The solution to creating change is not 'waiting for the older generation to die'. It's to be passionate and interactive. More inside...

I don't care to jump on the big 'hindsight' bandwagon but...

I'm hearing 'older generation' argument being used more and more often and now has devolved into a simple excuse for not exercising our voting rights as American citizens.. Every other post I've seen today is about blaming 'old people'. I'm not in disagreement - the older generation generally does have more conservative beliefs than those who are younger. But to blame a lack of change on 'the older generation' is nothing but a straw man argument.

It is not because the older generation is 'lingering'. It's because they actually vote. It's because older people are cogniscent that in order to change your government - you need to participate. It's because older people walk the walk.

I'm going to get brutally honest here... Don't blame it on old people - blame it on our younger generation's lack of interest in how our government works. Blame it on us sticking our noses up to government and thinking we're too 'enlightened' and 'aware' to participate in an apparently dysfunctional body.

And it's ironic when I'd say 80% of the people I know couldn't name the 3 branches of government. Most of the people who are my age that smoke talk in ideals and don't actually do the work to make change. On the day of the election - I heard multiple excuses for people not to vote and had one person even ask me where she had to vote (at 6PM). It's simple: We've been conditioned to be a lazy generation and the end result is a dangerous lack of engagement with the people and policies that rule us.

I was watching Bill Maher a couple weeks ago where he mentioned 'Obama just needs to adopt the personalities of the Bush Administration. Not their policies - but their personalities. When they wanted to get things done - they got it done and didn't care what anyone thought'. I'm not looking to turn this submission into a Dem/Repub argument thread - but what he said really embodies what I feel is the reason why no change has been made. Democrats, liberals, or otherwise idealistic people are passive people. Republicans and the conservative sort are active people - and they're registered to vote and take pride in participating in the American government system.

'I want my country back' should be OUR motto. Voting need not be anything discussed as an 'option' but something culturally fundamental.

tl;dr The problem is not the 'older generation' vote, but our own generation's underlying lack of patriotism/activism/outspokenness that prevents change.

One last note: There are more 'conservative' and 'anti-pot' people in our generation than we would like to imagine... And they vote.