The Republicans can ride millennials all the way to the White House

Riding the Wave

 

It is no secret that both major political parties desperately need youth on their side in 2016

As a seventeen year old right now, who will be voting for the first time in the election of 2016, I see a desperate need on both sides of the aisle to get young blood involved. Just a look at the average political press conference shows a bunch of old men and women standing around talking about something nobody in my generation has a clue about…being too busy watching Downton Abbey or checking Facebook to read the news.

But there are hundreds of thousands of us coming of age in 2016, and the general election for president of the United States is one of the few times that we will be paying attention to the news and the issues. There are millions of us under 25, and the party that can snare us into its fold will have a massive powerhouse voting bloc if we could be motivated to get out and vote.   

A quick look at the two parties shows us a massive contrast. For the Democrats: Hillary Clinton is pushing 70, has been around for a while, and is hardly new blood. Plan B isn’t a whippersnapper either: six times senator Joe Biden was alive long before the first satellite was sent up. We aren’t impressed.   

The Republicans are looking way better, with the likes of Cruz, Rubio, and Paul. They come across as more in touch with us, and that they get what makes us tick, then someone like say Hillary, who can’t even do emails right, where we moved on a long time ago to messaging.

We are a generation ripe for the Republican’s picking. Coming of age in the troubled Obama administration, we have grown up hearing how good things used to be-and the Democrats have been in charge in the White House all that time when things were bad. So switching plans when the last one hasn’t been working seems pretty logical to us.

But the GOP cannot waste this opportunity. And right now, they’re not. Ted Cruz is already appealing to young people, announcing his bid in a room with 10,000 college kids in it. And the others who have a serious chance are active on the internet. For instance Paul announcing his bid on social media before giving his speech.   

But with all of these things in their favor, Republicans have been known to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. And they could mess up in a hurry if they are not careful. We are a new type of youth, we are not rallied by the same things the kids of the eighties were.

Hatred and charges against opponents devoid of facts insult us. The Republican who wants the GOP nomination or to win the general election needs to understand that we have iPhones and internet, and if he misrepresent his opponent’s arguments or his own record he might as well jump off a balcony, because he’s out.   

As for the past, Reagan is just a name to us; we don’t know him outside of YouTube clips. A revered name, sure, but we want to hear what the candidate has to say, not what Reagan would have said if he were here. Because he isn’t.

But being a new type of Republican isn’t bad. Just as the Republican of 2015 is not the Republican of 1995, the Republican of 95’ wasn’t the Republican of 65’ or 35’. We keep moving.

The Republicans have a golden opportunity to connect with us, to get us on their side, and to ride us to the White House, if they don’t drop the ball, well’ give them the presidency.

The big donors may have the money, and it may be attractive to some candidates to go back in time to get that money, but we have the time, we have blogs and the Twitter accounts to rip obsolete messages, bad presentations and bad candidates to pieces, and if we make you a laughing stock because you are still caught in the 90’s, or-God help you-the 80’s, then all the money in the world can’t save you.

Andrew C. Abbott #thelovestate