Hello, (relatively) young person —
Just a few things here to consider before the next elections:
Are you worried about how you’ll ever get the student loan millstone off of your neck so you can think about things like having a family or a home or starting a business?
There’s one party trying to change this, and it’s not the Republicans.
Worried about having a functional economy that works for people who work and not just for investors?
There’s one party trying to change this, and it’s not the Republicans.
Sick and tired of seeing sick people forced to choose between medicine/treatment and living indoors?
There’s one party trying to change that too, and it’s not the Republicans.
Think it’s unfair that your diabetic friend/brother/parent/etc. has to shell out hundreds of dollars every month just to stay alive buying a medicine with modest productions costs so that pharmaceutical execs and shareholders can accumulate more wealth?
Yup. One party’s trying to change this too, and it isn’t the Republicans.
Think it’s sick and wrong under any circumstance to take children from their parents and put them in a cage?
There’s a party that’s totally opposed to that, and it’s not the Republicans.
Tired of old men trying to make your reproductive and sexual health choices for you?
There’s a party that defends those choices, and it isn’t the Republicans.
Speaking of health choices, do you think that choosing between getting treatment for illness/injury and going bankrupt is no real choice at all, and that access to health care should be part of living in a civilized country regardless of wealth or lack thereof?
Guess what? There’s a party that agrees with you, but it’s not the Republicans.
Isn’t it nice that your LGBT friends can finally legally marry the people they love? Wouldn’t it be great if they also enjoyed equal rights in housing, employment, and health care?
There’s a party that will need your help protecting marriage equality and fighting for equal protection under all laws, but it isn’t the Republicans.
Worried that we’re on the cusp of rendering our planet uninhabitable for your children (if you can afford to have any...) for the sake of further enriching a handful of billionaires and that our future looks like some kind of dystopian hellscape on Netflix?
You guessed it — One party in the USA wants to prevent that, and it is not the Republicans.
Noticing a trend here? Yes, there might well be a few political parties in the U.S. who do want to change these things. But under current political realities, there is ONE party that has any chance of prevailing electorally, and that is the Democratic party. Are they perfect? Not by a long shot. Are some of them out of touch, too timid, too outspoken, too old, too young, too corrupt, too whatever?
Perhaps so. But we’re faced with a binary choice here: Vote for Democrats or accept that none of the problems I’ve mentioned here will ever change. I know it sounds overwhelming that “all of the things” are at risk, but that’s where we are. Over the course of my entire adult life (and before), I’ve seen what happens when the GOP is in power. We’ve had illegal wars, environmental destruction, torture, and financial collapse. We’ve seen this movie before and we know how it ends.
You might have noticed that any time we elect a president, the results are always about 49% to 51%. That tells us that there are still a lot of people voting for the GOP. You probably know many of them, some even may be people you love — your dear grandfather who always took you fishing, funny Uncle Jim who always tells jokes at Thanksgiving, or your old highschool friend who lives in Colorado now… They have their views and perspectives, and you can still respect and care about them. But the people that they keep voting for are actively destroying our future, and they must be defeated.
Now, here’s the kicker —there are more of you than there are of the aging Baby Boomer generation, which is waning daily. By simply voting for Democrats in every election — yup, that means city, county, and state, not just presidential — you can bring the change that we (as in the inhabitants of Earth) desperately need. Will it happen overnight? No. But with each election, you have the power to move the party in the direction that you choose. It will take some time, but it goes a lot faster with “wave” elections, where voter turn-out surges and victories are many, large, and decisive. The trick is you’ve got to stick with it, and you’ve got to be prepared to support Democrats even if the one on the ballot isn’t the one you really wanted. Even if it feels like you hoped for cake and got spinach instead, just remember that not choosing the spinach means we all get cyanide.
So, no pressure or anything (it’s only the fate of the world, right?) but PLEASE for the sake of all that is good and pure —VOTE!!! Vote for Democrats! And be sure to bring ALL of your friends.
Love,
Your older Gen X brother