As we all know, and may dread, the political race for the American presidency has begun. Unfortunately, at times, the fight for this noble position is far less honorable. Already, copious amounts of mud-slinging and millions of dollars of donations have dominated the race for each party's nomination.
However, there are some things that are shaking up the race. Donald Trump and his candidacy, though some people may consider it laughable, actually presents an interesting situation. If he fails to gain the GOP nomination, or he deems it appropriate, he will consider running as a third party candidate. Though third parties have never won in the history of America, it would work to splinter the Republican voters, working to the aid of Democrats. Also, an interesting politician in the race for the presidency is Bernie Sanders; his campaign promises to echo some of the complaints that young people have in America, today. Instead of being fed by corporate billionaires and SuperPacs, Bernie Sanders has pledged not to take money from dubious sources like these.
Even with all these exciting factors characterizing the presidential race, thousands of young adults will not vote, and thousands more kids will become disenfranchised with the American political system to join the ranks of non-voters when they come of age. Young Americans feel that their political efficacy is next to none, and their ability to enact change is so small that they don't even bother. Also, the people in powerful positions in America often do not see eye to eye with the evolving youth, and are often 20 to 30 years older. For example, the average age of American senators in the 111th congress (our current one) is 63, while the average age of members of the House of Representatives is 57, according to Slate.com. How can someone so distant in age really work for the young people who would vote for them? Most young people do not consider marijuana use or gay marriage to be issues, but these topics have been some of the most widely contested in American politics, today.
This is why American youth don't care about politics. They see political races as pointless mudslinging and money grubbing, and our representatives in Congress and the Senate are old and out of touch. I'm not so sure they're wrong. However, the effectiveness of our individual votes, or of our organizations and lobbying efforts, is not insignificant.
America has one of the worst rates of voting for developed countries, and this needs to change. Despite the seeming lack of importance of one vote, the mass amount of young voters who should be voting can make a huge impact on political races, elected representatives and policy itself. Furthermore, even those who share the same interests and age as those in Congress do not approve of the gridlock that our legislation suffers from. All these reasons discourage political action; young people can either wait 20 or 30 years until they are the ones who hold the positions of power, or keep playing the system and working to change it today, despite the seemingly low political effectiveness they have.
