Our political process, from the local to the national, has become captive to a highly active political class—a minority driven by gerrymandered districts, high net-worth individuals, and lobbyists pushing for legislation that benefits their clients. All the while, Millennials, a rising group of voters who are surpassing Boomers as the largest generation with the most at stake in our political future, seem to have checked out. There was a burst of enthusiasm for a charismatic Barak Obama in 2008 that morphed into disappointment when he proved unable to affect change at a grand level. Millennials have since come to view the political game with contempt, which is fueled further by where they get their news—from sources like Jon Stewart, the Onion and others who mock the political process.
Fewer than one in four young Americans voted in 2014 and less than half participated in the most recent presidential election. Many young people argue that mobile voting is the answer. They say that if all Millennials of voting age were automatically registered and could vote through an app on their phone, the political power structure would be flipped on its head overnight. That’s exactly why this isn’t going to happen anytime soon. Politicians may embrace new technology such as micro-targeting online to get to their voters, but will resist innovation that threatens to draw people who are not their voters. In fact, some states are essentially legislating to curtail youth vote by eliminating same day registration and the use of student IDs.
We’ve seen the impact of new technology on the political process before. Immediate reverberations were felt from the introduction of television on a mass scale. The first live televised presidential debate was credited with sinking Richard Nixon and catapulting John Kennedy into the oval office. How society as a whole would ultimately benefit from the influence of this new medium may have been open to debate but for political consultants there was no question that it would become their most powerful campaign tool.
Today's key technological advances, in contrast, are not only powerful but inherently decentralized. The broad distribution of connected smart devices coupled with the creativity of a new generation of tech entrepreneurs, has moved us into unchartered territory. There are now unprecedented opportunities for technology to empower masses of users to leapfrog existing institutional structures. Food producers are a typical example of a politically wired industry that uses its clout to push back hard against initiatives such as expanded ingredient labeling. Usually they are successful in getting congress, state and municipal representatives to vote their way. Increasingly, it doesn’t matter.
There are now dozens of mobile apps that offer extremely granular information about what is in almost every product on the shelf. You can use your phone to scan a bar code and find out if an item contains GMOs, gluten, unhealthy chemicals or is highly processed. Additional information is offered on hundreds of blogs about healthy eating. This might seem like a small advance but the fact is, technology is helping to fuel meaningful change in consumer sentiment about what we eat and the food industry is being forced to respond.
Finance is particularly well represented among political elites. Yet this group may be facing major change as hundreds of crowdfunding platforms come on line with the primary objective of eliminating the middlemen, the financial institutions that have traditionally controlled the flow of funds between investors and the individuals and businesses that need access to capital. While statistically insignificant now - $10 billion vs. more than a $1 trillion in volume for the financial sector – over time these online services are poised to disrupt years of maneuvering by top Washington lobbyists.
From Uber to Airbnb, entrepreneurs have proved exceptionally adept at applying technology to bypass intermediaries. For Millennials, working around roadblocks to suit their needs is in their DNA. Just ask a greatly diminished music industry that fought to head off digital downloads, streaming and sharing of single tracks.
Looking at it from their perspective, politicians and their acolytes are just another set of obstructionist intermediaries that should be bypassed. True they control the legislative process and trillions in tax dollars but Millennials have, for the most part, written these off as resources they can’t control and are almost certain to be misused. Meanwhile Millennials are using their sheer numbers and ability to innovate with new technology to control the things that impact them most in their daily lives. And who knows, in a couple of decades the political process may catch up with them.
