We lack ambition. We're lazy. We love to click on cat videos more than hard news. We expect hand outs. We're delusional.
These are just some of the stereotypes Millennials, myself included, face on the regular, and now we're being targeted as a potential cause for the presidential upset that has shocked this nation to its core. Prior to Tuesday night, I can genuinely say that I never, not even for a second, considered Donald Trump would be elected president. It was ludicrous, inconceivable! But that was my mistake, because I underestimated this nation's capacity to harbor hate behind closed doors and in hushed tones.
I'll live with that regret long after Trump is inaugurated, but I will not sit silently as I listen to older citizens call my generation delusional.
Our so-called "delusion" isn't bred from nothingness. You, older Americans, raised us to believe we were the best and deserved nothing less. You promised us progress and opportunity if we worked hard in school, got into college, and graduated with the manic optimism that we could change the world. What else could we expect from a generation that was raised in the most prosperous time in U.S. history? Your parents lived through the Depression and World War II, and when they came back they saw the U.S. become a champion of Human Rights. You yourselves saw communism symbolically collapse with the Berlin Wall. In an overly simplistic argument, you guys could say, "The Good Guys won." Baby Boomers witnessed impossible odds be shattered, so how could they blame the subsequent generation in believing the impossible? We believed change was possible, equality was a must, that justice would prevail. And yet, that all changed on Tuesday.
When this article is published, it will be nearly a week since Trump's promotion from candidate to president-elect. Perhaps everyone's surprise would have dulled and tensions would have eased, but for now, I assure you, emotions feel like they're short-circuiting everywhere. People my age are outraged, but this isn't surprising. We've been dealing with collective sentiments of disappointment for years now, and they hardly dissipated with the nomination of the Republican and Democratic candidates. Neither were ideal, but the election's results seems to have everyone in an unanimous standstill as we ask ourselves, "What now?" What will happen to our family, friends, classmates, neighbors, and etc? Not all of us fall under the traditional "American" label, but we all feel threatened as the rights we've acquired are compromised under a nation led by Trump.
Some of our disappointment manifested itself in third-party votes and not voting, but I wonder now if those protests were worth it. Was it worth placing your votes there when you could have put them towards Trump or Clinton? Perhaps it wasn't nearly as pressing in California, but what about in swing states like Florida, New Hampshire, and Iowa among others? Our Millennial vote mattered, but we underperformed compared to the past election between Barack Obama and Mitt Romney. Could we be blamed?
Our generational judgements and stereotypes aside, older generations cannot diminish our collective value and brand us "delusional" when our vote could have made a significant impact on this election. It's not fair to us or you, the Baby Boomers. You raised us to believe in the impossible so we could execute it, but now we must work twice as hard to ensure equality as our nation stumbles and limps under Trump's presidency.
