With more than a year and a half until Election Day 2016, presidential candidates are announcing their intent to run for the White House. Thus begins silly season. Earlier this week, pundits analyzed, criticized and dissected Hillary Clinton’s and Marco Rubio’s campaign logos because political pundits are now experts in graphic design. What the American people can’t afford is yet another presidential election bogged down in debates over the minutiae and plagued by typical mudslinging.
Of course, this is exactly what we’re going to get, and young people should fight back.
Millennials are poised to become the largest generation currently living sometime this year — surpassing the baby boomers — and it’s time we start asking our leaders the tough questions about the future. Whether you support Clinton, Rubio or, for some reason, Ben Carson, ask yourself who has the brightest, boldest vision for the future.
For Republicans, it can’t simply be about repealing Barack Obama’s presidency. That would be costly and prevent progress on the major issues our nation faces. Both sides agree economic inequality is a serious issue, and without changes, the erosion of the middle class will continue unabated, which could lead to severe economic strife.
Despite our governor’s decree that the phrase “climate change” is verboten, the changing climate is the likely cause of severe and devastating droughts in California, responsible for the flooding in Miami and perhaps why severe weather outbreaks are more severe and frequent. Gov. Rick Scott may want to put the kibosh on climate reality, but the next president cannot ignore the devastating consequences to communities in various parts of the country.
Additionally, the next president must tackle runaway student-loan debt, which has hamstrung much of our generation, preventing us from affording homes, cars and other staples of the middle class. Are we looking for a bailout? Our names do not begin or end with “bank,” so it’s unlikely we’ll see much relief. A restructuring of the system is past due.
Overall, the next president must restore confidence and trust in the American institutions whose reputations are crumbling before our eyes. We no longer trust our political institutions to compromise or work together for the benefit of our nation. Each week we learn of another unconscionable tragedy involving the police and American citizens. We continue to learn about the Secret Service’s ineptitude. Our public education system faces enormous challenges educating the next generation, and, without investment, our nation’s infrastructure continues to crumble. Following court decisions like Citizens United, our political system is now sold to the highest bidder while voters are little more than an afterthought.
In today’s America, with enough money, anyone can buy the votes necessary to win.
Can the next president solve all the challenges we face? Absolutely not. However, he or she can set the stage to restore the American people’s trust in the institutions that guided us from a largely agrarian state into the economic powerhouse that dominated the 20th century. Restore trust and confidence and, together, we can finally move forward and make the rest of the 21st century another American century.
Obama’s accomplishments in office are significant, but the president faced numerous challenges when he entered office, many of which will go unresolved when he exits the White House in a little less than two years. It’s up to the next president to keep the country on a path moving forward. That direction may be liberal or conservative, but it must undoubtedly be forward, not backward. We simply cannot afford four or eight years of continued polarization among political elites while millions of people watch as helpless spectators in America’s self-inflicted decline.
Young people cannot watch from the sidelines in 2016. We must be active and involved and demand that those seeking the nation’s highest office respect and respond to the voices of we, the people.
Joel Mendelson is a UF graduate student in political campaigning. His column appears on Fridays.
[A version of this story ran on page 6 on 4/17/2015]
