Misunderstanding the Millennials?

AP published an article about youth and their fading support for Obama.

My problem with the article is not its claim that young people across the country are becoming bystanders in their support of Obama. My problem is with the gross misunderstanding of the Millennial Generation.

First of all, stop calling us Generation Y! I am not cut from the same mold that shaped Generation X.

Second, we are not the “entitlement generation” nor are we the “me-me-me generation”. Unlike our parents or even our older cousins, my generation will actually need to work for what we have. Our parents grew up in a time when the American economy was in its heyday; they are the “entitlement generation,” they are the “me-me-me generation”. The Millennials are here to literally save the world as the GI Generation did (albeit maybe not through the same circumstances of a world war). From teamwork to valuing our local communities, my generation has been groomed to lead the world in ways that the Boomers and Xers could never and will never achieve. If anything, I am part of the “we-we-we generation” because we are all in this together and we are not entitled to anything.

Like our parents’ generation, we see so much potential for our country’s greatness and our optimism has driven an overwhelming majority of 18-25 year-olds to vote for Obama. However, some of our generation were able to see past the talk during campaign season while the overwhelming majority of Obama supporters a year ago are now seeing the man behind the mask. The latter have grown weary not because they want change immediately due to individualism as Martha Irvine claims, but rather, they want change immediately because we all sense the urgency of now (as Obama so often quipped).

I hope that many are now ready to admit what they feared to be true all along: the corporate duopoly cannot be trusted to usher in the meaningful change we can believe in. It is time for the truth to come out. There is only one home for progressive Americans and that is the Green Party of the United States. Greens from all around the world agree on four basic pillars of truth: grassroots democracy, social justice, peace, and ecological wisdom. The corporate duopoly does not understand how to fully achieve all (if any) of these core values.

The Obama campaign has illustrated that across college and high school campuses, the lamps for change have been lit within each of us, but becoming a bystander-supporter of the duopoly in this critical time is the same as hiding that light. It is time to take those lamps and put them on lampstands to light up the entire nation and come home to the only party pushing for meaningful change now! Start a College Greens chapter, get involved with your local Greens, mobilise students around Green issues like Medicare for All, ending the War on Terrorism, pushing for meaningful climate change policies, run for office! Most importantly, we need to show the Baby Boomers and Xers how they have been getting it wrong and how the world ought to be run. Our call to action should not seem daunting, because through our collective efforts, the Millennials will leave this world better than how we found it.