America is on the brink of becoming a Fascist nation; therefore, the mission of the 18-30 year-old voter eligible generation is more formidable than that of their predecessors’ because it entails preventing America from committing suicide.
The song says we should teach the children and let them lead the way. Our youngsters’ elders and leaders have not accomplished the first task, which complicates the latter.
Consequently, instead of seeking the wisdom of their ancestors, young Americans have looked for leadership in people of such youth and inexperience, as well as poverty of education and character, that it is no wonder that they sometimes seem rudderless. They see athletes, rap singers, and “social media influencers” as role models, when nothing could be further, in most cases, from their capacities. – Arthur Ashe
Young people are disillusioned. However, they must understand that if they want a nation fit to live in, they must get involved in making it so; and the first act is to vote consistently in every election, and, in turn, to disabuse everyone they know of the false and dangerous notion that their votes don’t matter. As we can see, self-disenfranchisement, esp., low voter turnout in 2016, has spawned a virulent Fascist plague on America. Young people must vote, run for office and stay involved between elections.
Unfortunately, the old heads in both major parties, professional politicians, want newly elected young people to sit in the back of the room, purportedly to learn formal operating rules. NOT SO: the old guard wants new people to be sufficiently politicized and socialized, as well as to have their passion lessened, so that they will behave in ways that will keep the status quo in effect, a condition that is solidified by the 95+% Incumbency Reelection Syndrome.
At the pace Radical Right Extremists are driving the country, we may be the last generations living in a Democracy, faulty or not. America’s next generations will be living under fascism and as slaves to corporate America. Our youth can change this projection.
Totaling 67.3 million, the 18-30 year-old grouping, constitutes the largest component among America’s Voter Eligible Populations.
Tragically the group’s voting record has long been appalling. In 2022, 52 million did not vote; only 28% voted in 2018 and only 23% voted in 2014. (SOURCE: April 2023 CIRCLE, data aggregated by Catalist)
For a stark comparison, consider the 52 million non-voting young people against the 112,000 citizens who did vote and swung the Electoral College for Trump in 2016: 112,000 is 0.2% of 52 million and 0.04% of the total voters that year. These data points alone should be convincing that every vote matters.
The country will not be a good place for any of us to live in unless we make it a good place for all of us to live in. – Theodore Roosevelt
The poor and otherwise disadvantaged citizens among the lower echelons, especially descendants of America’s Slave Class, so easily identifiable, will fare especially badly in the kind of Autocracy that is evolving in the vacuum that has been created by self-disenfranchisement. The African Americans and women among the self-disenfranchisers must not feel a connection to their forebears who fought and died to gain for them the right to vote.
Although 52 million eligible voters aged 18-30 did not vote in 2022, for example, 15.5 million did vote. One has to ask about the kinds of families, communities and schools of these patriotic youngsters. Have they been told and shown that the only way to have the kind of nation that meets its responsibility to the citizens is to get involved in creating it — before elections, at each election and after each election? Have they been told that the enemies of Democracy who are now bent on turning America into a Fascist nation are empowered, aided and abetted when Americans do not vote? Do they know that silence today morphs easily into Depraved Indifference? Have they been told that their votes really do matter?
THIS BEARS REPEATING OFTEN AS WE APPROACH THE MIDTERMS: If all of the citizens of voting age in America exercised their enfranchisement right and responsibility, Fascism, Tyranny, Brutal Economic Disparities, Injustice, and Unfair Laws would be impossible.
However, Democracy is not simply for elections, for politics, or for a party name – it requires Perseverant Action Steps. Given the political leaning and demographic makeup of the non-voters, if they do vote in 2026 and 2028 as they did in 2020, the Fascists will be evicted and Democracy will be much more likely to come to full power in politics, in government, in religion, in the media, and in education. (SOURCES: NUMEROUS AND VARIED)
