Last week, I had the opportunity to attend an event at the Bipartisan Policy Center (BPC). While the free pizza helped draw a sizable young crowd, the main attraction for this gathering was former Republican Senator Olympia Snowe. She spoke to endorse an initiative called Common Sense Action (CSA), a campus-based organization aimed at promoting bipartisan cooperation. Snowe believes that the youth of this generation will be responsible for enacting the reforms and policies our country needs.
CSA’s agenda is relatively simple, but the issues that could be impacted by implementing its suggested reforms reach a broad scale. They seek to advocate for better opportunities for our generation through community organization initiatives. In addition, each chapter can grade their local leaders on how well they represent the views of most millennials. While these efforts seem ambitious, they are the best chance we have to have our voices heard.
There is good evidence to believe that the millennial generation is cynical about the current political process. Our generation is less trusting of what other people say, and consider themselves increasingly independent from the views of either Democrats or Republicans. In addition, we are more diverse in terms of race and sexual identity, and are open to engaging with people of other ethnicities or nationalities.
While this is normally good news for moderates, these attitudes have a negative side effect: millennials have yet to translate these views into political action. During non-presidential elections, young voters are historically absent from the polls, with this year looking no different. In addition, there is a significant risk that the disappointment in our elected officials will encourage our generation to become permanent non-voters, leaving only radicals on both sides to sway election turnout results.
Ever since I wrote Broken Mast: Changing Course for the Capitalist Ship, I have come to the conclusion that the extreme polarization is partly to blame for this apathy. I support the BPC and CSA’s general agenda because their ideology is comparable to what many practical voters desire. Their efforts to increase the amount of time Congress members spend on Capitol Hill and anti-gerrymandering initiative earns my endorsement. They also seek to counteract the post-Citizens United political landscape through greater transparency laws and greater regulations on the activities of Super PACs.
Without active participation from the millennial generation, we cannot break the shackles that bind our leaders to the interests of powerful and wealthy groups. This is one of the reasons why organizations such as CSA and the Millennial Action Project are so important to improve the political landscape. Our generation must actively participate in primary elections if our voices are to be heard.
The discontent our generation holds over the political process has the potential to flip Washington upside down. Our generation has already shown how powerful it can be during the SOPA/PIPA debate, when millions of young individuals broke the political grip major content providers held on Washington to kill a terrible piece of legislation. In addition, we have reversed the tide in favor of greater LGBT rights, which was moving at a snail’s pace only two decades prior. President Obama would not be where he is today were it not for the passion and drive of young voters.
If you are still in college, I encourage you and your friends to consider joining or starting a CSA chapter at your institution. At the very least, this will provide you the opportunity to work with other students with different political viewpoints. If our generation can inherently accept compromise as a rational political option, then we have already outperformed our members of Congress.
One does not need to be a liberal or conservative to realize how important many of these changes are to maintain our democratic process. It is up to the moderate members of both parties (as well as any third party) to unite under a banner of civility. The only way for this fantasy to come to life is if millennial voters mobilize and become politically engaged.