Kamala Harris announced her candidacy for President of the United States on July 21 in place of the incumbent President Joe Biden. This announcement sparked a stimulation of political discussion that was starkly tumultuous compared to the weeks before.

Voters on both ends of the political spectrum sprung to action, exchanging in debate strung with the exhilarating tension of the fate of the country. 

Even more interestingly, youth voters including those of Generation Z became eager to participate in discussion. Stripped from political purgatory, adolescents and young adults engaged deeply, more so than in years previous.

In 2016, the youth vote was put at approximately 44%. In 2020, the vote was a 55%. While fluctuating in previous generations, Generation Z has been shown to turn up with roughly half. Now, almost every adolescent you ask has an opinion on this upcoming election.

So what changed?

While this is relevant on a national scale, the range of this phenomenon needs be put into the reference of a microcosm. One that observes the mechanisms of youth advocacy. Thereby, it begs the greater question:

Do the youth in this country lack compassion for our future, failing our government? Or does our current political environment fail the youth?

To quote Aaron Sorkin’s incessantly relevant “West Wing,” “It’s a little of both.”

What sparks confidence and interest in this generation? What keeps them from speaking out? In a world of misinformation and partisan extremes, it is hard to pinpoint motivation. 

Rathi Thiagarajan (11), posed the topic. “We have grown up in a world where, as children, we have experienced politics as only incurring hate. We are also one of the most open, diverse generations,” she said. “Why would we want to create more division?”

Frequent students agreed in the sentiment, “Politics divides and polarizes people,” Emily Nguyen (11) said.  “Young people need to speak out in government because young voices deserve the right to influence the world that they will soon receive from their predecessors.”

“Politics have {become} unfriendly,” Leah Dudley (11) said. “Many feel it is easier to just ‘lay low’ and not voice their opinions.”

It is upon agreeance, then, that there is an issue, and a need for representation. Louis Stoyanov (11) puzzles, “If we stay silent, no one realizes wrong is being done.”

Our voices are necessary, but often fall between the cracks, or drowned into apathy from a feeling of hopelessness.

So, what’s the solution? Could we stimulate youth interest in the platforms that candidates campaign for? Would a discrepancy be closed if our elected officials addressed this generation’s unique issues?

Evidently. 

But perhaps that initiation of discussion is already underway, failed or neutralized or polarized to a point of little identification. 

Instead, perhaps the answer lies in the simplicity of participation.

This lacks nuance, of course. 

However, in the examination of the due process by which our government runs, our political mainframe is intended to reflect the population.

It is intended to reflect our lives, needs, and voices. We live in a democratic republic, and those we elect are selected on the theoretical basis of representation. The answer does not lie in the interest of politics alone, but of the investment of the future of our country.

To feel a sort of nullified numbness towards the future of those who stand in positions of power, of the legislation we create, is to be unaware of the impact of even seemingly disparate stakes. 

We need to be engaged in life. Not presidency. Not large economic theorems, nor even the desperate partisanship of specificities.

Simply being aware of our community, of the world around us. To care for those around us, to remember the humanity in the midst of sociopolitical warfare. 

In its most basic form, law and order were created to uphold justice, a sense of safety. In its most stripped down realization, government is intended to connect, to weigh the scales of power and unify a people.

The effectiveness or relative truthfulness of such statements in this world today is up to the reader.

But we cannot deny, now more than ever, that officials hold power that change our lives. It can feel out of hand, out of control, out of reach, to try to influence such power.

But we must equally respect the power of our own voices.

We must not forget that the very power instated over us is first passed through us. We must comprehend the enormity of the fact that a majority is made of individuals, and a school of thought possesses teachers once students.

To say that it does not matter who you vote for, or what laws or language you reinforce, is completely misguided. 

Of course it matters. 

It is by a one’s ideology that mountains are moved, revolutions are birthed, and a more perfect union is conceived.

That individual is not the candidate. It is not the president. It is you. It is us. And it is the reason we must care about our politics.

Whether viewed as freedom, or as a game by which means are brought, it is as things are. It is as the world functions. 

And if you don’t like that? Go vote about it.