Religion and politics are the two topics that have been told are taboo. At a dinner party or in a large gathering of people these are the things that you just don’t talk about. But with the election coming up, we have to. But we don’t, that’s the problem. One of the few things Democrats and Republicans is that the youth vote is the hardest to engage. We are also one of the largest voting demographics. According to the Pew Research Center the number of Millennials eligible to vote as of April 2016 is 69.2 million. The Baby Boomers, one of the largest generations in history, has 69.7 million eligible voters. With numbers this large we have the propensity to make a real change, to make history! We did in 2008, it has been widely speculated that one of the main reasons President Obama was elected is because he engaged young American voters. If you like the guy or not doesn’t matter, what matters is that we made history. We need to stop complaining and start transiting to action. It’s time to put up or shut up, we need to get informed so we can vote wisely. It’s time to use our voices to make the changes we want to see.
I’m not going to tell you who to vote for, what I’m telling you is to get informed. Liking a candidate on Facebook is not going to get you completely accurate information. There is a bias, as with any situation where more than one person is involved neither side will say the exact same thing. It is human nature to try and paint ones-self in a better light. Somewhere in the middle is the truth. To be truly, accurately informed the individual has to take some time to look into what each candidate is saying. The internet is a wonderful resource if used wisely. There are websites like www.factcheck.org where you can look into what any candidate says. We are very blessed to have this opportunity to have an impact on the country we live in. To make the best use of this opportunity we have to inform ourselves. We are adults now, we can no longer expect to be spoon fed information. Get out there and find out the candidates stance on issues that are important to you. Only then will you be able to select the candidate who will best represent you as President.
It is so hard to engage the younger voters because we are very busy or very lazy. There is school and work and family, who has time to vote? Or perhaps you don’t think that your one vote can really make a difference, so why bother? You aren’t the only one who feels that way, that’s the problem. Thousands of young Americans feel the same so they don’t vote. Want to know why you feel underrepresented? You aren’t using your chance to effect change. Senators and Congressmen don’t scroll through Facebook every day to see what you are saying about their policies. The best way to be heard is to vote! Voting for a candidate is the way you can say, “I like this person and what they represent, I want they to stay in office and keep representing me”. Did you not see there are 69.2 million millennials who are of voting age? That is a huge number of people! If 69.2 million people got together and shouted don’t you think you would hear them? Your vote is your voice.
Summer is the perfect time to start researching candidates! With all that time that you are on your phone or laptop anyway why not put it to good use? Take 15 minutes (because honestly who doesn’t have 15 spare minutes all day?) and go out and look for information. Don’t want to put in that much effort, try watching the news. It’s time for us to stop complaining about everything. It’s time for us to start taking action to fix what we see as wrong in this world. You have a chance to make a very important decision come November. Get out there and get informed! Use your voice! It’s time to put up or shut up. What will you do?
