Despite the conclusion of the presidential election this past January, ending with the upset of incumbent President Donald Trump and the Democratic seizure of both the Executive and Senate, our job as participants within the U.S. democracy is not finished. We must act beyond our ability to vote by engaging with politics through activism and encouraging tangible changes within our communities on a daily basis. In reflecting on the rhetoric surrounding voting pervading amongst younger generations and the Black Lives Matter activism from this past summer, it is important to recognize that voting, while necessary, isn’t the singular nor the best vehicle for systemic change in the United States. We must recognize both the necessitation and insufficiency of voting as a viable means for societal change. We, the younger generation, need to amplify our voices and put our activist efforts into places so that real change can happen, on the doorstep of politics and law. It is important not just to be a voter or an activist, but to place those two things hand-in-hand, engaging with politics through activism.

Voting, for most Americans, is a process that occurs every four years, as minor elections are often neglected by a majority of the voting-eligible population, with midterm elections having averaged in the mid-40s for the past four decades. Despite the infrequency of this event, voting is regarded as one of the most, if not the most, important action a citizen of a democracy can take. The stress on the importance of voting is not unjustified, as it is through voting that actual policy changes can occur. However, voting has proven to be an inaccessible practice for many minorities. During the past election cycle, Georgia saw the disenfranchisement of its voters and has contributed to continual disappointment in the democratic system as political representatives fail to accurately and successfully represent their constituents time and time again. From the failure of the Obama administration to create easier pathways to citizenship for undocumented immigrants to the failure of the Trump administration to replace the Affordable Care Act, American presidents often default on their promises. This pattern is beginning to take shape in the Biden presidency. 

On hot topic issues of this past election—such as COVID relief, student loan forgiveness, and police reform—younger populations have been met with disappointment more often than not since Joe Biden took office in January. In the first week of March, the House voted on and passed the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, which aims to respond to the outcry and protests against police brutality against Black men in the United States. Along with those protests, “Defund the Police” became a popular movement and was pushed by a number of progressive youths throughout the election. These calls have largely fallen on deaf ears amongst House and Senate politicians who have made clear, following the passing of this bill, that they have no intentions of heeding the calls to defund law enforcement. More disappointments followed as the $1.9 trillion stimulus bill, approved by both the House and the Senate, passed with $1,400 stimulus checks, short of the $2,000 promised during the campaign. It also failed to bring relief to college students as the student loan cancellation promise was reduced to tax-free student loans. This sense of disappointment is not a new phenomenon. In fact, it is an expected norm, stemming from extravagant campaign promises and the struggle to implement those changes, and it contributes to the movement away from the belief that voting is the vehicle for change.

Trust in American democracy has declined with each generation and is reflected in the lack of voter turnout amongst the younger generations. While voter turnout for young people increased by about 10 percent during this past election cycle, it is an anomaly to previous elections and can largely be attributed to youth activism and the role they’ve played in spearheading the Black Lives Matter summer protests. However, despite the increase in youths pushing for their peers to vote in this last election, young people still do not trust the American government to create the changes they deem necessary.

While voting has become a fruitless practice in the eyes of younger generations, universal adult suffrage in the United States is not a topic to be taken lightly. Many steps were taken to grant universal suffrage in the United States, beginning with the 15th Amendment of 1870, which ratified the voting rights of African-American men, and the 19th Amendment of 1920, which extended that right to women. It wasn’t until 1971, with the passing of the 26th Amendment, that all adults aged 18 and older were granted the right to vote. These were clearly the result of actions taken by politicians of the time to push these amendments through Congress and state legislatures. However, what is  neglected in the narrative surrounding the passing of these amendments is the direct impact of activism and protests which brought about this revolutionary change. The Montgomery Bus Boycott (1955), The March on Washington (1963), Stonewall Riots (1969), and most recently, The March for Our Lives (2018), have resulted in a tangible societal and political restructuring in the United States that wouldn’t have occurred without the push of activists. 

Young people are more likely to organize and take part in a physical protest than they are to mark a circle on a ballot because of the normalization of disappointing outcomes during election seasons. According to the Pew Research Center, a majority of the adults who attended racially focused protests throughout the past summer were racial and ethnic minorities younger than 30 years old. Young people are more likely to view their activism as making a difference in society as opposed to casting a vote within an electoral system that systematically makes it so that individual votes do not matter. And these beliefs hold their weight as American history clearly shows the impact of protest and activism. This is seen, for example, in the 1960s Civil Rights Era with the passing of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which protected minorities from discrimination in the United States. However, it is important to note that despite the resilience and efforts of protestors, the American system is a system based on law and policy, and in order to make the necessary and tangible change needed within society, the composition of the laws within our legal system must change. Without directly addressing the system that holds the power to make those policy changes, we are effectively screaming into the void. 

Recognizing the importance of policy change must also mean recognizing the systematic changes that need to be made to ensure that everyone’s voice can be heard throughout the process. We need to engage with politicians to check and correct voter suppression laws that are still in place, which primarily impact communities of color, and reshape political conversations to represent the needs of everyone within their communities. Our ability to do this lies in our ability to effectively use our freedom of speech and protest.

Neither voting nor activism on their own are sufficient to bring about the systemic changes that need to occur in the United States. This is why it is imperative that people, especially those in younger generations, recognize the weight they hold as both eligible voters and activists on the forefront. What was a right once denied to many of our ancestors in the not-so-distant past, is now one of the tools we have in our arsenal to push our activism and views into the realm of politics. Our protests and continued activism is our ability to keep important issues at the forefront of political discussion during non-election times, allowing us to influence the important topics for politicians during election years. We must continue to work as a community, protesting in the streets of Washington D.C., lobbying our congressmen and women, and spreading awareness and educational resources using the social media platforms made available to us. By remaining active and keeping our issues on the minds of citizens and politicians, we’ll then be able to wield our ability to vote, electing those who are most in line with our issues into office, and allowing for the restructuring of our legal framework that is necessary to make societal differences in the United States. 

While on their own, voting and activism may be practices done in vain, when implemented together and strategically, they can pave the way for significant change in the future.