This election year, it’s next to impossible to make use of the Internet without catching wind of the illustrious courses of various campaigns. From viral videos of Sanders communing with a bird at a rally to memes about a certain politician having mysteriously small hands, the course of this presidential campaign has been cropping up not only on news publications and television stations, but also all over just about every social media platform known to man. Although it is a continued struggle to identify news sources with minimal bias, there is certainly no deficit of news. But although it seems like just about everyone can share with you some political opinion or another, too few are actually willing to put their ballot where their mouth is.
I would like to make something abundantly clear: This article has nothing to do with party preference. This article is not about which candidate you think deserves to be the next president of the United States, and it is not even about why. It is about your voice, and it is about the tragic reality that tens of millions of millennials each year fail to make their voices heard.
According to the US Census Bureau, only 38 percent of people between the ages of 18 and 24 actually cast their vote in the 2012 presidential election. Listen, I’m a college student. I have heard every excuse in the metaphorical book. I know that you don’t really keep up with politics, and that you’re busy, and that you don’t think that your vote matters. The problem this year is that it really, really does.
As of 2015, the millennial demographic actually outnumbers Baby Boomers, making us the largest age group in the United States, with some 75.3 million people of voting age. We have entered the voting population with hot-button social and economic issues whirling all around us, from universal health care and abortion rights to matters of race, ethnicity, and sexuality. We stand at the veritable epicenter of sociopolitical issues that are of critical concern to both our present and our future, and yet we are the age group that is least likely to vote. People who are 65 or older are roughly 10 times more likely to cast their vote than those between the ages of 18 and 34.
Here’s the reality: you can have as many opinions as you want. You can shout about them as loudly as you want and post about them on social media as many times as you want. That’s your right as an American. But as an American, it is also your responsibility to go out and do something about it. If you have the ability to cast your vote and you choose not to, then none of the rest matters.
So if you don’t feel educated on political issues, educate yourself. There’s certainly no lack of material, about every candidate and from just about every angle. Consider not only who agrees with you on talking points such as immigration or gun control, but also who has the background and experience to uphold their promises. If you feel that you don’t have time (and believe me when I say that I understand the feeling), then make it. One single day out of the year, the one hour it takes you to head to the polls, may dictate the course of decades to come. If you aren’t registered to vote, do it right here, right now. It takes 10 minutes.
And if you think that your vote doesn’t matter, please believe me when I say that it does.
