I’m going to begin by saying that your political preferences as twenty-something college students confuse the hell out of me. Maybe this confusion stems from the fact that I was raised in a liberal environment, Burlington, Vermont to be exact, and I myself have not had a great deal of personal experience interacting with right-wing millennials, yet despite my background I have to say that I am perplexed as to why you carry on conservative beliefs as college-aged students. Of course I understand that everyone, no matter their age, is entitled to their own politic philosophies and it is not my place to assert that millennials do not have the right to vote for a GOP candidate, but I have a hard time understanding why you would this day and age.
It is easy for me to understand why members of our parent’s generation gravitate toward right-winged politics, seeing as a great deal of them (specifically white members of the upper-middle class) benefited greatly from the economic boom of the Reagan administration in the 1980s and that the radically liberal ideologies of today function to question the privilege that they had been granted in the past. It makes sense to me that the baby boomer generation has the tendency to lean right because they were raised during a time that honored traditional politics and did not have the media to educate them at a young age about why it is important to see outside of their own social bubble. But as millennials, we weren’t raised in ignorance and we are informed on a daily basis of the injustices that face our fellow Americans because of conservative politics.
I am under the impression that most right-winged millennials carry their politics views because of their upbringing in the same way that I was conditioned through my surroundings to be a liberal. Political theologies aren’t genetically inherited traits, but instead are socially engrained into a society throughout repetition amongst multiple generations. The GOP continues to hold power because of this nurture-based inheritance of values, but it is time for right-winged millennials to realize that it is time to stop being selfish.
If I wasn’t already opening myself up to hate, I am certainly expecting some seriously heated responses at this point. But just like every right-winged individual, I am allowed to hold and express my opinions in a public manner. I think that it is time for right-winged millennials to wake up from the “dream” that the previous generations have played out for them and realize that the candidates they are supporting are severely limiting other civilian’s abilities to act freely within their own country.
Within the past few years alone, we have witnessed monumental injustices placed upon American citizens by way of right-winged politics, for example the “All Lives Matter Movement” which desensitizes audiences to the realities of police brutality through the right-winged media (*cough* Fox News), select states ban of Planned Parenthood’s abortion and other reproductive and sexual health services, Donald Trump’s xenophobic stance on immigration, and more recently North Carolina’s law which bans transgender individuals from using public restrooms. Hopefully, most right-winged millennials would not identify themselves as racist, transphobic, or sexist but when they support candidates who work to limit the rights of other Americans, they are indirectly contributing to political hate crimes.
But Devon, “I’m not a right-winged voter because I believe that African-American, Hispanic, transgender, and female Americans should have their rights taken away, I am a right-winged millennial because I believe in small government and low taxes”. Um hello, our political system isn’t designed to function efficiently based single-issue politics! If you are voting for a candidate based on one issue, you are by extension voting for them based on every issue that they represent and need to be willing to accept criticism because of your political preferences. To be quite honest, if you are voting for Donald Trump in the 2016 elections (who is most likely to be the Republican Nominee) you are voting for his xenophobic, hate-fueled ideologies and are no better than this most violent supporters.
All right, I will quit attacking you right-winged millennials because I honestly do hope to open your eyes to why I don’t personally understand your political preferences. I believe that as members of the millennial generation, it is our duty to fight against the injustices that the previous generation has thrust upon us, by spreading a message of intersectionality and universal equality for all Americans. It is possible to create a country, which stands against racism, xenophobia, sexism, and homophobia, but it takes time and the participation from young voters to get there. We as millennials are often typecast by the baby boomers as being ignorant, but we have the power to dismantle their ignorance that only favors the top 1%, by voting in a way that benefits ALL AMERICANS (see what I did there, I turned your own slogan against you). We as millennials have the ability to make changes, because we don’t have the years and years of conservative politics that our parents do, and we can “make America great again” if we stop thinking only for ourselves and start imagining a future where every individual, no matter their race, economic background, sex, gender identity, or disability, has the same opportunities that many of us have been awarded. I am tired of seeing the young Republicans demanding that all politics be catered to their needs and it is time for them to open their eyes to the privileges that they have most likely been afforded. It is difficult for anyone to recognize their privilege, hey I do it every single day and I will most likely never get “used” to recognizing that my opportunities have been afforded to me in part of the life I have been born into, but for our countries sake it needs to be done. So please right-winged millennials, before you head down the same road as your parents please take a moment to recognize how different you might feel if you weren’t as “well off” as I assume you to be.
And please, comment/share/respond through another article you disagree with me. I and other left-wing millennials appreciate your critiques on our views, whether they are positive or negative, because political discussion is extremely important for today’s millennial generation. We represent a huge voter demographic and we do have the power to make a difference in politics and staying informed on current political issues is vital to maintaining a functioning government for the future.