Millennials and Politics: Disengaged and Disillusioned ~ Emerald Quill

Jul 3, 2015

Millennials and Politics: Disengaged and Disillusioned

7/03/2015 Celestine Green No comments

If you follow the Emerald Quill you know that this blogger is obsessed with trying to understand Millennials. You also know that I keep a keen eye on politics and continuously try to share information that I think is important. I often wonder do youngsters care anything about politics at all. Think about this: 72 million young adults were born after 1985; they make up 36% of the 2014 workforce and 46% by 2020. Since Millennials hold our future in their hands, let's take a look at their political mind-set and habits.

The Washington Post reports ‘that Millennials are disengaged and disillusioned with the U.S. political system”. In many ways, that’s true. Compared with Gen Xers (born between 1965 and 1980) and Baby Boomers (1946 to 1964), the generation of Americans who were born after 1980 and before 1997 identify less with political parties, are less interested in politics and vote at lower rates. Even young Americans who consider themselves politically active may not do much more than vote every few years, sign an online petition once a year, or passive-aggressively unfriend people who express different political views on Facebook.

Many people see these trends as a product of the general uprooting of American civic society. For a variety of complex reasons -- including changes in work, technology and gender roles -- Americans today know less about their neighbors, are less likely to take part in their communities, and be part of fewer formal institutions such as churches or political parties.

Millennials are the most racially and ethnically diverse generation (40% non-white and Hispanic). They rely on Facebook for their political news, while Baby Boomers turn to local TV. This generation is the most moderate of any generation (39% moderates, 31% liberal, and 26% conservative). They are more likely to identify themselves as self described independents (50%). Millennials opt for bigger government providing more services over smaller government providing fewer services (53%).

This generation is not isolationists. They support the military conducting nation building in Iraq and Afghanistan. Sixty per cent believe that it is the right decision to use force in Afghanistan, fourteen points higher than the Silent Generation. Seven in 10 Millennials believe that immigrants strengthen our country.

A recent Pew study labels Millennials as liberal, churchless and single. Millennials haven't bought into the idea that they should go to church or get married early. Only 36 percent of the Millennials said the phrase "a religious person" described them very well, compared with 52 percent of the Gen Xers, 55 percent of the baby boomers and 61 percent of the Silent Generation. And they're significantly less religious than their immediately predecessors, the Gen Xers. When they were the same age, almost half of the Gen Xers — 47 percent — identified themselves as religious. The 64 percent of the millennials who say that they are not religious "is the highest for any age group we've ever measured," Taylor said.

The Millennials were far less inclined toward marriage than the groups that preceded them. Only 26 percent of the millennial adults are married. When they were the same age, 36 percent of the Gen Xers, 48 percent of baby boomers and 65 percent of the Silent Generation were married.

History shows us that people change as life goes on. It will be interesting to see how much Millennials change as they get older and how those changes will impact their political views. I wonder how their political mind set and views will shape the world that they will make for themselves.