Can Millennials Fix Washington?
With 78 million millennial voters now representing a third of the electorate, journalists and pundits are obsessed with trying to figure out what millennials stand for.
This question is tougher than it sounds. A full 50% of millennials identify as politically independent. Millennials are simultaneously the most pro-gun generation in America and the most pro-gun control. They are social justice warriors, but are the most likely voters to support privatizing social security. Vox called millennial voters “incoherent.” The Atlantic recently complained that millennial views “don’t make any sense.”
Even Ivanka Trump, daughter of the GOP nominee, refused to identify as a Republican in her recent RNC address, instead saying she votes for the candidate most qualified for the job. Just as millennials have replaced television with Netflix, cabs with Uber, and hotels with AirBnB, our generation is reimagining what it means to engage in the political process.
“They’ve been told all their lives to wait in line,” former Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele explained for The Atlantic. “But they’re of a mind to say, ‘OK, while I’m waiting in line, I’ll blow your stuff up,’ ” he said. “That scene tells you all you need to know about what millennials are poised to do to Washington. … They are going to destroy the old silos, scatter their elements to the wind, and reassemble them in ways that make sense for them and the new century.”
For the past six years, we have had front row seats to watch this transition come to life. First as national circuit debaters, and later as leads of the Junior State, we met with more than 10,000 young people from all across the country — from Minnesota to Kentucky to Illinois — to discuss some of the most important issues facing our country.
The conversations we heard happening among young voters were radically different from the ones we heard happening at the national level. Instead of buying into the political ideologies of Democrats or Republicans, we found that millennials were forming their own political views, driven by a “radical realist” agenda. Millennials were becoming issue-advocates, using compromise to resolve their differences.
Drawing on this experience and years of painstaking research, today we are publishing When Millennials Rule: The Reshaping of America — a fact-based story that lays out a detailed millennial platform, supported by polls and academic research. This is the first-ever analysis of what millennials stand for and why. Our book is an optimistic story about how this generation of independent voters can unify around the political center, break the political gridlock in Washington, and usher in an era of reform.
We use the stories of millennials voters to bring our cross-country journey to life. A young Arizonan describes her reaction to her father being deported; a Texan reflects on the struggles of working through school and coming home to an empty refrigerator; a young Californian tells us why he opposes raising the minimum wage, even though his mother earns it; a New Yorker tells us about generation differences in foreign policy views.
As the 2016 election enters its final stage, understanding the millennial platform is more important than ever before. Because at the end of the day, it will be our generation that is forced to confront some of America’s most challenging issues. Today, China is swallowing our jobs and social security is going bankrupt. Radical Islamic terrorists threaten our safety and our planet is on the brink of environmental disaster. If America today is at a crossroads, it is our generation that will be tasked with navigating the difficult road ahead.
In our book, we tackle these issues one at a time. Through meticulous research, we layout the points of view of both parties, and explain where millennials fall on the political spectrum and why. In each chapter, another angle of the millennial platform is revealed. What emerges is a full-scale ‘millennial manifesto.’
In When Millennials Rule, we travel from New Haven, Connecticut where the Newtown shooting has ignited a debate about gun violence in America, to Minneapolis, where the Citizens United decision is under fire, to Philadelphia, where the Democratic National Convention is set to launch one of the most contentious elections in modern history. All throughout, we ask one central question: Do millennials what it takes to win the war for America’s future?
You be the judge.
David and Jack Cahn are millennial journalists and activists. They live in New York City. When Millennials Rule is available on Amazon and Barnes & Nobles. Learn more at: WhenMillennialsRule.com