My Generation

The Who once said “People try to put us down, talking bout my generation, just because we get around” while the who might not be a part of my generation the message in the song is still the same. Millennials like myself have been scrutinized by older generations for our lack political participation. The fact is that we are not the ones to blame for our so-called lack of participation. What older Generations might call the generational effect might just be the fact that the bulk of Millennials have not reached an age where politician’s platforms appeal to us anymore.

Millenials have grown up through 9/11, the patriot act, two greatly unpopular wars, hurricane Katrina, the housing bubble and deadlock in congress. You will have to excuse any of us who feel like the government is an institution, which at its best is flawed. And who might be a part of that institution? The correct answer is baby boomers; the same generation who is the harshest critics is also the ones who have dropped the ball when given the keys to the government. As I have grown up in this country I have seen people get their rights stripped away by the Patriot Act, get a sickeningly low amount of relief after natural disaster, get lied to about reasons for an unwanted war, seen the government fail hardworking citizens after the worst economic collapse since the great depression, and the baby boomers has shown there inability to work together to fix the problems facing this country by not being able to pass any legislation in congress. I would compare our generation to a kid growing up when his parents are going through a rough divorce. There has been no generation like us before; no generation has dealt with social media and technology like we have. While some believe that this is a bad thing, the ability to open up lines of communication between people within and out of our borders cannot be harmful. However my generation is still too young to prove its worth to this country and I firmly believe that given time the millennials will be able to tackle whatever problems we might face in the future.

In class we agreed that younger people are more concerned with social issues that fiscal issues and this is one reason why politicians do not cater to the wants of the youth that are eligible to vote. Because millennials do not see much social change it is not surprise that they are not active in government; now. However when that twenty something is older and has a mortgage, a 401 k, a little child and a new college fund they will be more involved in the fiscal issues than the social issues. It is a lot easier to worry about which group is being disenfranchised and who isn’t being treated fairly when your parents are paying for your meal plans and you are fulltime student. However once a person steps into the real world they have to be more aware of themselves and what they need to do to be successful rather than look down from their ivory tower and critique everyone else.

While voter turn out has not been high, give it 10 years time and we will see how millennials will do when the majority of them are all in or entering the real world.