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PandoraAwakened

(905 posts)
Tue Oct 23, 2018, 08:53 PM Oct 2018

Nov 6, 2018: Take-a-Millennial-or-Gen-Z to the Polls Day

Last edited Wed Oct 24, 2018, 09:01 PM - Edit history (2)

From the desk of: The American M.O.B. (Majority Opinion Blowback)

"My American M.O.B. over the GOP-Russian Mob any day, any time...Let's roll!"



Dems, do you REALLY want to see a Blue Tsunami in a few weeks? If so, then here's my challenge to each and every one of you:

Find one Millennial or Generation Z voter who you will personally drive to the polling booth on November 6 or who you will personally supervise in getting their mail-in ballot completed and dropped off at either the post office or a ballot drop-off location.

I committed in my mind a few weeks ago to finding at least one young person to drive to the polls (even though I myself and my own Gen Z son who's old enough to vote are both Early Ballot mail-ins).

Result? I was quite surprised at how easy it was to have ended up with three fired-up young persons who are registered to vote for the first time in their lives and who have committed to the carpool. I'll be driving them as a group on election day and treating them to Starbucks afterwards. It's not that hard, people. Just start talking to neighbors, coworkers, your kids, their friends, etc.

If you're not a reader, skip to the "Conclusion" at the bottom of this article for the "magic bullet" I've discovered that gets Millennials and Gen Z voters to the polling booths. If you're more interested in digging beneath the surface of who these voters are, keep reading.


Millennials (Gen Y) & The "Woke" Generation (Gen Z) in a Nutshell

So, who's Gen Y and who's Gen Z? While the world has not yet settled on universally agreed-upon birth years/age ranges, the general differentiation starting to take hold between the two groups of young people is "pre-9/11" and "post-9/11." But for those of you who really need specific guidelines to go by on this, here's some Pew Research Center data:

In 2014, Pew at first named the year 2000 as the birth year between Generations Y and Z. However, it turns out that the 9/11 attacks, combined with the Great Recession, is turning out to be an anthropological and sociological marker between generational attitudes, which also will have its effects in the voting booth.

Thus, on the basis that anyone four years of age or younger at the time of the 9/11 attacks would have little or no memory of the event, in 2018 Pew revised its designation for Gen Z as those born from 1997-2013 (although the end date is not yet firm), which means they are currently 5-to-21-years-old. In terms of the upcoming election, Gen Z includes the 18-to-21-year-olds.

Meanwhile, Pew has designated those born from 1981-1996 as Millennials. So, how does this translate to voting? Well, obviously for 2018, the 22-to-37-year-old Millennials are the bigger of the two younger voting groups (for now, but keep reading).


Gen Z:

For voting purposes, Gen Z is not a statistically large group…yet. However, from just my own personal observations, those old enough to vote in this group are the most highly enthused about turning out to vote once someone walks them through the how-to ropes. However, if no one approaches them on the nuts and bolts of what they need to do to get registered, they will likely not dive into the pool until 2020.

Listen up, fellow Dems: It is critical to engage this youngest group politically right now, along with their younger brothers and sisters thereafter. The full force of Gen Z's voting power is yet to come and by the looks of it, it's going to be a doozy.

According to Forbes (2015), Gen Z makes up 25% of the U.S. population, which is an even larger group than either the Millennials or the Baby Boomers! These are the young students you saw rise up after the Parkland, Florida shooting. This is the group that self-describes as "woke." This is who is going to hold everyone's future in the palms of their hands across the entire spectrum of American society, much like the Baby Boomers have done for a few generations now.

So, if you do no other GOTV efforts for 2018, you need to do at least this one thing:

Go find one 18-to-21-year-old who you're going to make damn sure votes in this cycle. As an added bonus, the nice thing about this age group is that they tend to bring along a friend or two!



Millennials:

The most striking aspect of Gen Y is the fact that, depending on which source you cite, Millennials have either already overtaken the Baby Boomers in size or they will have done so by sometime in 2019.

As some of you are painfully aware, despite their numbers holding the power to absolutely make or break any U.S. election they might choose to get involved in, the Millennials had the lowest percentage voter turnout by age group in 2016. Now, there are many factors that come into play about why this happened and there are many general studies on Millennials from which you can extrapolate.

I will just say this, based both on what I've read and what I've heard firsthand from Millennials I've spoken to while canvassing, many (particularly the older ones) consider themselves to have been a driving force in helping to put Obama into the White House. And they expected to again be players in 2016, as evidenced by the large uptick in Millennial voter registrations at that time. But, their guy was Bernie, pure and simple.

[And please, before anyone gives themselves a hernia bending over backward to take this thread off-topic, which I've seen happen a lot here anytime someone mentions the "B" word, just cool your jets for a moment and let reality sink in.]

One of the Millennials' biggest issues was and still is personal debt, a lot of it fueled by crushing student loans, which they've found themselves struggling with, even as many have started having children of their own. In fact, many will tell you it was their own children they were thinking of, coupled with personal educational debt experience, that helped The Burn resonate when he spoke of low-cost higher education.

But, as we all now know, after what happened with the 2016 primary, the previously motivated Millennials became disillusioned, bagged up their marbles, and went home (as evidenced by all that unused currency in the form of increased Millennial voter registrations that ended up lying fallow). Many Millennials I've spoken to who didn't vote in 2016 now readily admit, given the craziness that has ensued as a result, that maybe saying "to hell with it" wasn't such a good idea, after all. So, there is hope with them.

Another factor to consider with Millennials is the effect of social media on their perceptions. They were the first to dive willy-nilly into Facebook and Twitter, experiencing more of their lives online than any other generation. As yet, there have been ZERO studies done regarding the actual influence of the disinformation campaigns initiated by foreign troll farms in the social media landscape. I, for one, will not be at all surprised, after such assessments are eventually conducted, to find that Millennials' political perceptions were more disproportionately affected by the Russian bots than the rest of the nation.

So, where does that put us with Millennials today? Polls continue to show a majority of them would rather Democrats take control of Congress in the upcoming Midterms and that they disapprove of Rethuglicans by a large margin. The big question, of course, is whether they'll make their preferences known by exercising their right to vote. Most polls show 50%-55% saying they will 'probably' or 'definitely' vote in a few weeks.

How can you help to get more Millennials to the polls? A crucial factor is that you have to talk to Millennials about what they care about, not what you think they should care about (see below). The good news is that many of them are already registered to vote from the last time they thought they were going to jump in, but then turned away.


What the Millennial Generation Cares About Politically

This is just a list of what I've found motivates Millennials to vote Democratic where I live. You will undoubtedly find variances in your own area. To that end, please add to this list by providing commentary below, and if you feel comfortable doing so, let readers know the general area in the U.S. where you live. I am in Arizona:

Political Issues: In terms of government, Millennials' biggest issues appear to be transparency, responsiveness, and corruption. Other issues they care about are income inequality, climate change, the environment, solar energy, preservation of public spaces, net neutrality, student loan debt, and having to work multiple jobs even after borrowing all that money for education. Those I've spoken to without higher education are deeply dissatisfied with the jobs they seem to be relegated to by not having at least associate's or bachelor's degrees.

Additionally, the young women of this demographic are hopping mad right now. Many are just realizing that something they've all heard their mothers talk about---previously vague concepts to them like "glass ceiling" and "pay inequality"---actually still exists. Their anger at bumping up against what they thought was consigned to the history books of their mothers' workforce days is exacerbated by the amount of debt they have.

Also, as has been born out with women across the board, 1 out of 3 of these young women have experienced some form of sexual harassment, mostly in their current workplaces. Sadly, about 1 in 6 have experienced sexual assault at some point in their lives. More in this age group have reported sexual misbehavior than any other group of women before them, and they can tell you all about what it's like to be silenced and denied due process as a result. Yeah, they're mad.


What The "Woke" Generation Cares About Politically

Following is a list of what I've found motivates Gen Z kids where I live. Again, please feel free to add to this list in your own comments below:

Political Issues: Gun violence, climate change, the environment, net neutrality, cost of higher education, lack of funding for K-12 education, diversity, judicial justice, wishing people would get over their hang-ups about their LGBTQ+ friends, and seeing themselves as the generation to move this country out of bigotry and racism.

As you can see, some of Gen Z's concerns overlap with the Millennials' interests. Differing issues the Millennials care about seem to be a direct reflection of their life experiences to this point, which may or may not also become concerns of Gen Z as they move in and out of college and/or into the work force. Differing issues that Gen Z kids care about appear to be more focused on seismic cultural shifts. It's also important to note that some sociological sources are still wrangling with delineating between these two groups and a few have stated they consider both generations combined to be "Millennials."

However, I can tell you that my own Gen Z children and their friends bristle at being called Millennials, who they see as politically apathetic and not civically engaged. As one of them put it to me, when Gen Z says "Stay Woke," they're not so much speaking to their own peers (who intuitively know no other way to be) as they are politely prodding their older Millennial cousins to "Wake the Hell Up."


Conclusion

Talk to young adult Millennials and Gen Z kids about their issues, what they care about. While you and I may understand healthcare, for example, to be extremely important, that is not necessarily what is topmost on their minds at the moment. (They're young. Remember when you, too, thought you would live forever and never get sick?) Whatever it is you find they care about where you live, bring it all back to the vote.

You're also going to discover, as you start to reach out, that these generations have a deep mistrust in current political and judicial institutions, and, frankly, it would be silly to deny that they don't have good cause for such distrust. However, through trial and error, I have figured out how to overcome this particular objection to voter participation:

Amazingly, for all the time they spend online, I have yet to meet anyone from either of these age groups who was aware, prior to me telling them so, that their generations are LARGER IN NUMBERS than any other in America.

As such, it is completely within their power to take over these institutions and remold them into a better future. That's when I see the lights come on and that's when I see a sudden interest in voting.

So, there you have it, folks. Each and every one of you needs to commit right now to finding and taking just one of these young persons to the polls in a couple of weeks. You might be surprised to find yourself with a carload!

Oh, and if you have a few bucks to spare, take them out for a latte afterward.


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Nov 6, 2018: Take-a-Millennial-or-Gen-Z to the Polls Day (Original Post) PandoraAwakened Oct 2018 OP
I am a Millennial and my daughter is Gen Z and we will be voting together :) Luciferous Oct 2018 #1
Now that's true love! PandoraAwakened Oct 2018 #2
Millennials Olafjoy Oct 2018 #3
Good one, Olafjoy! PandoraAwakened Oct 2018 #5
No worries vercetti2021 Oct 2018 #4
So hoping Texas pulls this one off! PandoraAwakened Oct 2018 #6

Olafjoy

(937 posts)
3. Millennials
Wed Oct 24, 2018, 12:41 AM
Oct 2018

Told my son and his Millennial friends if they wanted to continue to come to our house, use the game room to play Fortnite or FIFA or whatever, eat all the snacks I make and drink the sculpin IPA, they would all need to vote. I also took all the game machine controllers and an HDMI cable from the TV. They all voted early, last Friday. Controllers, cables, snacks and beers for everyone!!

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