The first few weeks of the new regime have the country in an uproar. Millions of people are up in arms over the administrations blunders, provocations, and contempt for decency. Few are as outraged as millennials. As a millennial I have given this election and the first few weeks of this presidency some thought and have come up with what I think bothers me so much about the Trump phenomena. It would be simple enough to be incensed by the rabid racism, sexism, xenophobia, anti-intellectualism, and a host of other offensive philosophies of the Rightwing ideologue and his fanatical base, but one in particular has stood out to me as a millennial. This one thing is something I don’t think Trump, or the Republicans that elevated him directly say, but their every action implies it, and the election only made it more obvious. Stated simply it goes something like this, “We don’t care about your future and if we must sacrifice it to build our fantasies, so be it.”
We live in a dynamic and rapidly changing world where international situations and domestic issues exude increasingly complex effects. Trends in these areas come and go with an astonishing speed. Now, millennials were born into this climate of change and quickly grow accustomed to it. There’s a reason for the tech and culture savvy millennial stereotypes after all. Likewise, most people have learned to adapt and even thrive in this environment due to the pressures of getting by and making a living. Trump voters, however, are completely out of this loop. They just can’t seem to grasp this new world and rather than try and understand the changes they retreat into, nostalgia at best and outright hostility at worst, while pretending the world still plays by their rules. If the world won’t bend to their will they will make it do so by whatever means necessary. The demographics back this up. Less than two percent of Trumps supporters were under 30. Over 1/3 were over 65. Looking further only reinforces this. In an increasingly competitive and connected global market and a changing country, this is a recipe for disaster.
With climate change on the rise we must choose very carefully what sort of actions we take as a nation because it’s no longer just our lives on the line, but the whole world for countless future generations. Climate change is coming like an unstoppable glacier, slow moving but with a titanic scale that boggles the mind. We are at the final moments in which we can do anything to stop the worst of it, and yet we seem to be in a rush to deny what’s happening right in front of us. The simple reason for this is that most Trump voters simply don’t care what happens to the planet. They have already had their fun with it and will be long gone when the worst hits. Why not try and relive the glories of the old coalmine reopening or feel the pride in watching the factory smokestack billowing upwards? As a millennial with my future still stretching out before me this is an utterly unacceptable option. It is horrific to think that my generation and any generation that comes after, our children and grandchildren, will be condemned to live with a catastrophe that could have been avoided. All for the arrogance and pride of the Trump voter who won’t live to see their legacy.
This political group has made its crusade to “Make America Great Again” and arrest the decline that has infested our nation. They are indeed right that we are a nation in decline from decades of leaders engaging in ill-advised foreign wars and fanatical beliefs in voodoo economics. But they fail to acknowledge their culpability in that decline. It wasn’t immigrants who shipped the jobs overseas, it wasn’t the blacks and Latinos who launched endless wars in the Middle East, and it wasn’t the gays who wrecked the social fabric of communities. The Trump ideologists and Republican policies did that. They retreat from the difficult, but necessary duty of nation building at home and international stewardship abroad. They abandon responsibility for their communities well being, standards of decency in personal conduct, and the duty of all to love our fellow man. They stopped electing people of intellect, compassion, and integrity to our nations highest offices and instead put crooks, film stars, and cowboys in charge. They did all of this and more yet they feel no guilt for it and accept no blame. Instead they cast it at our feet and blame us. And in their attempt to ‘fix’ this they will only destroy us.
As a millennial I have a greater stake in the future of the country, with my whole life ahead of me. I’ll have to live with decisions I make and will see most of their consequences. The Trump voter on the other hand, has already made all the important choices in their life and had their fun with the country. They don’t care about the future; they care about reviving past glories and reliving the good ol’ days. It doesn’t matter if they empower our enemies, further degrade our country, or destroy our planet because they are either going to accomplish their goals or be long gone before the reaper comes to collect.
I cannot accept this delirious worldview. I could name a hundred moral reasons to oppose this agenda on environmental, racial, feminist and other lines, but the one that stands out above all the other is that this an attack on our future. These are people who have declared regardless of identity, they don't care about you because you are a millennial and belong to a future they despise. When we are told to accept the new regime and get along with its supporters we must remember this fact, they don’t care about us.
