older voters.
Winning the favor of new younger voters is critical, but in my opinion, staying in favor of older voters is just as crucial in order to have a good campaign. Many news organizations such as The New York Times and NBC have articles targeted toward older people explaining the “brat” sensation. Various news outlets and websites have also created versions of what they call the “Gen Z Dictionary” or “TikTok Slang Dictionary,” in order to give a better perspective on what these words actually mean. Though these might seem overboard, most of the older members of my family I have shown these articles to have seemed to develop a better understanding of what exactly these words mean, and have been able to make more educated political decisions now that they understand what these politicians are talking about.
As we plow through the digital age and watch Gen Z become young adults, we have to keep in mind that despite Gen Z becoming the new target audience, they aren’t the only audience. We must keep all ages in the loop of what’s going on, so we as a nation can all be on the same page of what's going on. As silly as it may seem, these new slang words and memes do affect the way some people choose to vote, and we all must have a similar understanding of them in order to be able to voice our opinions. People classified as Baby Boomers are people born between 1946 and 1964. This makes Vice President Harris a Baby Boomer as well, being born in October of 1964. And if she can be “brat”, I believe the rest of the Baby Boomers can be “brat” too.
Please note that these views and opinions do not reflect those of The New Political.