A demographic earthquake is taking place in America that is transforming our traditional society, argues pollster John Zogby in his newly released book, “The Way We’ll Be: The Zogby Report on the Transformation of the American Dream.”
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And these changes could have seismic implications for the coming 2008 election showdown.
This new ascending group of Americans Zogby calls the “First Globals,” and unlike other demographic groups such as “Generation X” or “baby boomers,” this group is making some radical departures from traditional American ways.
As Zogby defines them, the First Globals are simply Americans between the ages 18 and 29. A broad group, but one he says shares several remarkable characteristics, according to his polls.
For starters, narcissism seems to be a major descriptor. Zogby sees First Globals as “materialistic and self-absorbed” individuals who also “want to look richer than they are.” Like a daytime soap opera, these young people “obsess about relationships.”
Not surprisingly, they also tend to be more socially liberal. He notes they are “far more likely than their elders to accept gays and lesbians.” The only anomaly to their otherwise progressive approach is on the issue of abortion, where Zogby finds that “two out of three of them say that abortion is always or usually morally wrong.”
“For all practical purposes, they are the first color-blind Americans and the first to bring a consistently global perspective to everything from farm policy to environmental issues to the coffee they buy, the music they listen to, and the clothes they wear,” Zogby writes.
And they are the first demographic group of Americans who no longer identify themselves as primarily American and focused on America. Instead, they bring “a consistently global perspective to everything” from politics to work to social reform, and even which brand of toothpaste they buy.
The First Globals, Zogby says, expect to travel to exotic locales such as Capetown and Dubai.
“A quarter of them think they’ll end up living for some significant period in a country other than America,” he says.
The Jarring Political Divide
While just a subset of the nation’s population, the First Globals are already playing a role in re-defining the American ethos. The jarring divide between the First Globals and their elders reflects the greater political polarization that exists in America today.
Zogby describes this as a battle between the Wal-Mart and Dunkin’ Donut customers on one hand, and the Starbucks crowd on the other.
Dunkin’ Donuts patrons gave Bush a resounding show of support in 2004, 60 percent voting for him over Kerry’s 39 percent. But Starbucks customers did the opposite, backing Kerry over Bush 57 percent to 42 percent.
Like the Dunkin’ Donuts voters, weekly Wal-Mart shoppers, are more likely than those who never shop at the retail giant to be Hispanic, live in a rural areas, and attend church at least once a week, Zogby posits.
But he notes their “greatest point of distinction” — they identify themselves as either conservative or very conservative.
In 2004, for example, John Kerry came close to winning the election. But among Wal-Mart shoppers he lost by a whopping 52 percentage points — 76 percent to 24 percent.
Another example of the political divide is among church goers and those who don’t attend.
Zogby found that those who attend religious services backed Bush by 25 percentage points over those who never attended church. Much has been made about the “gender gap” among voters, but Zogby says that is less important than the gap between singles/never married and married voters. Kerry won big among the single/never marrieds.
New American Ethos
Despite the political divide, Zogby argues that a new cultural and political consensus may be developing, influenced largely by the First Globals.
“More and more . . . for all our differences and oddities, we are coming to agree on a simple set of principles, equally applicable to candidates, products, politicians, and business,” Zogby writes.
He spells these principles out: “Be fair. Be honest. Practice ethics; don’t just talk them. Appeal to what is best in our character, not to what is worst in it. And never forget that for new Americans as well as for the descendents who arrived here on the Mayflower, the seed bed of our beliefs can still be found in the meritocracy the founding fathers worked so hard to create.”
In “The Way We’ll Be” Zogby lays out a framework of the new America:
The vital center reasserts itself — Americans, Zogby writes, are “ditching the demagogues and finding common ground.” Zogby links this shift to skepticism toward government generated by the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. People are tired of division, and are searching for “areas of commonality,” he says.
The discovery of limits — The American Dream is changing, he writes. Consumer indebtedness, | 
