The Power of Millennials

Do millennials play a role in American government? Did the millennial vote have any impact on the 2016 Presidential election? In evaluating the voter turnout and patterns of millennial voters in 2016, and their actions displayed since the election, there is a lot to be learned about the future of American politics, legislation and the direct impact that younger voters have on the world we live in today.

At the age of eighteen, Citizens of the United States are given the privilege to vote. Seventeen-year-olds can even vote in the primaries if they turn eighteen by election day. According to CIRCLE (The Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning and Engagement),while the election did not end in their favor, nearly 24 million young Americans voted in the 2016 Presidential Election. Independent candidate Bernie Sanders became the voice and choice of this new generation. According to the Washington Post, in the Primary Election, millennial votes for Senator Sanders more than doubled the combined millennial votes for Clinton and Trump. Sanders garnered a whopping 2.05 million votes while neither Trump nor Clinton eclipsed 830,000.

Once Sanders lost in the Primary Election, the majority of millennials voted for Clinton, but many felt their voices were not being heard. Neither Clinton nor Trump spoke to their hopes, dreams and fears like Sanders did. Many lost confidence in the system wondering if it was rigged. The Clinton and Trump machines proved too powerful and silenced the revolution that Sanders had started. The Clinton vs. Trump election became an ugly he-said, she-said embarrassing mud slinging fight that focused very little if at all on the issues that young voters cared about.

In the year that Trump has been President, there has been no focus on things that matter to the majority of millennials, only one ugly scandal after another. My solution to this would be to end the extremely dominant two-party system and put legislation in place where candidates are on an even playing field with regard to campaign donations. Sanders could not compete with the power and money of his opponents. With election results like 2016’s, you could imagine youth voters losing confidence in American democracy. Millennials continue to see their beliefs and dreams overshadowed by Washington’s focus on tax plans, GDP, and the stock markets–topics that have always been at the forefront of the presidency but are not not the focus of importance to young voters.

Since America claims to be a democracy where every vote counts equally, we should start to see changes in legislation and ideology influenced by the younger voter. According to Business Insider, among the most paramount problems in America (according to Generation Y) include climate change, government accountability, food and water security, and student debt. Are we seeing any changes regarding these topics? The answer is: we are seeing a tide change. Rather than relying on candidates to be their voice—younger voters are making their voices heard and are not backing down. According to the College of Civic Life at Tufts University, the recent Governors race in Virginia saw a 26% increase in the young vote from the 2013 election and double the youth turnout of 2009.

Younger people are joining together. National movements and organizations such as Indivisible and Move On are galvanizing and growing. Young people have a voice that is getting louder, more organized and will most definitely have greater impact on many national, state and local-elections to come.

6 Responses to "The Power of Millennials"

Jacob Weis says:

January 27, 2018 at 9:13 pm

James,
I enjoyed reading this post and I think that it is a relevant topic. Younger voters undoubtedly played a role in this past election as they do in every election. The point that you discussed that stood out the most to me is that majority of things that matter to millennials have gone unnoticed. I would agree that eliminating the dominant two party system would even out the playing field and allow for the best candidate to win.
Gwynna Ryan says:

January 27, 2018 at 10:09 pm

James,
Your post is very interesting and made me think about an arguments I have heard in the wake of the 2016 election. As is well known, Clinton won the popular vote in 2016 election, but Trump won the vote of the electoral college. He became president to the dismay of millions of millennials which brought about arguments against the electoral college since many see it as an outdated system that no longer represents the people. It would be interesting to consider this argument with all the points that you have made as well.
Alexander Morris says:

January 28, 2018 at 11:32 am

James,
very relevant and great points made in your article. As we all know, in 2016 Trump won the electoral college and many millennials played a huge role in this process. One thing that stood out to me in particular was the notion of the two-party system and how hugely one sided it is. Campaign donations to play a vital role in the running of the presidency and evening out the playing field is an excellent tactic. As americans, we always want the best and most suitable candidate in the election and want our voices to be heard in our governmental system.
Joanna Briand says:

January 28, 2018 at 3:42 pm

Hello James,

Thank you for providing us with such an informative and engaging post, one that our entire class can relate to, as most of us had the opportunity to vote in the 2016 Election. I think an interesting point that you made was the role that campaign donations can play in presidential elections. Although many young voters supported Bernie Sanders and his campaign, he lost in the Primary Election after not being able to compete with the power and money of his adversaries. This has led to the beliefs and interests of many millennials being pushed to aside.

However, to state the obvious, it is impossible for the beliefs of all Americans to be considered because of the fact that one president can only do so much. The president is limited to the time they have in office, and what they choose to do during that time is up to their own judgement. Nevertheless, eliminating the dominant two-party system, as you suggested, seems like a reasonable solution to the fact that so many interests of Americans continue to be ignored because of the current uneven playing field. By putting the end to this extremely dominant two-party system, more ideas and interests of not only our generation could be heard, but the rest of American citizens who feel their interests tend to be overlooked.

Joanna
Marc Bosch Valentines says:

January 28, 2018 at 5:26 pm

Hey James,

I found your post really interesting and insightful. Millennials are the future and the government should aim at implementing policies that respect them and accommodate institutions to their way of thinking which is completely different from the older generations. Moreover, apart from Millennials, they should also consider Generation Z, which are the citizens that were born from 1995 onwards and that will represent a great percentage of the population, together with Millennials over the next few years. It is, therefore, essential to reform the system to allow Millennials and Gen Zers to be heard and to be taken into account which is something that, as you said, is not happening nowadays.
It is also true that young people tend to vote more liberal options, as it is, we can see it with Bernie Sanders, who, as you said, had plenty of votes among the youngest voters.
Regarding the policies that could be done with respect to them are lower college tuition or improving the loan conditions, foster greater job opportunities…
All in all, the future belongs to the younger generations and the longer they take to realize about it, the harder it will be for them to keep the system the way it is now.
Isabella Brown says:

January 31, 2018 at 6:06 pm

James,

I think that your article is relevant and engaging for this audience because we are the millennials that you are addressing. I understand the concerns that you pose in your post, mainly the concern that the voice of the youth in our Nation are not being heard and the fear that this could make the Youth feel left out and cause them to become disengaged and uninterested in our governmental system. However, as you said earlier, every vote in America does count. The reality is that our older population is larger than our youth, so it would make sense that their votes would overshadow our own. However, aging is an unbeatable process, so it will not be long before we are in their position, and perhaps the new youth will feel as though their voices are not being heard. This is not to say that your point is not important, it is just to say that in order to uphold our voting laws, this does mean that we have to respect the votes of elderly. I do agree with your solution to put an end to the dominant two-party system. I think that the two-party system takes the extremes of views on either the right and left side and leaves a lot of Americans that do not completely agree with these views left out. I also think that there should be more effort to get the youth to vote. I think that promotion of voting in schools is a great way to reach our nation’s youth. Our youth should not be discouraged by the last election and continue to let their voice be heard through their votes. Great post, thanks for the information.

Bella Brown

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