Millennials care less about party loyalty and more about causes compared to previous generations, according to the 2016 Millennial Impact Report, released this past weekend. The study also revealed that millennials believe issues can be solved without government, an institution the majority of respondents do not trust.
The report has been annually conducted over the past six years by the marketing agency Achieve. According to the report, between March and November 2016, millennial interest in top social causes, such as education and same-sex rights, did not significantly change. Additionally, the majority of respondents ended up politically in the middle.
“Millennials are quietly, yet powerfully, redefining terms such as ‘cause engagement,’ ‘liberal,’ ‘conservative,’ ‘activist,’” Achieve research director Amy Thayer said in a webinar. “What the data reveal were that ‘cause engagement,’ ‘liberal,’ ‘conservative’ — these are all definitions that traditionally people have an idea of what they mean. But what we found when we spoke to millennials… is that these definitions don’t apply to them.”
“Millennials aren’t loyal to political parties. But instead, they were more loyal to the issues and the causes they were passionate about, that they cared about,” Thayer added.
The report revealed that 70 percent of millennials believe they don’t need traditional government institutions to solve today’s issues. Millennial mistrust in government was polled at 75 percent.
In an interview with Yahoo News, motivational speaker Amy Lynch said, millennials “have never seen [government] work well. At no time in their memory has government worked efficiently. They remember a lot of times when government couldn’t even pass a budget, but they don’t remember really effective government, so they don’t believe in it very much.”
Half of eligible millennial voters casted a ballot in the 2016 election, as 55 percent of them voted for Hillary Clinton, while 37 percent voted for Donald Trump.
