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Strike up the bands and light up the fireworks. This is the week America celebrates not just the 241st birthday of our great nation, but the birth of the American republic that would ultimately spread the democratic model across the globe. Lets hope the Millennials dont mess this thing up.

Generation Y, better known as the Millennials, have taken a lot of bashing over the years. They are the generation where everyone got a ribbon for participating and eventually found themselves with their faces planted firmly on the screen of their smartphones. They take the heat for a lot of stuff.

Now, it seems they are under attack for potentially destroying democracy. Last December, The New York Times reported that the Millennials, more than any other generation, are likely to believe it is not essential to live in a democracy. As many as 25 percent of them believe democracy is failing. For the record, not even close to a majority believes that.

Then, last week, The Australian published a report that researchers from the University of Melbourne and Harvard University have found that this same demographic has simply given up on democracy. Their conclusion was that voter apathy is an early indicator that democracies, as Britains The Courier Mail put it, are feeble and subject to populist takeover. After all, as the Courier concludes, this is how Donald Trump became leader of the free world.

If you believe this stuff, its possible were in worse shape than I thought. The problem with the Couriers thesis is that President Trump was elected by 50 states not the populace. That is the difference between a true democracy and a democratic republic.

Granted, it is true that elections are based on popularity, but here in the United States, that popularity is divided among the 50 states and territories. It is the very reason people have been screaming that Trump is an illegitimate president. He won the battle of the states, but he lost the popular vote.

The other fallacy about their conclusions is that people who are the same age of these current Millennials are historically low-turnout voters. With the possible exception of the flower power movement of the 1960s, it has been common for young voters to generally be disenfranchised from the system. If you talked to some of the young people I have met, they actually are more concerned they dont know enough about politics to cast a confident vote.

Like it or not, elections are popularity contests. Whether it be a local Assembly race or election for national president, the candidate who is best known frequently wins. Several political pundits are quick to share that Hillary Clinton lost the Midwest states because she assumed she had them in her back pocket. She lost because Trump campaigned harder in this region.

One has to wonder whether or not we would have seen similar reporting about the demise of democracy had Clinton won last November. In contrast to their arguments, had she carried the Midwest, she not only would have won the battle for the Electoral College, she would have won the popular vote. Then, by true definition, we would have elected the popular candidate.

Populism is defined by the dictionary as support for the concerns of ordinary people. The left-wing media, like the Huffington Post, love to compare todays conservative movement to the populist movement of Adolph Hitler.

The same conditions of a poor economy, lack of government action and a realistic foreign threat are the same reasons people elected Barack Obama and Donald Trump. Had Clinton carried the Midwest, she would have won under the same conditions. The populist support of any of these people isnt going to rise to historys next Hitler.

Poll after poll demonstrate that people do not trust the president, Congress or the media. They are more likely to support the person they know, the populist, over the institutions, the establishment, as a whole. The perceived problems with democracy simply come down to a lack of trust. On the flip side, I would trust all three of these institutions before I would trust King George or Emperor Hirohito.

The founders of this country, those that wrote the Declaration of Independence and those who framed the United States Constitution, were revolutionary. Aside from overthrowing an evil monarchy, they forged the future. Its a framework that is likely to last another 241 years.

The founding generation created a republic that would outlast democracy. They had already taken the Millennials into account. Not even Generation Y could mess it up.

Tim McCumber believes a bankrupt nation feeds no one.

Link:
McCumber column: Democracy will carry on - WiscNews