Like clockwork, another election year has rolled around. Yet, for our generation, national politics has been at the forefront of everyone’s minds for the last 15 years, even in non-election ones. We’ve seen the first Black President, Barack Obama, the first female party nominee, Hilary Clinton, a new conservative party leader, Donald Trump, and the sitting president, Joe Biden, not running for reelection.
Our country’s political climate has led to the polarized world we have, unfortunately, all grown up in. I remember political battle lines being strictly drawn during the 2016 election by my fellow middle schoolers who hadn’t taken their first civics class yet.
In the following years, we became a politically active generation like no other. Over 94% of people polled by The Mast on Instagram said they were registered and planning to vote. To the 6% who are not planning to vote, I understand some of your hesitations.
With the constant upheaval in our national and international world, a single vote feels almost too small to matter. Almost. I will not argue that, in many ways, our political system needs to change. I also do not doubt we will be the ones to change it. Our generation’s vote is powerful and is a wildcard. I guarantee not much scares D.C. more than Gen Z’s rise to power. We must harness that power with a vote. We need to use it, or we will lose it.
Our vote is our best shot at molding the better system we deserve on a local level and a national level. To make our political system work for us, we need to ensure politicians know they work for us.
I urge everyone to figure out what changes matter most to you and find the candidates who will make those changes. Politicians work for their constituents at the end of the day; we cannot allow them to forget that. We vote them in, and we vote them out.
We are entirely unique in our political power: one that can swing any election, and one that we cannot relinquish. Our most important tools of change are our compassion, our education, and our vote. Let’s make sure on November 5th, we don’t forget it.
