Yeah, they are sooooo pissed off that they couldn’t be bothered to show up at the polls in the last election.

6 years ago Bernie Sanders, one of the most left-leaning candidates in our modern history, ran on a platform that depended on the youth vote. He was utterly destroyed in the primaries because the youth vote never materialized. And this type of thing has happened time and time again.

In the last election, it should have been especially important for the youth what with an endless stream of school shootings, anger toward inaction on climate change and the whole student loan debacle. These are all massively important topics for the youth - or at least they should be - and they couldn’t be bothered to go out and vote in full force. Something like 75% of the youth of this country sat this election out. 75%. That’s pathetic.

But now all of a sudden they are going to act pissed off?

This is the type of arrogant attitude that drives away young voters. The democrats have had 15 years to get ANYTHING done on guns, climate change, health care, and student loans and they didn’t do jack shit. It’s not they’re “all of the sudden” pissed off, they’ve been pissed off.

The first democratic primary I voted in one of the main issues was a single-payer health care system supported by Hilary Clinton and single-payer public option supported by Obama. With a super majority in the senate and a majority in the house they still couldn’t get shit done. Now they can’t even endorse medicare for all as a party.

Obama was the candidate of tackling climate change, was in office for 8 years, still didn’t get shit done.

Biden campaigned on student loan forgiveness, still didn’t get shit done.

So what did 15 years of voting for democrats get me? A party that moved further to the right. Guess I just need to vote harder?

At some point, if you’re Charlie Brown and Lucy keeps yanking the football away you have to be an idiot to keep trying to kick it.

Youth will begrudgingly vote for democrats because it’s the least shit option they have, but don’t pretend like they’re actually voting for any meaningful change.

The democrats have had 15 years to get ANYTHING done on guns, climate change, health care, and student loans and they didn’t do jack shit.

If you ignore everything the Democrats have in fact done on those topics, then sure, they haven’t gotten ANYTHING done.

Honest questions, I would love to be wrong on all these.

What did they get done on guns? Mass shootings are almost double what they were in 2016, gun violence is still out of control.

Climate change? The Paris climate accord? The one that was non-binding and Trump just walked away from? Are you talking about tax credits and carbon taxes? We’re still on a freight train to climate disaster. There isn’t a lot of time for slow progress on this one.

Health care? Are you talking about Obamacare? I was actually ecstatic when this passed, I have pre-existing conditions that meant that I couldn’t even get health care, so at least I could get a plan now. What ended up actually happening is I was forced to pay monthly for a plan that didn’t actually cover anything short of getting hit by a bus, and that the insurance could deny any treatment my doctor suggested. I guess that’s something?

Student loans? That just got struck down by the supreme court, which other democrats like AOC were sounding the alarm about happening when it was first announced.

I consider getting something done when the problem is solved, not half-measures that make little to no meaningful progress.

I say this as someone who actively organizes for democratic causes, I canvas, I phone bank, I give any time I can afford to this stuff. It’s really hard to get people motivated when you can’t point to any meaningful progress on these issues, and it’s even harder to enact change when people who agree with you can’t even see that meaningful change hasn’t occurred.

I’m pretty deep on energy so I can speak to some of this.

There’s record investments going on right now in research on energy efficiency, thermal energy storage (duck curve), and renewable energy sources. Heat pumps are almost too trendy. It’s been nuts seeing the number of projects getting funded for research that never had a chance in the last administration. This research isn’t just theoretical, there is heavy interest in feasibility studies and impacts on implementation. This is especially true in engagement with smaller and medium sized businesses. We’re talking discounts of 50-70% (sometimes free).

There’s actually quite a few programs that exist federally for decreasing energy use and/or energy intensity (which in most cases means less carbon emissions) for industrial energy users. With the Biden admin, the outreach game has fundamentally changed and there has quite possibly never been this level of excitement before in the space. There is so much money in play here for businesses (we’re talking hundreds of thousands of dollars per qualifying business per year) that professionals will recommend free federal programs before doing their own professional energy audits. Even with professional services, the government is still putting out major incentives.

The feds are even focused on giving experience in energy efficiency work that it could be done with an associate’s degree with job experience included instead of a traditional four year college. In some states, this is a free education.

There are tax incentives for buying electric cars, government fleets are moving to electric, revisions to CAFE standards and attempts to mitigate the loopholes that SUVs thrive in within it.

For larger businesses, tax incentives are not slow. They can be the deal breaker on whether the project happens at all. Discussing tax incentives, incredibly good loan programs, and grants can fundamentally change the tone of conversations. All of these topics are not theoretical, I am speaking from experience in conversations I have personally led. Shifts from “this is way too expensive” to “ok, we would be stupid not do this project.”

If you want further reading, concentrated solar power, combined heat and power, and hydrogen based energy are all popular and growing fields right now due to government investment in research and implementation. And again, I’m not talking pure theory here, these projects are actively being implemented in real scenarios right now. Heall, filtering biogas to produce methane is ridiculously profitable and reduces overall greenhouse gas emissions. Natural gas companies will literally pay waste water treatment plants to hook into their lines.

Drives me nuts when people talk about lack of climate progress. Sure, we haven’t become carbon neutral in two years, and there hasn’t been a fancy international agreement lately, but saying progress is slow or not getting done is a hot take. There is a lot happening right now and it isn’t always advertised. The energy efficiency industry, as far as I am aware and experienced, has never been this excited. We used to make arguments to businesses that energy efficiency was important, would save money, increase resiliency and so on. Now, they actively reach out.