how to disappear completely.

an ongoing discussion/moment of clarity.

words. 

"I’m not going to spend time trying to debunk the notion of Millennials as lazy or disengaged. I don’t buy those narratives, either anecdotally or statistically, but what’s important today is that we’ve seen the confirmation of a very dangerous trend: this moment of low turnout is perfectly in line with an all-time low in people’s faith in our institutions of government. If what we want from voting is for people to engage more with the rules that govern their lives, we need to make the process of engaging much more meaningful that what currently passes as voting.

I can’t blame us, either. The connection between voting and positive change has never been so tenuous. The elimination of section 5 of the Voting Rights Act has opened the door for disenfranchisement movements around the country, and there will be more felons prevented from voting in Georgia then the entire Alaskan electorate (who, by the way, still got to pick a senator). Money, as the Daily Show observed, pretty roundly trumped ideas in this election. Even worse, zooming further out reveals a federal government that seems pathologically incapable of doing anything at all. Why should we care that the senate swung red, or a congressional seat remained blue? We have passionate debates about global warming, about immigration, and about how to fix a healthcare system and an economy that both leave out large numbers of Americans, but when we get to the ballot box those debates seem very removed. How do you know if your vote is a vote for a carbon cap-and-trade program, or against gun control? You don’t, and you can’t, because the systems that govern our democracy are simply not that responsive.

...For our Federal government to work at all, we need people to buy in as voters. We need people to show up, to use voting as a starting point, and to assist on projects for the greater good. What if, instead of looking for people to joining the organizations that already exist to build to federal levels of power, we were looking instead for an affiliation of organizations? We are, at this point in our technological history, capable of communications structures and consensus building that is far more complex and more nuanced than it has ever been. And we’re also at a point where simply repeating the same tired political process is not just not working, it’s actively driving people away.

...Today, America is angry at Millennials for not voting. Instead, I would suggest that we should be angry at an American government that has passed on actual democratic principles in exchange for the consolidation of power. I think Millennials are smart enough to see this, and that we’re building different civic infrastructures, some of which will eventually grow to scale.

Could political parties be one of these things? Maybe. But they would need to embrace the grassroots, and stop worrying so much if that means getting some grass stains on their message."

SALON: Why millennials pulled a disappearing act on Election Day: Younger voters aren't disengaged. Their faith in our institutions is at an all-time low, and with good reason