Like most private high schools in the United States, mine suffers from a “free speech problem.” After students, mostly millennials, at Middlebury College effectively canceled a lecture to be given by controversial right-wing political scientist Charles Murray, our school newspaper decided to poll students in order to better understand their attitudes towards “hate speech” and its role in public discourse. The results were not promising. Of the 80 students surveyed (which actually is a representative population in my school), only 29% supported the “freedom to express hateful opinions.”
However, when asked whether or not they supported the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, every single one of the students polled said “yes.” Now, it doesn’t take a constitutional scholar to recognize the incompatibility of these two responses. You simply cannot support the right to free speech while simultaneously disavowing someone’s right to express hateful or bigoted opinions. This is when I realized that perhaps my school isn’t full of authoritarian fascists. Maybe they’re just stupid.
Okay, so I’m not actually going to call 71% of my high school “stupid.” Perhaps the better term to describe their opinions would be “politically incoherent.” This, as it turns out, is a term that could be used to describe many people aged 18-29 throughout the United States. For as much as we try to categorize millennials as socialists, authoritarians, and statists, their political views are rather mixed. More often than not, they are actually in complete contradiction with each other.
The first major study that attempted to categorize the overall political views of millennials was conducted by the Reason Foundation. It surveyed over 2,000 people aged 18-29 from various genders, racial backgrounds, political persuasions and socioeconomic statuses. The results were confusing, to say the least. On one hand, a majority of millennials supported raising taxes on the wealthy (66%) and increasing government spending on job training (62%) and infrastructure (58%). On the other hand, a majority also supported cutting taxes overall (58%) and decreasing government spending by five percent on an annual basis (65%). At this point, it should be noted that some of these views are not necessarily contradictory. For example, your average Bernie supporter is likely in favor of raising taxes on the wealthy while simultaneously lowering them for the middle-class. However, something tells me their arguments are not quite as nuanced.
Other data points suggest that this general contradiction extends far beyond economic issues. For instance, millennials have the most negative attitude of single motherhood of any age demographic, but are also most likely to be single mothers. Millennials are also the most technologically-connected generation in all of human history, but are also the least trusting of other people. We are the generation that is willing to meet potential mates over Tinder, allow someone else in our homes through Airbnb and visit apartments through Craigslist, but are the least likely to believe “most people can be trusted.” Millennials also support universal health insurance by a wider margin than any other age demographic and are the most likely to lean Democrat of any generation since 1972. Even so, they still disapprove of the Affordable Care Act as much as the rest of the nation.
All of this seems like one big mess. It seems like millennials have completely abandoned the notion of principle and are perfectly content to whine about culturally relevant issues without ever addressing their root causes. That said, there is a silver lining for the libertarian movement: if you examine the report more closely, you might find that millennials are the most libertarian-leaning generation the country has seen in quite a while.
Let’s start with the obvious: Millennials absolutely hate the two major political parties, and are the least likely to identify as either Democratic or Republican and are by far the least likely to actually get up and vote on Election Day. During the 2014 midterm elections, only 10 million out of a possible 46 million millennials went to the polls. Millennials also have a unique distrust of government, which is attributable to the vast array of information that is accessible through simple cursory searches on Google and Wikipedia; the fact that something was stated by a politician or mainstream news outlet is no proof of its validity.
Millennials are also the most voluntarist generation in the United States. In 2013, millennials mustered 14.5 million volunteers and among 16-24 year olds helped to double the rate of volunteering in the United States from 1989-2005. According to a 2014 poll, 83 percent of millennials said that increased volunteering would improve living standards, compared with just 62% of the next oldest age group. The same poll also showed that 66% believed local businesses can help them live a better life, as opposed to less than half of non-millennials.
Perhaps most similarly to libertarians, millennials value individual freedom in their personal lives over government regulation. Specifically, they say a number of activities and products that many local and state governments are trying to ban or regulate should be allowed. Majorities say that selling food from trucks, selling large sugary drinks in restaurants and theaters, drinking alcohol, offering plastic bags in grocery stores, buying traditional incandescent lightbulbs, gambling and viewing adult pornography online, and most importantly, using marijuana, should be legal. What’s even more encouraging is that they are on par with the rest of the country when it comes to hot button issues like abortion and gun control.
So, what am I really trying to say here? Millennials are budding libertarians. Actually, more than that, millennials are the sole path to popularity for the libertarian movement. It’s no question that we missed a huge opportunity with the past election cycle. Between Mr. Johnson’s lack of geographical knowledge and Mr. Paul’s lack of support from the Republican base, it’s no wonder we got slammed. However, as the younger generation becomes a more significant voter base and grows more politically disillusioned, the libertarian movement must take active steps to secure their vote. At the end of the day, we have to show the country that we’re not just a bunch of trolls with a penchant for #IfItPleasesTheCrown memes. Newsflash, it’s probably not a good idea to make fun of dead American soldiers either, no matter how much you believe they ignorantly support callous military spending.
The Republicans are going to blow their chance to enact libertarian principles and the Democrats will still be Democrats. The more our movement consistently explains libertarian ideology and offers a different path, the more it will be able to connect with other people my age. If there is one thing that is consistent among all young people, it’s that we like contrarian viewpoints. Everything we have been born into is just the status quo; we like rebellion and revolution. Perhaps these days, advocating for liberty is the most revolutionary thing you can do.
* Ajay Chopra is currently a senior in high school. He will be receiving his undergraduate education at the University of Chicago, with plans to major in economics or computer science.
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