By Matthew Mirro

As more and more millennials come of age, the United States of America has provided them with far more questions than answers. Many millenials are confused, some are angry and most have simply lost interest. The internet has brought information directly to the people and this new generation has come to learn so much in such a short time. They are not fooled. They can see that the government system they learned about in school is corrupted, bought and paid for by big business, a corporatocracy where a democracy should stand. Yet, they are powerless. They are told by their leaders that they do not understand. But how could an entire generation, the same generation that has inherited such unprecedented access to information be considered ignorant of the problems that are staring them in the face?

It is this anger at a government system that has, quite simply, forgotten or ignored them, that led many to support Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders. They are not fooled by a smiling Hillary Clinton whose pandering to the youth of America did little but make them feel as though their intelligence had been insulted. Super PACs blatantly owned her campaign and her victory would no doubt have meant that those same Super PAC’s own the White House. This new generation can see that. Most of them can see through Donald Trump’s childlike antics. They can see the billionaire real estate mogul for what he is: Part of the problem. Senator Sanders did not disregard the younger generation. He embraced them and openly called out the flaws in the corrupt system, a system he has fought to fix for decades. This is very much the same mission that the revived Progressive Bull Moose Party is so dedicated to.

While Senator Sanders’ run for President of the United States is at an end, the move towards a political revolution in this country is not. The growth of the renewed Progressive Party, originally founded by President Theodore Roosevelt in 1912, represents the heart of a movement that can only grow as more and more millennials come of age and understand that the people no longer have any power. All the power lies with the corporate elite, the country’s top one percent. The young people of America, the people who will one day run this nation, can clearly see that.

This new third party, the Bull Moose Party, is unlike the other third party contenders that have come before it. This platform has actually worked in the past, and that movement brought real change.

Part of the problem we are presented with today is how to separate the notion that <em>the people should control the government </em>instead of the wealthy top tier.. The idea that the majority and not the minority should have the most say should not be as foreign as it is. Any mention of such a concept seems to garner head scratches and blank stares as though the very notion of People Over Profit is sacrilege. Today’s younger generation welcomes this idea.

The "American Dream" is being stolen, and stolen legally, supported by Congress because they are in on the deal. This idea is no longer seen as the mad ramblings of a conspiracy theorist. It’s an undeniable fact. The victories of Theodore Roosevelt’s Bull Moose Party and its predecessor, William Jennings Bryant’s Populist Party, have been systematically undone. Tammany Hall has returned and the modern incarnation of that epicenter of political corruption now rests in Washington D.C.

It is a shame that, in order to look to the future, the youth of this country must turn to the past. But, nonetheless, it is a reality.

The hope for a reversal of this corruption rests in the future generation. The youth of the United States is fed up with the idea that they do not matter. They are tired of begging for a party to finally admit the truth instead of having lies and pre-written statements, prepared by puppeteers in the ivory tower, thrown in their faces. The future is here now. It lies in the platform built by the Trust Buster himself, a platform still relevant today and that will still be relevant tomorrow. Instead of Standard Oil, Carnegie Steel and the House of Morgan pulling the strings in Congress, we’re left with Goldman Sachs, Monsanto and JP Morgan Chase running the show. These businesses are no better than the ones Roosevelt fought. And they must be stopped.

Why should we allow Wall Street to run the U.S. government? The middle class is being dissolved like a steak in hydrochloric acid. For a long time, the people allowed this to happen simply because there were no other viable options.

But no more. Now is the time to embrace a new generation of voters. Now is the time to end the disillusionment of the two parties. Now is the time to provide the alternative we’ve been looking for, to show this country that there is, once again, a party created to combat corruption and bring power back to the people. The Progressive Bull Moose Party is a party that can and will embrace this generation, and all those who cannot find a home in either of the two major parties which have clearly left us all behind. New political parties have worked for America before and they will work again. This is a party that will embrace the next crop of political leaders who are committed to leading real change.

The party of the past, forever a beacon of reform, is here once again. That party of the past has become the party of the future. It is time to see real change and continue the revolution until real power is once again in the hands of the people, the only truly legitimate source of political power.

 

Matthew Mirro

About Matthew Mirro: Matthew Francis Mirro is a student at State University of New York at Albany, majoring in journalism with minors in political science and history. He is a student of early 19th century political theorists and an aspiring historian specializing in revolutions throughout history, specifically the American Civil War and the French Revolution. Matthew is a registered member of the Progressive Bull Moose Party and a certified lifetime member of the Internet Baseball Writers Association of America (IBWAA).

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