Ranting On...Aaron Schock and the "Millennial Politician"

For a variety of reasons, I have a weird affinity for Aaron Schock.  It starts with the fact that we are, on paper, very similar guys.  We both grew up in similar parts of the country (we lived 25 miles apart, which is nothing when you're in rural Minnesota), we are almost the same age, and we both displayed a penchant for politics at a young age.  As we got older, we also have a variety of similarities in terms of shared passions from politics to social media to even similar tastes in celebrities.  Suffice it to say, if he were a profile I came across on OKCupid, I would not only be clicking like, I would also be sending a carefully-constructed email.

However one big difference between the two of us is, of course, that Aaron Schock is a sitting US congressman, or at least he will be for about ten days or so.  It's interesting to look at the downfall of such an insanely ambitious politician, someone who had the chutzpah to consistently be the youngest person to do so many things (he was the youngest member of the Illinois State Legislature when he served, as well as the youngest member of Congress for a few years while he was serving).  I could get into the stupidity of his decisions to abuse funding practices and questionably take money from donors or to misallocate public moneys, but this seems pretty cut-and-dry and also seems pretty obviously wrong (I do agree with Schock, though, that if you dug a little bit deeper you could find a whole host of issues with other members of Congress).

No, I want to discuss Schock himself, since that's become the host of so many articles on the web, and since this is almost certainly my last shot at it.  His career trajectory has been strange, partially because, while not technically the first Millennial in Congress (that would be Elise Stefanik), he's certainly the first to embrace the larger attitudes of the Millennial generation.  He's extremely ambitious, not deterred by age, and is someone that genuinely didn't acquiesce to what the public's perception of his position was.

This is something that's been seen in the Chicago Tribune, with them telling him "he should have kept his shirt on" and from the Washington Post proclaiming his Instagram as "self-destructive."  Even Jon Stewart, the quintessential news-bringer for the Millennial crowd, had a field day with his constant travels and his gold-standard in social media representation.  This all may seem humorous when taken in comparison to the potential fraud he perpetrated, but these criticisms seem less about the fraud and more about saying that Schock's role wasn't taken seriously in Congress, and that this is the beneath the dignity of a congressman.

And to this, I have to say, "you're in for a surprise," because the Millennials are coming, and unlike several past generations, they are sticking to their guns on certain issues and attitudes.  There's a reason that, say, the Republicans are panicking over issues like gay marriage-these issues are almost universally backed by the Millennial generation, who is continually unleashing voters onto the public (next year people born the same year that Britney Spears' first single came out will be able to vote!).  You see it in the ways that businesses are able to market their companies-look at the way that sites like Kickstarter, Pinterest, and Instagram have been able to change how different products are marketed and sold to consumers.  You see it in attitudes toward transportation, where an Uber app or a bus pass is seen as more valuable than a car.  You also see it in the way that celebrities now have to have a cultivated online presence or pay the price with decreased access to consumers.  And Millennials, while they care about ethical propriety, are not going to see Aaron Schock's photo of jumping in a glacier or tangoing in Buenos Aires and think "that's undignified," they're going to see work/life balance, a principle they tend to value more than almost all (granted they are also going to look at an anti-environment Republican jumping on a glacier and attack him for his stance on climate change, but it's not going to be an attack about the dignity of his office).

You see this in other congressional members that aren't necessarily of Schock's generation, but have clearly understood that social media presence is important in their image with younger voters, and not just in a "I have a Facebook" page way.  Senators like Claire McCaskill and Cory Booker let you actually in on what they're doing with their social media, and either have very skilled assistants or actually post these items themselves.  Hillary Clinton knew not to push back when a meme of her looking badass in sunglasses was turned into a hilarious Tumblr, but to get in on the joke.  Even the President, frequently someone who understands the power of YouTube (why else do you think he so often appears on late night talk shows), sat down for interviews with YouTube personalities like Glozell Green, Bethany Mota, and Hank Green for an interview for the website.  This is important not just for expanding your audience and your brand, but for fully embracing it, and acknowledging that for a generation of Americans, this is the principle source of people's news.  And in that regard it's a bit disappointing what happened to Aaron Schock-it may have happened of his own volition, but in a town where everyone's constantly trying to "change Washington" he was actually making some progress in making it more accessible to a younger generation that wants to affect change, but to do it on its own terms and with its own personality.