THE PROBLEM: Stagnant wages

From 1979 to 2016, inflation-adjusted income for the richest 1% rose 218%, according to the Congressional Budget Office (and that's before the latest Republican tax cuts). Middle-class income rose just 33%, and much of that has been eaten up by costs that have risen faster than inflation (such as health care, tuition, and home prices) and by basic expenses today that many people didn't have in 1979 (like cell phones and internet and cable service).

Why you should blame conservatives:

First, the conservative theory of "trickle-down economics" has clearly failed. Republicans have given the most generous tax cuts to people who are already rich instead of to the people who really need them.

Second, conservatives have been trying to destroy labor unions for decades, by enacting "right to work" laws and suing in court to let some workers get away with not paying union dues, and by undermining collective bargaining for state workers. The decline of unions is one of the major reasons economists cite to explain why wages have stagnated even with record employment levels and years of strong economic growth. Union membership fell to just 10.3% in 2019, a decline of almost 50% just since 1983. Without labor unions, the only pressure on companies to increase wages is during rare periods when a tight job market forces them to compete for workers. Yet in recent years even that natural economic force no longer seems to be working. In addition, America has seen the rise of a ruthless corporate culture that cares only about maximizing shareholder value and rewarding executives with exorbitant salaries. The decline of unions means workers have little power to push back against these twisted corporate values.

Liberals, on the other hand, have been fighting for workers and their right to collective bargaining for a hundred years. The Democratic Party strongly supports the right of workers to have a voice in the workplace.

Third, many Millennials joined the work force during the throes of the Great Recession, which stunted their early careers and earning power. Liberals have long argued for stronger regulation of the financial industry that created the recession. In addition, Republicans voted unanimously against the economic stimulus bill, which could have been much stronger without their opposition and without the already massive U.S. debt created over the previous 30 years by Republicans.

THE PROBLEM: Lack of affordable health care and child care

The financial challenges Millennials face could be alleviated by social programs that can offset low wages, such as affordable health care and child care. Yet the U.S. is the only industrialized country without universal health care, and universal child care is little more than a dream. In addition, the lack of a coherent health insurance system has contributed to soaring health care costs.

Why you should blame conservatives:

Liberal boomers have been trying to pass universal health care for at least 30 years. But when the Clintons introduced their ambitious plan in the 1990s, conservatives launched a relentless campaign of disinformation to sabotage it. Years later, Democrats finally passed the more modest Affordable Care Act in 2010, despite another onslaught of conservative lies, distortions, and fearmongering, and conservatives have been trying to destroy it ever since.

In addition, many people today don't know that the U.S. almost had a universal child care program. In 1971, a Democratic Congress passed the groundbreaking Comprehensive Child Development Act (in the Senate, the vote was 63–17). But Republican President Richard Nixon vetoed it. Since then, a national child care program has never been seriously considered. Millennials, again, can thank conservatives.

THE PROBLEM: Climate change

Millennials and later generations will face the brunt of climate change—not just the serious environmental effects but the enormous costs of mitigating them.

Why you should blame conservatives:

Despite mountains of evidence and overwhelming scientific consensus, conservatives obstinately refuse to acknowledge the reality of climate change. In addition, the conservative fetish for tax cuts has created monumental deficits that will make it much harder to afford the extraordinary infrastructure costs we will need to fight the effects of global warming.

By contrast, liberal boomers have been arguing for sustainable energy at least since the Middle East oil crisis in the 1970s. Democrats have long recognized the seriousness of climate change and are proposing serious plans to deal with it.

THE PROBLEM: Staggering federal debt

Under Donald Trump, the annual U.S. budget deficit has exploded from $585 billion in 2016 to more than $1 trillion in 2019. Cumulative debt is now more than $22 trillion—higher than the nation's entire GDP, which hasn't happened since the end of World War II. That unfathomable debt is not only worrisome in itself, it makes it hard to finance solutions to major issues such as health care, child care, infrastructure, and climate change.

Why you should blame conservatives:

The U.S. didn't have a serious debt problem until Ronald Reagan took office in 1981 and embraced the lunatic theory that giving massive tax breaks to the rich would help the rest of America. Since then, Republicans have passed windfall tax breaks for the wealthy three times (under Reagan, Bush Jr., and now Trump), and each time, predictably, the deficit rocketed into the stratosphere. The only time Democrats significantly increased the deficit was the economic stimulus in 2008, in response to a national emergency—the home mortgage crisis—which virtually every economist in America said was critical to get the economy moving again. In fact, annual deficits actually began to fall under the Democratic leadership of Clinton and Obama, until Americans inexplicably elected Republicans, who promptly exploded the deficit yet again.

THE PROBLEM: A broken political system

All of the above problems might be solvable with a functional Congress of public servants working in a bipartisan spirit of cooperation.

Ha!

Why you should blame conservatives:

The modern era of hyperpartisan, scorched-earth politics can be traced pretty directly to GOP House Speaker Newt Gingrich in the 1990s. Gingrich, for example, invented government shutdowns as a (failed) bargaining tactic. He also sent an infamous memo to his Republican caucus coaching them on how to "talk like Newt" by using an incendiary list of words like "corrupt," "sick," and "traitors." In later years, conservative zealots created the Tea Party to elect the most extreme candidates. And it is Republicans who turned gerrymandering, voter suppression, and court-packing into ruthless weapons of political warfare. Voilà, Millennials—gridlock.

. . .

So after all that, why would any young person today vote for a conservative?

Thankfully, most of them aren't. Millennials are seeing the damage that conservatism is wreaking on our country—the cynicism, the heartlessness, the selfish indifference to inequality, the obsession with money at the expense of people, the xenophobia and racism, the close-mindedness and fear of new ideas. They understand that conservatism is a philosophy of stasis, and that nothing will ever progress with Republicans in charge. As a result, Millennials are trending toward liberalism. More than half identify as Democratic or leaning Democratic, while just 33% identify as Republican. And young people now are even outvoting their parents and grandparents.

After decades of neglect and mismanagement at the hands of conservatives, Millennials are taking charge of their own future. The younger generations' embrace of liberalism is in fact our best hope for a better, more progressive world.