Of all the confounding things about this election cycle, the politics (or lack of them) and voting choices of Millennials have been the most difficult for me to understand. I find this disturbing on several levels aside from their support for third party candidates who, as we have seen in the past, tend only to split votes or draw them away from the most appropriate, if not the ideal candidate.
Another thing I find confusing is that so many young people in this weird classification were once utterly apolitical. in the 2012 election, our son was having a party of his friends, who had just turned 18. I asked them what their thoughts were on the election and most of them had none. I was stunned. For a Baby Boomer to hear such a thing is akin to heresy.
I asked one of them why they had no interest in voting. His reply was short and snarky, but disturbing: “Because we suck.” He followed that with a shrug and I didn’t know if he meant it or was making fun of the whole thing. Perhaps it was both. I have noticed that many of his generation—even then—were suffering from a sort of anomie, a feeling of apathy, and possibly outright depression. That confuses me as well, especially when the stakes are so high. With a shiver, I recalled my studies of people who denied the Holocaust or the abuses of Civil Rights since slavery. Perhaps I am overreacting...but what If I’m not?
Imagine my delight when our son began supporting Bernie Sanders, with the zeal of a young Bolshevik out of “Doctor Zhivago”! Although I had no illusions that Americans would ever elect a self-proclaimed Socialist, I was proud of our son’s values. This went on until he began accusing Hillary Clinton of the same bizarre conspiracies and “crimes” (including murder!) that Trump did. For a few scary moments, I imagined him actually supporting the odious groper but he set me straight. Still, it was almost as bad; after Hillary was nominated, he switched to Jill Stein.
I groaned, tried to educate him about the danger of third party candidates (at least in the U.S.) and periodically attempted to debunk his insane arguments against Clinton.
That process went something like this and was as much fun as visiting an angry, drunken grandfather in a bar:
Me: Why do you believe all this crap?
Him: I got it on Facebook.
Me: (another groan and a face-to-palm)
Him: It’s all proven!
Me: REALLY? How?
Him: Well, Aunt Maggie (my sister and not her real name) says it’s all true. She’s got polls and statistics...(I think we can leave out the rest of the gibberish. And anything I attempted by way of rejoinder can be dispensed with as well.).
This argument was unwinnable, at least with him. My sister is barking mad and more of a conspiracy nut than Fox Mulder (who at least had plausible evidence!). She believes that the moon is hollow and filled with aliens whose home base it is until they can take over. She does not know physics. This is his source? Say it ain’t so!
I would like to dispense with the sort of irritation left by this mess, like a stone in one’s shoe, or a piece of pollen in the eye, but I know that our son is not the only one out there who is deluded and uninformed. And certainly, we know that Millennials are not the only ones who rarely research for themselves but would rather be spoon fed all that is palatable, fitted to their world view (however warped), and wash it down with the brain-rotting candy spewed by our most famous snake-oil salesman: Trump. And I certainly hope I am right in assuming that enough Millennials will see past the empty rhetoric of The Donald or Ms. Stein, read a few articles on history and economics and deny Trump the chance to “bomb the shit” out of anyone.
If any Millennials (or others) wish to explain this whole mess to me, and do it politely, without trolling, I would like to read it.