Maybe I sound like an old man screaming get off my lawn but the hashtag craze has gone from effective to hipster pablum.
The first signs of any real effect that social media had on the millennial political populace, was the Occupy Wall Street movement. This was and is a noble cause that sought to make change but committed the fatal error of not setting an agenda or having a leader. The idea was to completely go against the grain of traditionalism and buck the system with a self-propelled movement of collective economic agents of change. As much as the Tea Party Movement has been ridiculed and hated with the derisive name ( their members originated incidentally), Tea Baggers, they have over eighty members in the United States Congress.
This has resulted in real effective policy change, from stopping liberals causes, such as, anti LGBTQ discrimination, voter suppression and curbing women’s productive rights. The ultimate power play was the, right-leaning, Supreme Court allowing the huge influx of politically influential money with the Citizens United decision. As an aside, one of the major figures in that ruling was former Secretary Hillary Clinton. Mrs. Clinton was attacked by opposing political corporate money and the courts eventually ruled that money is the equivalent of free speech. Like most, including President Obama, the impracticality of running for public office without huge sums of money is a boondoggle until oppressive amounts of cash are taken out of politics.
When given their chance the Occupiers turned their backs on pushing the Democratic party in that direction and decided that separation from an organized party would work for them. If you want to effect change, that change comes from within. I was in full agreement with OWS but it was never effectively explained to me, the end game. The outright rejection of political structure for the right of hashtag purity is useless. The latest are #Never Trump, #Never Hillary. Unless liberals go to the polls, unlike the Occupy Wall Street(ers), who failed to do so in 2010 and 2012, spare me the hashtags. I have a #Feel the Bern bumper sticker that sits on my desk and shake my head as the Clinton political machine racked up almost 3 million more votes. Full disclosure, I am a deep breathing, nose open Hillary Clinton voter. By the way the # vote blue no matter who, is annoying. I vote blue because the other side is non-progressive, with a base of bigots and racist. I know, I know not every Republican is a racist, but it seems the most active and full throated racist all seem to be Republicans.
The next time you are asked on twitter to hashtag, penniless unicorns with multiracial parents being held hostage by the corporate news media, meet me at your local voter precinct; we can talk about it there.