By: Patrick Wheat
In light of the recent government shutdown, people are looking at Capitol Hill and shaking their heads in exasperation. Even with the government’s faults, a majority of the population agreed that the shutdown of the largest single employer in America was going to have a negative effect on the global economy. Despite this, shutdown dragged on for weeks so politics could happen for the sake of politics. Regardless of one’s political affiliation, it is safe to assume that the return of a whole and healthy government is preferable to a groaning husk seemingly unable to accomplish the simplest of tasks.
With a government willing to shut itself down rather than negotiate, is it any wonder that the Millennial Generation appears to be politically apathetic?
Roughly defined as anyone born sometime in the 1990s or the 2000s, the Millennial Generation has been called a variety of colorful terms, ranging from “lazy” to “entitled” and even being called “politically ignorant” upon occasion. These accusations are often based on voter turnout rates, where individuals between ages 18-29 made up 24 percent of the total voting electorate in the 2010 election. Further evidence for these claims is drawn from political surveys from the Pew Research Center where only 14 percent of individuals between the ages of 18-29 were able to correctly answer political questions, such as correctly identify John Boehner as Speaker of the House of Representatives.
As a member of the Millennial Generation, I personally disagree with the assessment that we are an apathetic generation. In fact, a survey conducted by the Harvard University Institute of Politics in 2011 estimates that 43 percent of high school students are interested in community service and 60 percent of college students take part in some form of volunteering in our community. When asked why community service seemed so popular with their fellow students, one of the most common answers was variations of “The ability to directly give back to my community in a real and positive way.”
The assumption that Millenials are apathetic is incorrect. They are simply choosing to be active in a different manner than previous generations.
In 2012, the Government Business Council put forth a report saying that the federal government will need to hire more than 200,000 highly skilled employees over the next several years as members of the “Baby Boomer” generation are approaching the retirement age. Conversely, in 2013 the Partnership for Public Service released a survey in which college students were asked if they planned to work for local, state, or federal government institutions after graduating. 6 percent responded “Yes,” with 2.3 percent of those responding indicating an interest in working at the federal level. The most common reason for not wanting to work at the federal level was essentially “Results are important and to us, politics isn’t a place for results”
Those in college now were raised in a culture of partisanship and political grandstanding where a good stump speech was preferred over solid policy initiatives. The popular opinion is that Washington is no longer interested in the “greater good,” but rather the only objectives of modern politicians are to consolidate their own power and to beat the opposition. After decades of increasing stagnation on Capitol Hill, socially inclined individuals are more likely to become social entrepreneurs, working outside government to create innovative and measurably successful solutions to the nation’s problems, even if only on a relatively small scale. Some academics, including Dr. Nicco Mella of the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, fear a “Brain-Drain” in Washington because the students being trained in government are becoming more likely to work outside the system to solve issues rather than work inside a system they perceive to be broken.
Some of the organizations that have strong Millennial influence have been created because they fulfill perceived needs as the current political structure exists today. An example of this is Common Sense Action, whose goal is to formally create a policy agenda for our generation. CSA was founded by four students of Brown University and is now operating in conjugation with the Bipartisan Policy Center. CSA’s main complaint, that individuals in the Millennial generation have no voice to advocate for them in Washington, has led to interest in over 20 campuses across the nation. Another group that has heavy Millennial influence is No Labels, whose 12 point plan to reduce political partisanship within the federal government has support from over 70 members of Congress and includes steps such a lack of pay for Congress if a budget is not passed and a monthly meeting between the Congressional leadership on both sides and the White House.
That is not to say that Millenials are not able to participate in formal politics. One of the most cited examples of strong youth voter turnout was the election of President Barack Obama in 2008 and in his reelection campaign in 2012. President Obama won 67 percent of youth vote, giving him a large lead over Governor Mitt Romney in the 2012 election. According to an analysis of the 2012 election done by the Center for Research and Information on Civic Learning and Engagement at Tufts University, had the youth vote been split 50-50 between President Obama and Governor Romney, than Romney would have been able to win Florida, Virginia, Pennsylvania and Ohio, virtually securing his win in the Electoral College. Furthermore Rock the Vote, a nonpartisan organization focused on increasing voter turnout, claim that the trend of increased voter participation seen in the 2004, 2008 and 2012 indicate that the members of the Millennial Generation will continue to be a strong deciding voice in upcoming national elections. By taking an interest in formal politics as well as perusing solutions outside the government, the Millennial generation is able to impact the outcome of elections in a way that has not been seen in past generations.
Beyond formally established organizations, Millennial students have created hundreds of thousands of websites dedicated to social action, online petitions about popular issues and blogs advocating opinions on the hot political issues of the day. One example of this is Change.org, a website that houses petitions on popular issues and sends them to people that would be interested in each individual cause. Change.org has registered 230,331,687 signatures as of Oct. 2013 from its foundation in 2007. Where the 1960s and 70s were characterized by sit-ins and mass protests on government buildings, Millennials’ use social media to connect with likeminded individuals across the nation to support the same rights and freedoms that our parents fought for when they were our age.
The Millennial generation is just as invested in public service as any generation that has come before us. With over half of our population regularly volunteering, it is clear that we are simply a new form of involved rather than completely disinterested in the state of the world. As it applies to the current political structure, the increase of Millennial involvement in formal and informal political structures will most likely require politicians to work with input from both our generation to ensure they stay in office. The choice to have a voice in social issues is one that each generation must make for itself. By continuing to peruse political and social participation, the Millennial generation will be able to replace the perception of apathy with the certainty of creating a new voice in American politics.
