An open letter to the 18-to-29 demographic in the United States:

In the recent presidential election, the heralded youth vote at which every news report hinted never materialized. Thousands of new voters were registered in each state; millions of supposed new voters in the country. It was predicted that voter turnout might even top 130 million. But now, Wednesday, we can see it all was a mirage. I keep asking myself, “What the hell happened?” I can just hear the whining now.

“The candidates are the same!”

“My vote doesn’t count!”

Well, they were, and it would’ve. But you didn’t. Thanks, Youth of America, for once again shunning your democratic duty. Thanks for officially allowing politicians to ignore you for the next umpteen years, knowing that even if they hand you a registration card and a pen, that you can’t get your lazy ass to the polls. They can now concentrate their attention on the seniors and boomers, those who actually will vote. Thanks for nothing, because that’s what we’re going to get.

Ranjeet Rao

graduate student