On Tuesday, October 22, Millennial Action Project (MAP) partnered with the Brookings Institution to host a morning of programming dedicated to better understanding how Millennials think and engage around two long-term issues: climate change and the national debt. Spearheaded by Brookings Economics Studies fellow Dr. Stuart Butler, the event brought together leading members of the academic, political and nonprofit communities to discuss Millennial attitudes towards these issues, and explore what can be done to drive action going forward.
The event kicked off with an illuminating speech given by Representative Derek Kilmer (D-WA-06)—a member of MAP’s Congressional Future Caucus—who laid bare the emotional dichotomy between climate change and the national debt. . Kilmer explained that for him, and likely for most people as well, the term climate change evokes some type of specific imagery, while the national debt, perhaps besides the dispassionate image of a debt clock, leaves the imagination blank. This, as he put it, is the problem with creating a coherent movement towards solving our growing debt crisis. Representative Kilmer pointed out that for climate change there are a number of politicians, scientists, and young activists, such as Greta Thunberg, who have galvanized public opinion on the issue, moving it forward, whereas the national debt seems to be left championless. To find a solution, he insisted, we need to recreate a virtuous cycle not present since the early 1990’s that sees politicians promoting solutions to the debt problem, and voters who support debt conscious representatives. Keeping fiscal policy procyclical until a moment of crisis exposes American citizens, and programs such as Social Security, to tremendous risk.
Congressman Kilmer's address was followed by presentations by Alec Tyson, a Senior Researcher on public opinion at Pew Research Center, and Nat Kendall-Taylor, the Chief Executive Officer at the Frameworks Institute. Tyson’s presentation on public opinion toward climate change and debt shed a light on cross-generational attitudes on the two issues. His findings showed that Millennials are much more likely to believe that climate change is caused by humans and that we need to take steps to reverse its course, while Millennials are less likely than older generations to feel that the national debt is a serious problem that requires immediate action. Kendall-Taylor followed up on these findings with a presentation on how one of the biggest challenges in addressing these long-term problems is proper framing. Through his findings, he explained the cognitive difficulty of getting people to proactively address future issues. Kendall-Taylor proposed that conversations around debt and climate change should be structured around how current actions will provide future benefits, and framing these proactive decisions as legacy-making issues.
After their presentations Tyson and Kendall-Taylor took part in a panel discussion that included MAP Chief Operating Officer, Layla Zaidane; Brookings Government Studies Senior Fellow, Molly Reynolds; and Rep. Jimmy Gomez’s Senior Advisor and Communications Director, Eric Harris.The panel reiterated the difficulty of getting lawmakers to implement costly solutions to the debt crisis when it is politically unpopular in the short term. Additionally, to a generation of young Americans unfamiliar with the structural risk of ignoring national debt, current strategies of communication around the issues tend to seem overzealous. Zaidane simplified the need for new messaging around solutions to the national debt, saying using the same old framework is like selling cable packages to a streaming generation.
The event concluded with an address by MAP President Steven Olikara. Olikara succinctly tied these two issues, and the general imperative to tackle long-term structural issues, to MAP’s core mission and founding ideals: that to take on the issues of the future, collaborative action is needed today. He then highlighted the decline in party affiliation amongst Millennials as a sign that younger Americans are solutions-oriented and not driven by a party orthodoxy; they recognize the need to find the best solutions, no matter the source. Olikara closed with a rousing defense of democracy’s power to rise to the occasion of great challenge, insisting that it is precisely in moments of uncertainty that the power of collective action must prevail.