Millennials, It Was Your Moment, And You Failed

Millennials, I love you, but you've failed. The government shutdown should have been your moment to shine, but instead, what did you (we!) do? We took to Twitter and kvetched, we took to Facebook and moaned, and we didn't do a single thing to actually take political action. But there's still time to change this.

It seems like it was just yesterday that the Occupy Wall Street movement gained tons of traction, but I, like many others, was not wholly on board with the movement. Perhaps it was because its "leaders" were a bunch of (dare I say...) dirty hippies, and people who it seemed like never had jobs to go to, and didn't really want to do much other than complain. At least that's what it appeared to be for me when I witnessed these events in New York and London. They weren't the intellectuals, the elite members of our generation. But now, as all of us are getting screwed by the U.S. government, it's time to do something.

Here, before us, we have 100 Senators and 435 Representatives (plus a few non-voting reps from Puerto Rico, Guam, etc.) who don't want to work. But what will we do when the 2014 election cycle comes around? We will, in all likelihood, re-elect most of the people we are currently referring to as douchebags, scumbuckets, and lazy-ass mofos.

If history teaches us anything, and I can thank Mr. Kohut at Oceanside High School for teaching me this during my senior year, being re-elected to the U.S. Congress as an incumbent is one of the most sure things out there. Even with the "Tea Party Revolution" of 2010, some 87% of Congress was re-elected. And that's just pathetic, since Congress had an approval rate of 13% that same year, just months before the elections! We are all fools though, because we decided to give these creeps a second (or 25th) shot!

But why do we keep doing this? Has the internet finally tipped the scales in favor of electing individuals who are not crazy, criminals, or otherwise incompetent people?

John Catsimatidis spent $419 per vote in his failed bid for New York City Mayor, and Anthony Weiner spent $190 per vote, and of course they didn't get elected because neither man would have been competent enough to fill the role! These politico-wannabes are pathetic. And we knew it, in part because of the power of the internet. Anthony Weiner's "Carlos Danger" scum-mongering alias flew around the web faster than he could pull off his pants! These failed candidates couldn't hide their nonsense from anyone, because the age of transparency is here. (Yes, we can thank social media for this phenomenon!)

So what don't we the people have? We don't have money from special interest groups, that's for sure. We don't have cozy relationships with the lobbyists who throw suitcases full of money at us every single day. Nope. But we can fight that.

We do have crowdfunding, as President Obama's campaign team showed us. We have the power of the internet. And we have tons of ideas. We have undiluted brains that are fed up. And we have lots of complaints, because there's so much that should be changed. 

If this shutdown mess taught us one thing, it should be that we need to elect new candidates in 2014. I'm talking to you! Yes, you may be 25 or 30 years old. Yes, you may not have political experience. But when we're talking about a room full of criminals, you're probably just as smart as they are, more willing to compromise, and have better ideas about how to run the United States of America.

Let 2014 be the year that the people rise. Let 2014 be the year where Congressional re-election rates plummet like never before. Let 2014 be the year that millennials make their way to the United States Congress and every other deliberative body in this country. (I'm talking state senates, assemblies, city councils, and even school boards.)

Yes, it is very easy to sit back and let the Baby Boomers (and their parents) run America into the ground. It's very easy to say, "This blows!" and continue to kvetch. But why should we do this? Why should we not fight the idiots who made things bad, the people who won't even show up to work to govern this country? We shouldn't have the attitude that I know so many Europeans have, that they accept their governments are corrupt and inept institutions.

No, that's not the American way. And it will be up to millennials to put our brains where our mouths are. Let's all make a pact to run for some office in 2014, if only to ensure that the bozos in power now make sure they know we're watching them. And you never know, you could very well win.