#MyPresident

By Katie Kieffer Donald Trump is my presidentand street protesters shouting Not My President!" do not represent how most young Americans feel about our 45^th President. Democrats counted on young swing votersMillennialsto get out the vote for Hillary Clinton. Big mistake. At the same time many Republican Party leaders are resting on their laurelstalking presumptively about Trumps eight year" term. Big mistake. Yes we have a huge win to celebrate. However the 2018 midterms hold a chance for Democrats to exact revenge on the governing party. Its therefore very important to examine and act upon the intelligence we gleaned from last Tuesdays tallies. Why Most Millennials Sat It Out Contrary to popular opinion thousands of young people werent livid Clinton lost when they blocked traffic in at least twenty major cities from Miami to Minneapolis last week. The main reason young people who didnt leave the comfort of their homes to cast an actual vote are flooding the streets vandalizing cars and breaking store windows afterthe election is because they feel the American political system is fixed. Indeed USA Today reported four days prior to the election that 40 of Millennials feared the election was rigged. The Republican Party must address this simmering sentiment if it hopes to win future presidential elections. Democrat leaders like Minneapolis Mayor Betsy Hodges ignored Clintons concessionary call to give Trump an open mind and a chance to lead" and instead egged her young constituents to lash out by posting on Facebook that she stands with all afraid of a President who has pledged to attack you. Hodges added that part of the first order of business" is to rage." Young people responded with Trump - Make America Hate Again" signs. This manufactured and misplaced outrage was a reaction to a false sense of victimhood rather than a manifestation of genuine displeasure with Trump. Consider that Trump didnt lose (or gain) any young voters in comparison to 2012 GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney. For the past two elections Millennials decidedly handed Democrats the White House. Barack Obama won 66 of the youth vote in 2008 and 60 in 2012. Clinton should have easily beat Obamas numbers. Why? Because on Nov. 8 2016 nearly every member of the 95-million-strong Millennial generation was at least 18 years of age. Thus Clinton had a far larger pool of potential young voters than Obama had in 2008 or 2012. Plus Clinton issued taller promises than Obama with regard to free" college education and childcare. Trump wonand Hillary lostfor one primary reason: Millennials stayed home. This fact unlocks a massive opportunityand warningfor the Republican Party going forward. Only 19 of Millennials votedof which 8 voted for a third-party candidate over Clinton or Trump. Most Millennials felt too disenfranchised to vote. Thanks to WikiLeaks young people knew the Democratic National Committee rigged the presidential nomination process to favor Clinton over their favored candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders. Honesty trustworthiness and consistency rank far higher with Millennial voters than what Hillary sold: freebies and victimhood. Or what Trump sold: political incorrectness and a promise for change from an outsider. This is why Millennials favored Mr. Consistent Ron Paul in 2012 and Sanders in 2016. Pander At Your Own Risk Amazingly Trump matched Romneys Millennial number despite not pandering to Millennials. Trump called human-induced global warming a hoax;" promising to tighten Americas borders and vowing to defend the Second Amendment right to bear arms. Matching Romneys 37 share of the youth vote should have been impossible for Trump. Trump even beat Hillary 35 to 33 in a statewide mock election poll in early November capturing the opinions of over 77000 high school students from 213 schools in the blue state of Minnesota. Two days before the election also in Minnesota 24000 peoplegiven 24 hours noticeshowed up to hear Trump speak and the Minneapolis Star Tribune reported that the crowd included many young families lined up for hours." So-called experts" who bet big on a Clinton victory ignored the intelligence Ive been sharing with you my reader for the past two years: First as Americas largest voting cohort Millennials currently hold the most power over our elections. Second nonpartisan research shows that Millennials top two priorities are the economy and national security (not climate change and birth control). Third Millennials want to be led by an outsider they trust. Fourth Millennials value entrepreneurial empowerment over freebies that even they call too good to be true." Hope Lies Ahead Millennial singer Miley Cyrus reneged on fleeing the country and accepted Trump as her president-elect in a video that went viral last week. I am accepting and hopeful inspired and smiling" Cyrus sniffled. Many Millennials feel like Cyrus but politicians like Hodges are succeeding in holding onto their political power by convincing Millennials that they are victims. Lets seize this historic moment to reach out to young people. Resolve to mentor a young person over the next few years and show them how Trumps policiesassuming he keeps his promisesimprove the quality of life for all Americans while reminding them how Obamas socialist policies only lifted the rich. White working class men who turned up in droves at the polls are not the biggest story behind Trumps win. The bigger story is about who stayed home. Because these young constituentsdiverse in gender and racewill shape our countrys future in the near and long term.