The Millennials and Politics

Walking into the polling place on voting day is always a great thing. There are people of all ages casting their vote and making their opinions known. A few older members of the community walk out of the booths and a few middle aged parents walk in to take their place. A school bus from the local high school drops of a busload of twelfth grade seniors, all eager to vote for the first time. There are several other young people chatting with friends about how they are going to vote on various issues. This might seem like a rare occurrence, but the same thing is happening all over the country.
The Millennial generation is the newest generation that is becoming adults. Born between 1980 and 2000, this generation is approximately 80 million strong. They are a tech-savvy group, with short attention spans and open minds to race, sexuality, and religion. When it comes to politics, however, there are many speculations about the scale in which they will be involved, if at all. Although many people believe that the millennial generation is too lazy and self-centered to cast their votes, this claim is not valid because they already have had a major impact on past elections.
Critics of this generation have some pretty negative things to say about the Millennials, which are being interpreted in a way that is casting a shadow on their future in politics. Joel Stein, writer for Time magazine, calls them “lazy, entitled, selfish, and shallow” and defends that claim with “the incidence of narcissistic personality disorder is nearly three times as high for people in their 20s as for the generation that’s now 65 or older” (Stein 28). Those critics then take that idea and assume that they will not get up and vote. They then take it even further and...

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...usual” (qtd. in Miller). The side that helped Obama is supposedly the older half of the generation, and the side that is fed up with is politics is the younger half. Why, though, is there a divide in one generation? In Miller’s opinion, the younger members came to age during the recession, and therefore are less concerned with politics than their older counterparts, and more interested in finances.

Works Cited

Baggott, Caitlin A. "If We Build It, They Will Come." National Civic Review (Fall 2009): 30-33.
Gagnier, Christina M. "Democracy 2.0: Millennial-Generated Change to American Governance." National Civic Review (Fall 2008): 32-36.
Miller, Zeke J. "The Politics of the Millennial Generation." 9 May 2013. Time.com. 25 November 2013 .
Stein, Joel. "The New Greatest Generation." Time (20 May 2013): 28-34.