Young voters wouldn’t support Biden or Trump in 2024
Who can blame them, younger Americans who feel politics is hopelessly broken and elected officials too old and out of touch?
Alexandra Chadwick, 22, voted in 2020 to oust Donald Trump. In supporting Joe Biden, she hoped he could hold off attacks on abortion, promote saner gun laws and address the climate crisis. Disillusioned now, she sees Democratic leaders as lacking what it will take to do so (New York Times):
“How are you going to accurately lead your country if your mind is still stuck 50, 60 or 70 years ago?” Ms. Chadwick, a customer service representative in Rialto, Calif., said of the many septuagenarian leaders at the helm of her party. “It’s not the same, and people aren’t the same, and your old ideas aren’t going to work as well anymore.”
A different one percent
That critique sounds familiar. Few groups are as discontented as the young, recent polling finds:
A survey from The New York Times and Siena College found that just 1 percent of 18-to-29-year-olds strongly approve of the way Mr. Biden is handling his job. And 94 percent of Democrats under 30 said they wanted another candidate to run two years from now. Of all age groups, young voters were most likely to say they wouldn’t vote for either Mr. Biden or Mr. Trump in a hypothetical 2024 rematch.
The numbers are a clear warning for Democrats as they struggle to ward off a drubbing in the November midterm elections. Young people, long among the least reliable part of the party’s coalition, marched for gun control, rallied against Mr. Trump and helped fuel a Democratic wave in the 2018 midterm elections. They still side with Democrats on issues that are only rising in prominence.
But four years on, many feel disengaged and deflated, with only 32 percent saying they are “almost certain” to vote in November, according to the poll. Nearly half said they did not think their vote made a difference.
No one ever asks people to clarify what they mean by “a difference.” There are plenty of contests each election that hang on a single vote, a handful of votes, and recounts. But electoral victories are not the kind of difference young people seek.
John Della Volpe of the Harvard Kennedy School Institute of Politics observes that “every single one” (doubtful) of those serving in Congress today have “seen America at its best…. That is something that Gen Z has not had.”
“Make no mistake, our best days still lie ahead,” President Joe Biden tweeted on July Fourth. With a Supreme Court that just rolled back women’s rights by 50 years, that reassurance rings hollow.
People under 30 need a reason to believe and representatives that reflect their experiences. Chadwick sums up the appeal of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, 32 of New York, with one word: “relatability.”
Julian Zelizer, a CNN analyst, addresses the problem:
It is not uncommon to hear people ask what we need to do to get young people more engaged in politics. As a university professor, this is the sort of query that often comes my way. Do the schools need to include more civic education? Should there be some sort of national service program? Can foundations provide grants and fellowships for young Americans who want to devote their lives to public service?
These questions are important, but we also need to look at what our political system does wrong. It shouldn’t come as a surprise that many younger Americans look at Washington and state capitals with a sense of grave disappointment. After all, they have experienced firsthand a growing climate crisis, racial injustice, the breakdown of democratic institutions and norms, gender inequity and widespread economic insecurity — issues that have been much discussed but rarely addressed.
Many of these young people have also grown up participating in active shooter drills at school. Unlike the famous duck-and-cover drills of the 1950s meant to prepare kids for a nuclear war that never happened, this country has witnessed the persistent drumbeat of school shootings. Can we really blame young people for feeling disillusioned with the US political system that allows this to continue?
Americans have seen roadblocks to progress before, says Zelizer, citing institutional gridlock and Southern opposition during the Kennedy and early Johnson administrations. Yet young people dissatisfied with the Vietnam War and inspired by the Civil Rights movement moved the needle.
What Zelizer forgets is that those 1960s activists had the economic springboard of the postwar economy and Cold War investments in education and technology supporting their political activism. Except for the legacy of lowering the voting age to 18, those foundations are eroded today. Potential voters under 30 are sucking wind financially with little hope of near-term improvement and little reason to expect the gerontocracy running D.C. has their backs. Plus the entrenched campaign-industrial complex polices the gates restricting access for most aspiring game-changers.
Don’t blame the young for not participating. Give them a reason to.
At the same time, the graphic above shows how much youthful political power is going unused (your state similar). It poses a chicken-and-egg problem. Are young people disempowered because politics is broken or is politics broken because they are not closing their fingers around the unused power just waiting for them?
Perhaps if they knew?
● ● ● ● ● ● ● ●
Request a copy of For The Win, 4th Edition, my free, countywide get-out-the-vote planning guide for county committees at ForTheWin.us.