© 2024 Blaze Media LLC. All rights reserved.
Tricky Politics with Millennials
In this Oct. 22, 2012 file photo residents line up to vote early in Wilmington, N.C. In key swing states this year, Democrats who want to expand early voting and Republicans who want to limit it, are battling to gain even the slightest electoral advantages by tinkering with the times, dates and places where people can vote early. Republican North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory signed a law last year reducing the early voting days from 17 to 10 and eliminating same-day registration. The changes are being challenged by both the American Civil Liberties Union and the U.S. Justice Department. (AP Photo/The Wilmington Star-News, Mike Spencer, File)

Tricky Politics with Millennials

Millennials have an a-la-carte approach to modern politics.

Millennials are choosing not to walk the party line, but instead are choosing an a-la-carte approach to modern politics.

To simply state:

The 80-million strong millennial generation believes gay married couples should be able to defend their marijuana plants using legally purchased and available guns.

Yes, that is right. Welcome to the political mindset of millennials.

 In this Oct. 22, 2012 file photo residents line up to vote early in Wilmington, N.C. In key swing states this year, Democrats who want to expand early voting and Republicans who want to limit it, are battling to gain even the slightest electoral advantages by tinkering with the times, dates and places where people can vote early. Republican North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory signed a law last year reducing the early voting days from 17 to 10 and eliminating same-day registration. The changes are being challenged by both the American Civil Liberties Union and the U.S. Justice Department. (AP Photo/The Wilmington Star-News, Mike Spencer, File) In this Oct. 22, 2012 file photo residents line up to vote early in Wilmington, N.C. (AP Photo/The Wilmington Star-News, Mike Spencer, File)

This passionate, strong, yet fickle generation was shaped by the failures of Republican leadership. This caused them to seek out an alternative. Democrats.

But now they are actively being shaped by the failures of Democratic leadership and their overzealous, non-negotiable liberal agenda.

The Obama Administration has single-handedly destroyed the trust millennials had once felt for government to do the "right thing" for the people they serve. This "trust" is at historical lows across all facets of government.

According to the latest Harvard Institute of Politics poll, 68 percent distrust the president; 86 percent distrust Congress; 64 percent distrust the Supreme Court; 80 percent distrust the federal government; and 53 percent distrust the military. The "trust factor" has declined every year President Obama has been in office as young Americans are finding out what a Chicago-style administration looks like.

This distrust in government has forced millennials to go rouge.

[sharequote align="center"]This distrust in government has forced millennials to go rouge.[/sharequote]

 

No longer are they in the back pocket of Democrats, blindly following their over-reaching agenda. According to Harvard’s Institute of Politics, before the 2010 midterm elections 38 percent of young Americans identified as Democrats. Four years later that number has dropped to 35 percent. On the other hand, the number of those identifying as Republicans has risen from 23 percent to 25 percent.

Not only are Democrats sending some young voters to the Republican Party but they are also transforming a generation into the independents they were born to be.

In a recent Pew Survey, a stunning 50 percent of millennials now describe themselves as independent. This is the highest level of political un-affiliation that the Pew Research Center has seen in its 50-year lifespan.

Both political parties have been caught up in lies and scandals that have turned millennials away from the two-party system. Whether it is Republicans and their weapons of mass destruction or Democrats promising better health care but delivering more bureaucracy and higher costs (not to mention sticking millennials with the bill) this generation has grown increasingly distrustful of both parties and their ability to deliver on their campaign promises.

President Barack Obama shakes hands with supporters after speaking at a Grassroots Rally September 2, 2012 on the University of Colorado campus in Boulder, Colorado. Obama discussed his plan to help the middle class, Obamacare's impact and the importance of the youth of America getting out to vote in the upcoming election. Credit: Getty Images Millenials feel let down by President Obama's promises for hope and change.  Credit: Getty Images

If you are a Republican or a Democrat, reaching out to millennials can be tricky. Young Americans love that Democrats try to right social injustices, but they also love the idea of lower taxes and smarter government that doesn't give free reign to the NSA and Health and Human Services, as well as military intervention to foreign nations.

Millennials pick and choose what is it important to them and then base their vote on those specific issues. But neither party is now able to fully endorse or vote the way millennials want them to because of older, "party-line" constituents, leaving millennials without a political home.

Millennials understand that candidates are in this predicament and are waiting for the day when their generation runs Congress. They are waiting until they are able to demonstrate their a-la-carte approach to politics to America. The largest and most educated generation in American history is idly twiddling their thumbs counting down the days until they have one of their own in the White House.

There are a lot of individuals who criticize millennials for their lack of interest now that Obama has turned out not to be the savior he promised to be. The United States is in its current situation because of partisan politics and the egos of party leaders who should have been put out to pasture many years ago.

Do not confuse this patient waiting of millennials for apathy or indifference. They are simply waiting for the day they can rule D.C. as a majority third party of INDEPENDENTS. A party built on equality and the righting of social injustices instilled in them by Democrats and a restoration of true American capitalism spured by less government intervention proven by President Ronald Reagan.

Salvator La Mastra is an expert in millennials and the youth vote. Follow Salvator on Twitter and Instagram: @SalvatorV

TheBlaze contributor channel supports an open discourse on a range of views. The opinions expressed in this channel are solely those of each individual author.

Want to leave a tip?

We answer to you. Help keep our content free of advertisers and big tech censorship by leaving a tip today.
Want to join the conversation?
Already a subscriber?