There are a few things to clear up. The Millennials are now 83.1 million strong – larger than any other generation, including the baby boomers. But the size of our generation is about the only thing we have in common with baby boomers. According to a Pew Research Center study, 50 percent of Millennials identify themselves as politically Independent, compared to 37 percent of Boomers. After a thorough reading of the remaining 70 pages of data analysis on Millennials in this study, I believe it’s fair to describe the Millennials as:
Fairly indifferent to the political establishment of either party, bonded together by social media, passionate about music and the arts, care about social issues, grew up knowing only of war, burdened by student debt, worried about the national debt — and optimistic about the future.
So with this in mind, here are some things I believe many in my generation, regardless of party affiliation, would like to hear from the GOP candidates moving forward.
We are the generation of independents, not indifference.
Not being politically aligned with either party is not the same thing as being undecided. Roughly 70 percent of Millennials support the legal recognition of gay marriages, thus, for example, an elaborate response supporting government initiatives intended to “instill more family values” is not going to go over well. This is not a narcissistic generation or one that is too self-involved because we are infatuated with selfies and how many followers we have. However, this generation may be infatuated with self-expression, but no more than the baby boomers once were – we just have Facebook and Twitter. So if you want the majority of our votes, allow people to express themselves.
Millennials are the most racially and ethnically diverse generation in American history.
43 percent of Millennials are non-whites and 20 percent of the youths in America are first generation citizens. As a result, 73 percent of Millennials appreciate the influence of other cultures on the American way of life. So tonight we are looking for comprehensive immigration reform plans, across-the-board or piece-by-piece. But candidates ought to be mindful of their dialect when discussing their policy plans to restructure the nation’s immigration system. We recognize that there are millions of individuals living here illegally, but Emma Lazarus’ poem, inscribed on the Statue of Liberty is what guides our beliefs. No matter what direction this transformation takes, beginning the discussion with rhetoric like crisis and invasion does not accurately portray our opinions about many of our fellow Millennials.
For as long as we can remember...
The Millennials’ cultural memory begins with the atrocity of September 11th, 2001. And then for our entire civilly conscious lives all we have known are the realities of war, followed by a costly experiment to build two nations. These hardened Millennials view the world as far less threatening than our elders. Just as the Baby Boomers did not scare away from socialism during the Red Scare - Millennials will not baulk at abstract phrases such as radical Islam and terrorism. After a long, hard-fought decade, candidates aren’t getting the "Fear Vote" from us.
When we say income equality is our biggest concern, we mean social mobility.
Income inequality in America is truly mind boggling. But Millennials scorn at the idea of income redistribution, we don’t need to hear any more of the Reaganesque talk about big government. Capitalism is all we've ever known and we love it. Millennials hold individuals primarily responsible for their own life outcomes and they believe that most people can accumulate wealth with hard work, both views similar to that of older Americans. We just want to make sure everybody has a fair chance at obtaining that wealth - and we can take it from there.
Full disclosure: The use of a first person narrative in this article by no means is intended to speak on behalf of any individual other than myself. Furthermore, the use of first-person pronouns (we, our, etc.) is only meant to be interpreted as "the statistical majority" of Millennials based on credible sources.
