Dear Millennials. People All Over Are Fighting For The Right To Vote. Now Get Off Your Asses.

“Millennials don’t vote,” a political strategist told me here in Austin, a town that could be described as a Millennial Sanctuary if there ever was one.

Well they’re stupid then. The system isn’t perfect. It is even corrupt. Between the Caucus System, a wounded Voting Rights Act, the gerrymandering and special identification for minorities and the elderly, our voting power has been greatly attenuated.

That doesn’t mean you can sit this out until it gets better. William Butler Yeats reminds us “…The best lack all conviction, while the worst
 Are full of passionate intensity…” It ain’t gonna get better. It’s going to get worse if the smartest people in the room wait for things to be cool again while the least informed and least empathic and most opinionated line up and decide your future. Even in Yeats’ time, this is how political discourse flowed.

Americans suffered so you have the right to vote. They marched, were arrested, beaten, jailed, and brutalized so that one day a young person would get off their Hoverboard and register to vote and help choose the leaders of the country.

We have millions that are hoping for access to quality healthcare for a reasonable price. Millions are hoping that someone will try and revitalize the Middle Class, regulate out of control banks, rebuild our infrastructure, and build bridges, not walls, with our neighbors. Millions are hoping that someone will help businesses win while they create jobs. Millions are hoping that we can reduce the pollution pouring out of our factories and cars and power plants and into our lakes and streams and oceans. Millions are hoping for higher education that isn’t a ball & chain of debt for our emerging young leaders. Millions are hoping that leaders with a vision for the future that includes growth, an alternative to endless wars and a return to transparent governance will emerge from this vituperous, toxic political discourse. Millions more are hoping that the endemic corruption in Congress can be washed clean and inoculated.

You have to get out and register and then vote. This is the simplest way to solve the problems you see on the horizon. This is a right and an opportunity no one on Earth in their right minds would ignore. You want to make changes? Great, you can’t make them from your sofa. You want a better country? You can’t “Like” a candidate on Facebook and elected him or her.

Chances are you have someone in your family or a friend that served in the military. They were fighting to preserve the things we need in our lives, and one of those things is a voice in how this country is run.

Now be the great generation everyone believes you to be.

Go register to vote.

Then vote.

-The Rest of Us.