Before I begin, I would like to say that I do not enjoy making parallels between the Nazis and personal views as well as political stances I do not favor or support. That being said, I feel that our country may be taking a turn for the worse.
I have a few speculations as to why Trump won the election; in fact I have been writing a piece throughout this detailing my thoughts and supporting them with data from the U.S census and primary sources. I have put aside that paper however; I feel that this paper is more important. I will cut to the chase: I believe that we, the millennials, allowed Trump to win because of our apathy towards the state of this country. I recently found that the Trump administration is proposing a registry for Muslim immigrants; they are also planning on mass deportations of illegal Mexican immigrants. The first thing that came to my mind was, “This is what the Nazis did first.” Rome wasn’t built in a day, and neither Nazi Germany. The comparisons between the Trump administration and the third Reich are uncanny; from their leader swearing to “open up” libel laws in order to sue his critics and his views on Mexicans, Muslims, and other minorities to their leader promising catastrophe if not elected and being the only “solution” for America, the Trump administration has far too many similarities with the old Nazi party. If we don’t learn from history we will repeat it. With Trump becoming the leader of America it is crucial now that we become more involved and proactive.
Now, here is why I will not be surprised if the Muslim registration is passed: we millennials are apathetic. In fact, I found out about the administration’s Muslim registry through a comedy short by The Daily Show with Trevor Noah. I didn’t actually find out from an actual news site or channel (not that The Daily Show isn’t “real” news; they do an outstanding job at reporting). That’s actually how I get all my news. Had The Daily Show not uploaded the clip online, I would’ve not known about this or cared to find out. I don’t care about the news, I don’t care about what’s going on in our country, I never cared about Clinton losing -- when she lost I thought, “it’s not like anything crazy is going to happen;" except I stand corrected -- and I know I’m not alone.
We now outnumber the baby boomers in eligible voters, 126 million to 98 million [1], yet we have the lowest voter turn out of all the generations; as of 2012 voter turnout was 46% amongst millennials [2]. On top of this, Clinton received less votes from voters aged 18-29 than Obama [3]. As one online journalist for CNN writes, “if millennial voters had their way, Hillary Clinton would be president” [4]; if only we had showed up to the booths or at least sent in our votes early, Trump may have lost.
That burns. It burns knowing we could’ve avoided what could possibly be the rise of the fourth Reich at worst and 4 to 8, “Bush years” at best. Apathy is what caused a Trump administration, and it could cause damaging and discriminatory legislation in the future if not addressed. However, it’s never too late to get involved. We should treat this election as a wake up call; we need to get more involved in the politics of this nation. We need to be more proactive. We need to stand up for our rights and for the rights of others. We need to start turning on the TV for CNN, MSNBC, and ABC news instead of The Walking Dead, Game of Thrones, and Dancing with the Stars. We must start reading more articles about politics and less about “top ten shocking celebrity photos.” We need to start voting in local and state elections. It’s time for a change.