Originally Published January 10, 2016

Last year, there was a major upheaval in America, and you probably didn’t even notice. The change was silent, yet seismic, and will irrevocably alter the course of our country.

Millennials, those born between 1980 and 1997, now comprise the largest portion of the U.S. population – and all of them can vote. That’s right, if they so choose, Millennials could be the dominant force in American politics – and if demographic and political surveys are any indication, that would mean massive changes to American governance and culture.

These changes are ones that many Millennials, us included, will enthusiastically welcome. As we have previously written, our Baby Boomer parents and grandparents have monopolized and misused their political power ever since they seized it – committing crimes against their childrens’ and grandchildrens’ generation in every way save in name – extending themselves lavish government benefits while lowering their own taxes and piling up debt, catastrophically mismanaging the economy, relegating millions of citizens to second-class status, and ignoring the real causes of Climate Change, the worst effects of which many of them will never see.

The damage inflicted upon Millennials was foreseeable and ignored. We have every right to be angry. We have every right to be apathetic. And, yet, most of us aren’t: As polls have shown, Millennials are more optimistic about America’s future than any preceding generation.

And it is with this optimism that we eagerly approach our impending political power, bringing with us a slate of unified opinions on critical issues that diverge significantly from previous generations.

However, fear not, America: While Millennials have been wronged, we’re not looking to get even, we’re simply looking to get things right. And here’s how we’re going to do it:

First, socially, we’re going to enact in our nation’s laws what we’ve long known in our personal lives – that the behaviors and preferences of any person, provided that they do no obvious harm to any other, are no business of anybody else. It is a principle made clear by our overwhelming support for gay and lesbian rights and for the legalization of marijuana – two issues on which nearly 70% of Millennials align (fifteen percentage points more than any other generation) – and by our majority support for a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants (the only generation which holds such support).

Second, with respect to foreign policy, we’re going to more fervently embrace multilateralism and use diplomacy more often and more effectively as a tool. In research conducted by the Cato Institute, Millennials were “far more likely to see China as a partner than a rival and to believe that cooperation, rather than confrontation … is the appropriate strategy for the United States.” Also, while the rest of the country was split evenly on the Iran Nuclear deal, Millennials favored the diplomatic resolution by a two-to-one margin.

Finally, economically, we’re going to create a system that affords every worker an equal chance – not an equal outcome – first, by making and effectively implementing basic healthcare as a right for all Americans (a position to which we are the first generation to provide majority support) and, second, by increasing the minimum wage.

And yet, even as most Millennials are united on these critical issues, many commenters have dubbed our views “confused” and “contradictory,” citing, amongst other things, our preference to declare ourselves political independents more than any other generation despite voting for Democratic candidates in greater numbers, and the fact that most of us favor safe and legal access to abortion, even as many of us also hold deep moral and ethical reservations about the procedure.

But we know the truth: That our views – far from being “confused” – actually comprise a new, comprehensive worldview; one as complex and nuanced as our modern world and which hungers for a true “third-way” in American politics – a way, which, as yet, neither party has offered.

Major parties, when approaching Millennials, will have to get used to speaking to the type of thoughtful voter who may favor optimizing welfare and disability systems, reducing the federal government’s role in education and housing, and streamlining taxes on businesses, yet also believes in creating a single-payer healthcare system, raising taxes on those individuals and families whom America has most richly benefited, and implementing strict controls on greenhouse gas emissions.

To start wooing us, Democrats and Republicans first have to recognize that our views are hardly contradictory. Millennials understand that while government has shown that it can be incredibly proficient at managing large systems intended for the service of many millions of people (Medicare and Social Security consistently receive universal support from all Americans), it often falters when doing things that are more complex or service fewer people.

To put it simply: We want a government as efficient as Uber, as connected as Facebook, and as simple as Venmo.

We know that many of our Baby Boomer politicians will laugh at such a statement, calling us naïve or – our favorite slight – entitled. This time, however, we’ll shrug it off. All our parents and grandparents need to know is that when we’re in control we’ll take care of our country, we’ll take care of our planet, and we’ll take care of them.

We pledge this even as we confront a harsh truth: That we are the first generation in modern American history whose parents and grandparents failed them – the first generation for whom that basic American promise – that parents should leave their children better off – was not kept. It is a wound most tragically encapsulated by a simple statistic: half of Millennials believe that the American Dream is dead for them.

But we are not despondent. We refuse to be remembered as the “Lost Generation” as some have called us – far from it. When we take over, we’re going to be remembered as the loud one.

And here will be our cry:

We want a social policy which exalts liberty, allowing individuals and families to do as they wish provided they harm no others.

We want a foreign policy which sees the many countries of the world as our neighbors, not simply as competitors.

And we want an economic policy that lives by a simple commandment: that success must not become a birthright for a few and an American Dream for everyone else.

Millennials can start this year, making 2016 the year that we end our dismal turnout at the polls and make our voices heard, not just on social media, but at the ballot box.

© 2016 P.D. Nym