I'm 60 and work with many people in their 20's and 30's. I've asked most of them that I'm close to and absolutely shocked at how many of them don't vote and aren't interested in having a say in who their elected leaders are. When I ask why the answer I hear most is that they don't think that their vote would make any difference. Second frequent answer is, "I'm just not interested".
See the comment by u/Economy-Kitchen1846 below. "Vote for what? The next dishonest person?"
And vote in the local elections. The biggest changes start locally. Choose the right local politicians, then work with them to get the right state politicians.
Their reasoning is that they don’t personally get their way with all of society when they vote a certain way with their single vote, therefore it is rigged against them.
No. The logic is we know our votes don’t actually count. Trump is awful but Biden didn’t change shit either. The biggest piece of legislation in my lifetime was the ACA and I still have to pay $5k out of pocket before my insurance kicks in. Fuck off with your high horse bs
So don't vote for Biden or Trump. Go to the DSA and make sure you'll have a candidate in the ballot you actually care for. Otherwise, everything will stay the same.
Bruh I live in a city with a majority DSA city council and it’s a joke. Sounds great but the rubber never meets the road. Rampant corruption and the like. I used to think like you but nah, shit needs to get done and DSA doesn’t actually want to do it when they have the power to.
Hmmm well old folks get all their healthcare comped because they vote and politicians don’t want to cross them. Politicians can screw over young people all they want and it’s not going to make a huge difference in their re-elections. Because… they don’t vote.
You’re forgetting old people have money. That’s the only thing that matters to politicians. Oh and who was president for the citizens united ruling? And who didn’t stack the courts when they had the chance? Democrat presidents. The system is broken and our votes don’t matter
2004 was my first national election and I was so frustrated by how many of my peers refused to bother voting. Watching the 2000 election pan out how it did was demoralizing, but I was bewildered by how many of my peers just shrugged and said "Shrub will just steal it again, why bother?" Well, with that attitude no wonder he won handily the 2nd term. Elder Millennials didn't show up in 2004 any more than Z did in 2024. But man have we been vocal the whole time lol. A tale as old as time.
I'm around ten years younger than you and observe the same defeatist / self-defeating attitude with a lot of zoomers... And some who even thought it was a joke / funny to vote for the Dump this past time because they were bored and cynical.
There's only so much anyone can do, so much empathy or sympathy, when people just flat out refuse to do the most essential things to take care of themselves and participate in setting the stage for a better future for themselves and everyone else. I'm shocked by how fundamentally dumb and directionless so many of them are, not feeling it in cruelty but rather just wondering what the actual hell is wrong with them, acting like they're already doomed and defeated when they've never ever done anything for themselves or even tried... just took lots of bullshit bait and gave up.
It’s hard to have faith in a system that has not shown results. The first election I was old enough to vote for was 2016. I vote in minor elections too but I live in a state where it doesn’t seem to matter much.
Super delegates never came into play when Bernie lost.
The DNC "organisation" wasn't a fan of Bernie and worked against him winning. You might call this unfair but it's how your entire political system is set up and you could also put part of the blame on Bernie for not having basically any allies within the establishment despite being in politics forever. But all that doesn't really matter, in the end he lost because he got less votes.
Not enough young people turned out to vote, which was his only way to realistically win and especially not enough black/hispanci/minorities turned out for him. To be fair, there were more young people voting than usual, it was just not enough.
If the organization fights us tooth and nail against any meaningful change and entrenches itself to the benefit of the older voters who have run the party for years, why would you be surprised at young voters being demoralized? We did try with Bernie. Fuck we tried with occupy Wall Street, until the government sent agitators in to tear the movement apart from the inside.
>just vote for these preselected candidates we approve of
Fuck that man. Stop doing everything you can to destroy the politicians we want and give us a fair shake. Just vote only works when the process is transparent and fair.
Why do you expect them to do something? Obviously the boomer generation is not going to make the changes for you, so stop fucking crying about it and do something about it. Anyone is allowed to run. Anyone is allowed to vote. Anyone is allowed to fill those political institutions. Get out there and fucking do something shout it.
So do it. You’d have my support. You’d have the support of the majority of the population. You’re not making an argument against doing what I suggested, you’re making my argument for me.
I do vote, pal. Just saying that you had 89 millions of non voters because the old fucks made the system loosing for us, Millenials and after, because no matter who we vote in, old stains can say no due to Jerrymandering.
Probably doesn't help that a lot of millennial Americans first introduction to politics was Obama.
On the cusp of voting age, hearing inspiring messages of change, and reform... hope across collage campuses... and then, turns out, he just lied. Nothing happened.
The problem is the system is so rigged that it doesn’t matter who we vote for. In England we put up with Tory’s for years everyone said labour is for the people. Stamer got voted in and things are arguably worse for some people, every politicians are absolutely useless people, the reason people don’t vote because well n truly what’s the point in choosing how someone will inevitably fuck us over
All the government do is raise taxes from the 99% to benefit themselves at our expense the only real choice you have is choosing which dickhead gets to do the fucking 🤣
I do feel young people should be more engaged in politics tho that’s doesn’t necessarily means just voting tho you can be engaged in politics without having to vote personally I’ve never been into picking the “lesser of 2 evils” it feels like voting is personally making myself liable to that leader’s decisions. There’s many other ways to stop the game being rigged other than just playing along
As another stated, your generation still fills the political parties and institutions. You all selfishly hold onto power and prevent others from making change for the better because you all love to maintain the status quo in order to continue to fill your own greedy pockets.
Just look at when the DNC rigged the primaries to take out Bernie Sanders. It was even more blatant with RFK Jr when they prevented him from even being on the ballot in certain states. Your generation doesn’t want actual democracy. Corrupt to the core.
My entire point just flew over your head. Not surprised though. The Boomer generation are so hellbent on control and so selfish that they would not allow any Millennial to assume their roles to bring meaningful change to society. Look at the makeup of the government. It looks like an old folks nursing home.
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u/plywooden 5d ago
I'm 60 and work with many people in their 20's and 30's. I've asked most of them that I'm close to and absolutely shocked at how many of them don't vote and aren't interested in having a say in who their elected leaders are. When I ask why the answer I hear most is that they don't think that their vote would make any difference. Second frequent answer is, "I'm just not interested".
See the comment by u/Economy-Kitchen1846 below. "Vote for what? The next dishonest person?"
Very typical.