There needs to be a concerted effort, going forward, to educate people, especially young people

[DanTex]

who it might be the first or second time voting, about the danger of either not voting or voting third party. Nobody ever has anything "in the bag". And while "voting your conscience" makes for a good talking point, or "sending a message" or whatever, the basic mathematical reality is that a third-party vote is equivalent to a non-vote.

All the enthusiasm we've seen at the protests and marches is great. But that enthusiasm needs to turn into votes. And in the future, it needs to be there before elections, not after.

This is the second time we've been through this shit in 16 years. The Democratic candidate isn't absolutely perfect, the Republican is a clown, people think he can't win, their vote doesn't matter, they want to stick it to "the man" or "the system" or whatever excuse. Then they wake up the next day and say "what the fuck just happened."

And this is NOT a shot a millenials. 2000 was my first election, and my generation did the same exact thing that young people sitting out or voting Green/Libertarian did this time around. I sat out the 2000 election, and if I did vote, I might have voted for Nader, I had friends who did. It was the cool lefty thing. Then the day after SCOTUS put Bush in office, there was a collective "oh shit what have we done", the same collective "oh shit" that we saw today.

The 2000 election taught us progressive GenXers a lesson about the stupidity of protest votes/non-votes. I think that millenials who toyed with the Green or Libertarian parties learned the same lesson this time around. But we need to make sure that in the future, young people can learn this lesson without needing a catastrophic election to pound it into their heads.

I don't know what the answer is. Somehow a lot of people can't really digest the horribleness of a W or Trump presidency until it actually happens.

[LAS14]

1. The youth and red states. We've got to DO STUFF!!!!

[Eliot Rosewater]

2. 3rd party voting gets you W and Trump. They must be educated why protest votes always

ALWAYS work against them.

If we survive, and I doubt we will, they can NEVER vote 3rd party again as long as we are in a 2 party system and they need to understand that.

[yallerdawg]

3. The old adage remained true.

"Republicans fall in line. Democrats fall in love."

[TransitJohn]

4. If your first election was 2000, you are a Millenial

Just sayin'.

[DanTex]

5. Depends on the definition, I'm either an old millenial or a young GenXer.

I'm in the middle. Basically I feel like GenXers were people in their 20s when I was in high school, and millenials are people in their 20s while I'm in my 30s.

[TransitJohn]

10. You sound the same age as my little brother and sister

They were born in 83. I always thought that the technical definition was people coming of age around the turn of the millenium, so that's like textbook definition, isn't it?
We GenXers are pushing 50 if not above it now.
Cheers.

[LeftyMom]

6. They are educated.

They need someone to run while convincingly addressing their issues.

Condescension is not a winning strategy.

[DanTex]

7. Some are, some aren't. Either way, there is a naivete that goes along with youth.

I remember the people who thought that voting for Nader was going to change the world. And it did, just not the way they intended. Many of them were very well educated and intelligent, but they let their idealism and naivete get the best of them. I see the same pattern this time around.

[ismnotwasm]

8. I think it will

A number of the protesters in my area where clearly not old enough to vote, but obviously old enough to march. One started singing "This is my Fight Song" in her beautiful young voice. Another batch, old enough to vote, but had already grabbed on to different causes, from immigrant rights to keeping abortion legal. PFLAG was well represented, parents marching with ether kids. "Stillwithher" was there. The huge turnout all over the country was a come together moment.

Battle lines are being drawn, like the song says, but I think offering a Democratic candidate will win the day.

Which means, that every one of us who cares, needs to do something tangible in the uoconming months. To continue to reach out and listen. It wasn't white males terrified at losing their rights marching today.

[Stellar]

9. I spent most of my time on-line trying to convince voters

not to vote against Hillary because they were angry that Bernie did not win or was cheated. Some decided or said that they would stay home. I was a supporter of Bernie's, and I tried to let them know that there ain't that much mad in the world that they would let Trump win.

I figured that most would do the right thing until they had help from Comey