In our opinion: Boomers' last hurrah

The average age of Brunswick County residents is just over 56 years. For many whose age goes way beyond this average, the issues that usually count include taxes, financial security, grandkids and getting as much as possible out of the years that remain.

However, we've found there are other urgent issues that concern many of a certain age. What’s clear from the rallies, meetings and other events the Brunswick County Democratic Party has sponsored  ⎯  especially in 2025  ⎯  is that numerous so-called Boomers are deeply concerned about the nation they’re leaving to their children and grandchildren.

As well they should be. The most awful members of the Boomer generation are currently in charge. We know about our president, the worst in U.S. history. And we know about his sycophants in Congress, elected officials like David Rouzer, whose primary motivations are catering to the greed of the few at the expense of the many.

Republicans today are “punching down,” passing laws aimed at voiding basic rights, denying workers a decent living wage, letting kids who can barely shave the right to carry guns while degrading public education, and packing critical agencies like the NC Board of Elections with hand-picked MAGA toadies.

In Brunswick County, our all-Republican Board of Commissioners is standing by while developers and contractors run amok across once-pristine land. The commissioners, charged with representing the interests of all citizens, claim they can’t stop runaway development because the state has usurped their powers. But the special interests continue lining commissioners’ pockets, and not one of them has lobbied our state representatives  ⎯  Charlie Miller, Frank Iler and Bill Rabon  ⎯  to restore common-sense land-use authority to county and municipal governments, where it belongs.

Similarly, the all-Republican Brunswick County School Board has stood down while the state legislature has siphoned funds from public schools and given them to rich patrons to pay for private school tuition. Make no mistake, the goal of the MAGA leadership is to make sure public education in North Carolina continues performing poorly, creating an uninformed and easily manipulated underclass.

Taken together, the GOP agenda for North Carolina and the nation is bleak. However, help is on the way. We must continue to place obstacles on the road to nowhere Republicans have built. But we must also pursue new ideas designed to revitalize the middle class, preserve the environment, assist rural areas, ensure fundamental civil rights for all, and properly fund our public schools.

To meet these goals, we'll need to elect leaders at all levels of government who are not beholden to special interests and who are willing to actually listen to their constituents. We can start this fall by electing responsible and responsive leaders to municipal governments. These are important elections, and they will demand the attention of voters interested in improving government for the betterment of all our citizens.

That work has already begun. The campaigns of service-oriented Democratic candidates like Bill McHugh in Leland and Maria Surprise in Holden Beach offer the kind of leadership we need in troubled times. Once they’re in place, we can move on to the 2026 mid-term elections, where former governor Roy Cooper is preparing to restore common decency to the political process by running for U.S. Senate, and NCDP 2nd Vice Chair Dr. Kimberly Hardy is already mounting a campaign for U.S. Congress to oust hopeless backbencher David Rouzer.

So there’s hope for progressive Boomers, who believe they have one more chance to leave a positive mark on the nation their children and grandchildren are inheriting. Let’s keep working to make sure they’re right.