{"id":1975,"date":"2018-02-22T17:32:45","date_gmt":"2018-02-22T22:32:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/introamgov-mcgowen\/?p=1975"},"modified":"2018-02-22T17:32:45","modified_gmt":"2018-02-22T22:32:45","slug":"is-age-just-a-number-where-is-change-coming-from","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/introamgov-mcgowen\/2018\/02\/22\/is-age-just-a-number-where-is-change-coming-from\/","title":{"rendered":"Is Age Just a Number: Where Is Change Coming From?"},"content":{"rendered":"

In Chapter 5, the book explained the political beliefs of various different demographics. Specifically, the book mentioned the differences in political beliefs and voting habits between the young and the old. Growing up in the aftermath of 9\/11 and the economic insecurity of the financial crisis of 2008 has led many young voters to favor more liberal economic and social policies. As more and more of these young people reach the age of 18, their influence in politics will continue to grow. For simplicity, young voters will be referred to as Millennials<\/a> who were born between the years of 1980 and 2000. Older voters will be referred to as Baby Boomers who were born between the years of 1945 and 1964.<\/span> In total, there are around 92 million Millennials who now outnumber Baby Boomers by 15 million. In the 2016 election, 24 million Millennials turned out to vote, and although a large number of Millennials were not yet old enough to vote, this turnout was low compared to Baby Boomers. Even despite the low turnout, Millennials<\/a> voted overwhelming for Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton. <\/span>The support of Millennials even allowed Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders, a non-mainstream self-proclaimed democratic socialist, to seriously challenge Clinton in the primaries. In the next few years, even as early as the 2018 midterm elections, as more Millennials are eligible to vote, it will be interesting to see how and in what ways they affect the United States. <\/span><\/span>Their belief in liberal policies and their democratic affiliation might seriously affect the results of the 2018 midterms. Of the 33 Senate seats up for election, 23 are currently held by Democrats. In order to chip away at the Republican majority in Congress, Democrats are relying on the votes of Millennials to hold these seats and win more. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Recently, young people have become increasingly active politically. In the wake of the mass shooting at a high school in Parkland, Florida, a group of student survivors decided to organize themselves with the intent of sparking gun control reforms as well as holding politicians responsible for their inaction. These teenagers, some who are too young to even vote, have rallied behind the slogan \u201cNever Again,\u201d and have planned a march on Washington that they are calling \u201cThe March for Our Lives.\u201d As these brave teenagers fight for stricter gun control and political accountability, they are just one example of young people beginning to actively advocate for their political beliefs. The future of the country and its policies will increasingly be affected by Millennials as the gap between them and other generations continue to grow. Despite this continued and expected influx of youth in American political life, the current Congress is one of the oldest it has ever been. The average age<\/a> in the Senate is 63 while the average age of House of Representatives is 59.<\/span> In the 2016 election, Donald Trump, at the age of 71, became the oldest elected president. How will this disconnect between the population and the elected officials begin to change with the emergence of Millennials as a political force? Is democracy working when it no longer takes just a mass shooting to spark policy change? Is democracy working when change is only coming from high school students who yet to even vote in an election?<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In Chapter 5, the book explained the political beliefs of various different demographics. Specifically, the book mentioned the differences in political beliefs and voting habits between the young and the old. Growing up in the aftermath of 9\/11 and the economic insecurity of the financial crisis of 2008 has led …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3778,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40542,40533,68425],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1975","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-1030am-section","category-assessing-the-public-mood","category-spring-2018","column","twocol"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/introamgov-mcgowen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1975","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/introamgov-mcgowen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/introamgov-mcgowen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/introamgov-mcgowen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3778"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/introamgov-mcgowen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1975"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/introamgov-mcgowen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1975\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/introamgov-mcgowen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1975"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/introamgov-mcgowen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1975"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/introamgov-mcgowen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1975"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}