In recent years I have been deeply concerned with my generation and how grossly misinformed they tend to be. It’s frustrating to see that many of my fellow colleagues have just jumped on the political bandwagon these last couple of months of election coverage. Suddenly, they’re “qualified” to have opinions, yet when pinned up against the wall, they have no valid reasons for voting other than the disingenuous mantras they have heard repeatedly by the mainstream media (i.e. “Change!” or “I just don’t want four more years of the same”).

This troubles me especially because I have been deeply invested in the democratic process most of my life and have been following the presidential race closely for the past four years. I am a person informed on all sides of the issues, and I know the candidates inside-out. Though I have certain beliefs that guide my opinion on picking a specific candidate, I have made a fully informed decision and at least understand the full extent of the other team’s argument. I have a respect for the liberals that are involved with the process and have done their best to their research. But there is nothing worse, on either side, than an uninformed voter jumping on a bandwagon simply because of hype.

We constantly hear of these “Get out and vote” campaigns. Rather that trying to get people (who otherwise don’t care about the process) to just “vote,” we should be encouraging people to be informed instead. I quote my brother who said, “Why would we want the lowest-common denominator picking our leaders anyway?” This is a good insight, if people don’t care to invest their time on picking a candidate, then why should they even be voting? This is no oversight on the on the part of the “vote or die” or “rock the vote campaigns.” Frankly, they rely on the uninformed population to pick the liberal candidate. While on the conservative side, we are fully confident that others who share our same values will be involved in the process no matter what.

Having been in college and dealing with new people, I have noticed a trend in how people vote. It seems as if most individuals who vote liberally tend to be young, and/or people with nothing to loose. In other words, liberals often “have no skin in the game.” Those who end up having their own families, getting involved with their communities and those who own a business will generally vote more conservatively. When people suddenly have to be accountable to someone (or something) other than themselves, they become a conservative. We can even see this with the baby-boomers, a generation of the most radical liberals, who have all grown up and suddenly have a horse in the race, families of their own… traditional values.

Have I lost faith in my generation? No, not yet. Because I know that eventually with age comes wisdom, and with a fulfilled life of family and community their need to follow and be accepted among their peers will be extinguished. With these life experiences, they will be on the road to making a more informed decision when picking a leader for the future of our nation.