It seems the tides are turning. We just came out of a shutdown with fingers pointing in every direction at every political figure imaginable. Congress has an approval rating similar to that of Zagat’s rating of McDonalds. To borrow a quote from one of my favorite yet still youthful films I say, “The night is darkest just before the dawn. And I promise you, the dawn is coming.” Yes that’s Harvey Dent from “The Dark Knight” and no, I don’t care what people think about the fact I used that quote.
It seems that during this turmoil a bright light has formed within the last month—The “Future Caucus” which is made of the younger members of congress who are more focused on long-term issues rather than those of the older and uniform congressmen or women we see today. Primarily co-exsisting of a group of people below the age of 50, they are more representative of our beliefs than the president will ever be.
The best part of this Caucus is it crosses party lines to become a bi-partisan long-term voice of our time. And the worry of these individuals being too mainstream is clearly not an issue. Co-Chairs of the committee, Congress woman Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii) and Congressman Aaron Schock (R-Ill.) both have the necessary experience and bring something new to the table. Schock was the youngest School board member in history and Gabbard is the first Hindu member of congress as well as the first of Samoan descent. The fact they can come together from very different backgrounds and around similar ideas is the bright light in this nightmare of issues we are facing. Looking towards the future should always be in consideration. They have set out to recruit the other members of congress of similar age, around 30 or 40. However, I believe this caucus can have the ability to be bigger than that. There are more members of congress who have views in-line with theirs who are older and I hope that they tap them for help. They have managed to recruit roughly ten members, however it is too soon to tell. Lets see if their Caucus is something that can address the issues of our generation and get them done with confidence, speed and efficiency.
The whole idea of being represented is to have your voice heard and have the belief that who you voted for will vote with you the majority of the time. Although, it seems when you’re 21 and living in a college town or at home, you will not have your interests tended to. Unfortunately, the current government can barely address the problems as they come, let alone the ones of the future. Whether this caucus fails or succeeds, the need for issues more relevant to us as students and young adults needs to be raised. We can either wait for the times to change around us and get older, or we can elect younger and more in-tune politicians that don’t see partisanship as a gridlock but as an opportunity for compromise.
Do you think the night is darkest before dawn too? Did you think “The Dark Knight” reference was awesome? Please send all feedback to opinion@dailycardinal.com.
