Recently on this website, as well as other places, I've noticed a minor amount of diaries and posts detailing the current voting trends of my generation. And well, while I will not disagree that the GOP has quite a lot to be worried about. I do feel it is wise to you know; actually have someone from this generation actually speak how they feel instead of just treating us like some collection of insects under a microscope.
So what’s my opinion about our current political system and our two major parties?
Read below to find out.
Well, as many already know, the GOP has quite a problem on its hands. Yes my generation is more liberal and leftist and I will not dispute that at all. While obviously not all of us are, it’s safe to say that the vast majority are. Heck I hope it stays that way, hell I hope it worsens for the GOP to the point that the best they can seriously hope for is to become an irrelevant third party. Best case for us, I hope they and everything they believe and stand for is so thoroughly discredited that it dies a permanent death and is forever purged from the American political landscape.
So yes. The republicans are pretty much dead on arrival for my generation across the board. No matter divisive factors such as race, gender and so forth, they might as well beat their head’s against a brick wall for all the chances their efforts will have. And let us hope that, perhaps they might get so desperate they take such a gesture literal and do us all a favor.
So, some of you might then assume that because my generation has effectively written off the GOP and that we’ll all leftist, then that means we’ll all vote democratic.
Well no. You’re wrong on that. VERY, wrong. My generation is social liberal AND economically leftist. The democrats are, well not to beat this horse any more then it has already, but it does bear repeating, in the eyes of the majority of my generation, JUST socially leftist. They are, time after time, proven that when push comes to shove, they mostly favor capitalist policies just as much as Republicans will. Maybe not as fervently, or as fanatically. And perhaps they’ll not support the same practices. But on the whole, from where I stand, they are just as willing to defend the same system that is basically stealing my future and their solution is to only apply superficial fixes.
And you see, that’s kinda a problem for the democrats. I say this because honestly I don’t really see them as a party of the left. I see them as the party of the moderate right in practice. And what’s more, I feel they take my generation as well as several other groups for granted. I feel that because they have no serious opposition from the left, someone who can muster up enough power to challenge their position as the liberal, leftist party, then they can just stay comfortable knowing that people will mostly vote for them just to keep worse republicans out of office.
And I bring this point up for a very good reason. Allow me to bring up Socialist candidate Kshama Sawant political victory in Seattle. Based on what I’ve read of the situation, she ran in a district that has consistently voted democrat in the past and is solidly blue. She ran against a democrat. She ran as openly socialist. She campaigned on issues that the democrats tend to support. You know, progressive policies and that. She also won. Why? Because she actually provided people with a genuine leftist alternative and because she didn’t take her constituents for granted. And that, that is why I feel the democrats should be worried. Because honestly a lot of my generation does not have a favorable view of capitalism. And why shouldn’t we? All we’ve seen is the worst excesses it has to offer. All the promises of prosperity, of wealth, of opportunity that might have been true in the past have been utterly absent for my generation. And while I won’t declare any of us -myself included- as bomb throwing Marxists or socialists. I do feel we will see the rise of a serious economically leftist political movement from my generation to challenge the democrats as the party of the left if the economic situation doesn’t improve or at least substantially change.
And I’m not alone on this. Several of my friends feel similarly burned by the democratic party. I supported Obama during both his presidential elections and he’s let us down. Hell when it comes to prosecuting the bankers responsible for this, he’s out right betrayed us. And yes I know the republicans are seriously to blame for a great deal, but to say they’re solely responsible is inaccurate. But for Christ sake, where’s the outrage from the democrats? Where’s their spine? Where’s the fire in their stomachs? All I see from them is timid mewling cowards that meekly ask republicans if they’ll agree to this or that compromise and then act dumbfounded when they unsurprisingly go back on their promises. For Christ sake fight them, actually do something. Stop letting them steal our future away damnit! And to go back to Obama, what the hell is he doing trying to push the TTP? Do I even need to go into detail with that utter mess of a thing? I feel angry and betrayed. I feel half the time, between a gutted industrial sector and abysmal job situation, a broken government and a seemingly unfixable environmental problem that I’m already screwed. Like George Carlin already said, we’re circling the drain and it’s too late. This nation had a nice run but we, and by we I mean my elders, screwed it up.
So there. That’s my feelings on this. I don’t know if I’m right on any of this, but this is how I feel. And I won’t go so far as to speak for my entire generation. Heck I’d be a hypocrite if I tried to. But I do feel that this does encapsulate a general picture of things. Namely that my generation is leftist on several things and that economic issues will come to be the biggest factor in who we will vote for, and that considering how bad the situation is and looks to be, then if the democrats don’t take more leftist economic policies, then they’re find themselves in a similar position to what the moderate republicans do with their party currently.
And perhaps that might be a good thing.