The problem isn't that your (and my) generation isn't voting for the right candidates because of cultural reasons, or because we really want to see drugs legalized, maan.
It's because we're not voting at all. Reducing it to cultural issues like celebrity endorsements and pot reform are degrading to us. The problem isn't that we don't understand or like the candidates, it's that we feel hopeless. When our generation, as a whole, is on board with a lot of progressive issues. Yet we continually see things like NSA Programs, "Anti-Troll" Bills, pro-life policy, Wall Street and big money campaigns, and Fundamentalist Christians in politics.
We're fundamentally and vehemently opposed to those things as a whole, yet they're still passing legislation like that? HOW? WHY? Because of the money in politics. When you have an enemy like that, it's tough. Here's companies and individuals with billions of dollars buying elections like they're candy, and the vast majority of us grew up in working and middle class families. We can't even buy local elections. More importantly we struggle to even pay for healthcare and go to college while the financial elite buy elections with play money. We aren't interested in being culturally hip with our candidates, we aren't interested in celebrity endorsements, we are disgusted, disillusioned, and discouraged with the system. That is the root of our apathy.
How do we change it? You show people Bernie Sanders. He doesn't have Super PACs and billionaires buying him out. His average donation is $43 and he is supported by multiple unions representing hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of Americans. He is a champion of the people and our rights. And he listens to what we have to say.
Millennials don't need hip, cool campaigns. We need politicians that listen to us. We grew up in these times. We saw 2005-2008 and that wasn't a period in history for us, it was our life. And that was cause by big money and Wall Street. Without someone to stand strong for what caused those problems, without someone to stand up to big money, corporate elections, and the political system as it stands today... Without someone that will bring about real change... Without someone that will bring about A POLITICAL REVOLUTION.... Then the polls are without us.
If only there were a candidate that stood for those things, too.