With the world’s most critical election approaching in just over three weeks, the eyes of our nation are fixed largely on the group of voting adults aged 18 to 34, the Millennials, who make up the majority of the voting populace at 74.5 million.
Characterized in scientific studies as children of the Internet, Millennials like myself have grown up in a time with access to limitless information, deepening our empathy for all walks of life, while making the notion of settling for anything completely unacceptable.
Our desire to see the broken political system fixed won’t allow many us to vote for the “lesser of two evils,” instead, we want our beliefs to be heard (here) no matter how unlikely. Although most of us are familiar with the American dream of owning our own home, many of us have looked to purchasing vans or building tiny homes, because affording the middle class dream is simply not a reality (here). And with 25 percent of us already having children of our own, we’ve even begun altering the education system to suit the needs of the individual child (here).
These three trends highlight that Millennials believe our individual choices still matter. Nationally, our influence may fall to the stronghold of corporations, but locally, our voice can still be heard loud and clear. With recent controversy surrounding two major developments proposed for Placer County, it’s never been more apparent just how important our local politicians (begin here) are to the welfare of our community.
If you want your vote to count for anything this year, make sure it counts close to home where real changes are the most possible.
