Twenty-Somethings and Politics

Recently I was having a lively political discussion with someone around my parents age and they said to me, "you are too young, you just don't understand." At the time I let the comment roll by, but later the more I thought about it the more the comment made me angry. Yes, I am young but that doesn't mean I don't know or understand what is going on in the political world. I have found that many twenty-somethings feel this way, regardless of political affiliation. While we may not have the same experience as the older adults in our life's, we have had our own and from those experience we shaped our political beliefs.

I consider myself a liberal. Many people assume this is my political affiliation because of my parents and my upbringing. This may be true to an extent, but it is not the only thing that has gone into my political decisions. My undergraduate minor was Political Science, I have had the opportunity to have professors from both sides of the political spectrum and through my education I have found that I lean more towards the left. I didn't pick to be a liberal because I thought is was in or the cool thing to do, I choose to be a liberal because my core values fall closer with that group. I have friends and family who come from all areas of the spectrum and I respect each and everyone of their beliefes and I know they respect mine.

So my message to the older generation....you may have more life experience than us twenty-somethings but please do not talk down to us when it comes to politics. Many of us have done our research and we understand what is going in the political world.