Protect America from your crazy great aunt by voting

Dear all y’all over-18ers,

sofia

You’ve reached it. Adulthood. Your parents are no longer in complete control. You can now enter into legally binding contracts. You can sign yourself out of school. And most importantly, you can vote. I know: You think civic duties are such a drag. Except they aren’t. And you might ask yourself this: Who even cares about some old white people on a screen talking policy? Well, you should.

Imagine yourself sitting around the dinner table with your family at Thanksgiving. You’ve reached the uncomfortable part of the night when the food is gone and the politics have just begun. As you sit there, feeling bloated and ready for a nap, you wish — for the love of all that is holy — that your great aunt would stop making these outrageous claims about the U.S. government. It pains you to hear everything that she has to say. You’re thinking to yourself, “She has no idea what she’s talking about. She’s crazy.” Well, should you not bother voting, her crazy stances might become realities.

Terrifying, I know. But let me break it down for you: according to the Pew Research Center, millennials (that’s you!) make up 31 percent of the electorate in this year’s election. This means you could potentially be a pretty big deal. Unfortunately, you silly little millennial you, you don’t feel like voting, and neither do all your friends. The greatest millennial turnout ever has only been 50 percent — and most of the time, it’s less.

Not only is voting to your benefit, it’s to the benefit of democracy as a fundamental concept of America.

On the other hand, the Silent and Great Generations (as in, your crazy great aunt and everyone else over the age of 71) account for 37 percent of the electorate. Not much more than the 31 percent you account for. Except these old and semi-senile people actually want to vote, and in the last election, a whopping 72 percent of them did.

Want to take a wild guess at whose opinions matter more?

And while this doesn’t mean that 37 percent of the electorate is your crazy great aunt — I am by no means saying that everyone of an older generation is crazy, or that you should discard opposing view points as crazy — it’s still unlikely that you agree with all of them. Gallup polls have indicated that Americans age 29 and under are twice as likely than those age 30 and older to self-identify as economically liberal. They are also 21 percent more likely to support gay marriage. And 73 percent of millennials put a considerable amount of trust in the military as it stands, whereas your crazy great aunt probably wants to expand the military, even though the U.S. military has the greatest defense budget in the world, and it spends more than the next seven countries combined.

Also, millennial trust in Congress? Nine percent.

Elected representatives are supposed to represent the population’s interests. So you know what, my fellow millennials: if you don’t trust Congress, why don’t you vote different people into office?

That applies to the presidential election, too: not voting is not the answer. Don’t you dare say that it’s better to stand by and do nothing. If you think that staying idle negates your responsibility if — or rather, when — something bad happens, you’re wrong. It doesn’t. If anything, you are more responsible because you didn’t even try to stop it.

So look at the presidential nominees’ stances on whatever it is you care about. Find the candidate whose plans most closely align with what you want. Then vote.

Imagine if every single person thought that his vote didn’t matter and ended up not voting. It’d be disastrous.

“But my vote doesn’t even matter that much!” you might say. Also false. Sure, your individual vote may not be the single deciding vote in the election. And yes, California isn’t exactly a swing state, so the vote is fairly predictable. But your vote still matters. Imagine if every single person thought that his vote didn’t matter and ended up not voting. It’d be disastrous.

Conversely, imagine if every single person eligible to vote actually did. The electoral colleges would be vastly more accurate in representing the electorate. Every vote cast is another voice heard.

Democracy is entirely dependent upon participation. Voting is a mainstay of democracy. If you want your voice to be heard and your opinions to be represented, you need to vote. Otherwise, it’s a self-fulfilling prophecy: you think there’s no point to voting, so you don’t vote, so then the crazy aunts of the country take control of the government by actually voting, and then yeah, there’s no point. Don’t let it spiral down like that. Be an active citizen. Your country needs it — in fact, the world needs it.

So please don’t be a lazy bum who doesn’t vote. Don’t be the lame millennial all the other generations want to believe you are. Not only is voting to your benefit, it’s to the benefit of democracy as a fundamental concept of America.

Sincerely,

Someone Who Doesn’t Want to Live in Her Crazy Great Aunt’s America