Young adults more liberal when it comes to politics
Brianna Cossavella
Open minded and less reserved; that is the outlook that several young adults have today. When it comes to politics, young adults have their own opinions about how they believe the government should work, and what changes they would like to see in the future.
Carissa Ferguson, 21, is an MCC student who would like to see education about politics change.
“I would like to see the government care more about educating our generation on politics. If our politicians would educate us more then I think it wouldn’t be such a popularity contest and people would actually have an opinion,” Ferguson said. She would also like to see lower tax rates, and less government control over daily activities.
MCC student Cassandra Christionson, 20, agrees with Ferguson.
“I definitely want there to be less government control in the sense that the government controls how much money they take from us to give to organizations such as welfare,” Christionson said.
She does not think that it is fair that many young adults are working and struggling at the same time, and still, portions of their paycheck are being handed to people who are unemployed.
Chris Galvin, 22, is an entrepreneur at a small business in Gilbert and is affected by the government every day.
“One of the biggest issues for me was the ‘everything equal’ concept during this recent election. There are so many people who work hard for what they have and it is not fair for them to have to sit and wait for everyone to catch up. Do not punish the people who work harder,” Galvin said.
Although young adults want to see these changes, Brian Dille, a political science instructor at MCC, said the problem is that young people are not as involved as they should be.
“If the young adult generation wants benefits, they must engage themselves in the system. If they do not, they will get punished by the system,” Dille said. He thinks that young adults need to start voting and thinking for themselves or else dictatorship will arise.
Plus, young adults are having a tough time siding with Democrats or Republicans. While their minds are expanding, they are creating their own set of beliefs and values that cannot be supported by one party in particular.
Race Carpender, 20, is an intern at Lotus Post House, in Santa Monica, considers himself to be an independent. After being raised in a conservative household, he recognizes fallacies of only being affiliated with the Republican Party.
“I do not believe in the two-party system because … it makes issues polarized and divides people based on income, gender, race, and class. Also, I believe there are good candidates who embody the beliefs and financial responsibilities that we require as a nation, who are overlooked because of party/non-party affiliation,” Carpender said.
On the other side, Taylor Corr, 19, who attends the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandise in Los Angeles, agrees with the two- party system.
“There are a lot of different people in this world and people are happier knowing that they feel represented,” Corr said.
Carpender and Corr both believe that today’s young adults are more liberal than older generations because they are growing to be accepting and tolerant to changes, such as gay marriage rights.
Baker believes that being liberal is a trend and it is “cool to be what you want to be.” She predicts that when young liberal adults take over the political system, they will not take it seriously. This will result in people having to look out for themselves instead of working together as a whole.
There is a reason behind the liberal trend; Galvin believes it is because of how young adults were raised.
“Over a period of years, values and parental guidance have been so diluted. So many kids are raised through media and over half of the influences in their life are liberal. We will continue to see the number of liberals grow as time goes on,” said Galvin.
Dille does not agree that the number of liberals will grow.
“Young people will become more conservative over time. They will have jobs, pay bills and start to raise children,” Dille said. “A snapshot of youth today is not an accurate prediction of what will happen 30 years from now when they are in power.”
