I think it’s because how economically frustrated a lot of the age 18-34 crowd is. Head pounded against wall. They grew up in a time of sky-high college tuition, sky-high housing prices, sky-high healthcare costs, Covid and a shopping cart of groceries costing $100…but the federal minimum wage is still the same as it was when they were 0-16 years old. They grew up with 9/11, Iraq, the 2008 financial crisis, and with the exception of a few tranquil years, it felt like America was just putting out one fire after another. Their Boomer parents tell them how good life was back in the old days, then expect these 18-34ers to somehow pull off the same feat when it’s impossible. Then they find that the senior Democrats pay lip service to them but then go back to living in huge mansions and a jet-setting lifestyle that they could never have.
Edit: I did not mean this to be its own thread. But, whatever. Also, as someone pointed out, in nearly any demographic, you’ll find a fraction who are conservative. 34% of Californians voted for Trump, for instance.
I say give it more time and I think you’ll see the youth support for Harris climb.
But some percentage of the under 30 crowd are gun lovers or gay haters or major racists or really care about stopping immigration or very anti-abortion or etc.
I don’t think it is close to 40% and thus why I think the youth vote will climb for Harris.
Oh, and some percentage are dumb enough to somehow blame the Dems for the Republicans blocking Minimum Wage increases. But I think that is a small part of it.
And, because inflation, rising interest rates, and rising rent and housing prices, largely have occurred in the past 3 years, under a Democratic administration. It’s long been said that the President (and, by extension, their party) gets too much credit for a good economy, and too much blame for a bad economy.
And, this, too. Just as not everyone over 60 is conservative, racist, or anti-gay.
Yes, true. Which is why I don’t fully blame Trump for the horrible economy and high unemployment he left the country in at the end of his administration. (Though his mishandling of the Covid response and tax cuts that only helped the wealthy were a factor.)
People have short memories though and forget all that. They just care about today.
So, they’re going to vote for a party that wants to eliminate the minimum wage and a candidate that exists to brag about his huge yuge mansions and a jet-setting lifestyle?
Also a lot of people are kind of ignorant and don’t realize how much better the US has been under Biden than most other countries have handled all the Covid and post Covid economic damage.
I mean, so many expert economists insisted the US along with the world were due for another recession. Instead, the economy is doing very well, though inflation has sadly offset or more than offset wages increases.
The other aspect is the “rebellion” factor. Young people often naturally rebel, but back in the old days, the authority figures were conservative, so rebellion meant being liberal.
Nowadays, most authority figures are liberal, so rebellion might take the form of a young person being conservative (or, right-wing, such as some white-supremacy, 4Chan or neo-Nazism stuff.)
Take schools, for instance. The vast majority of teachers and school admins today are liberal, whereas, over half a century ago, they would have been conservative. So back then, there were 1960s/1970s hippies rebelling by being left-wing, but today, if a student wants to rebel and poke and annoy his authorities, he can’t do so by being a liberal; that doesn’t work - that’s conforming to the authorities, not rebelling. A rebel goes for what’s edgy. Today, it’s neo-Nazism and right-wing 4chan-ism that is edgy. There’s nothing edgy about being pro-LGBT or an environmentalist, that’s exactly what most school admins, school principals or teachers would want a student to be.
Same with the prevailing culture. The default, approved, standard in society is to be pro-minority, pro-woman, progressive, etc. The media promotes tolerance, anti-racism, egalitarianism, diversity, etc. So what’s a rebel to do? There’s only one direction to go in that would be the opposite of the culture.
On top of what you also said abovethread, that in any demographic, a certain percentage will be pro-gun, hate gays, racist or anti-abortion, anyway, as well.
I think a key factor is that all of these occurred during Republican administrations. At least two of them were caused by Republicans.
So yes, young people are frustrated. But I think it’s naive of Republicans to assume that frustration will result in young people turning out to vote for Republicans.
I think the mistake here is looking at rebellion from a status quo mindset. People who are benefitting from the current status quo often assume things are perfect the way they are. So any rebellion against that status quo must be mindless.
Assuming everybody is happy just because you are happy is a mistake. These people don’t see that the status quo is not providing other people with the same benefits they are receiving. So those other people do not have the same reasons to support the status quo. The aristocrats always things things are great and are surprised when the peasants revolt. (Or to use a more American example, white people were surprised when black people began getting “uppity” and protesting that they wanted to vote and go to school and not get murdered.)
When you see large rebellion movements, you shouldn’t dismiss them by projecting your own beliefs on to the rebels. You should look at their situation, listen to what they’re saying, and consider the possibility that they may have a valid point.
A lot of rebels are looking at our current system that says our country is based on tolerance, anti-racism, egalitarianism, diversity, etc. and then looking around and seeing situations were these things aren’t happening. So they’re rebelling for tolerance, anti-racism, egalitarianism, and diversity not against it.
Just for historical reference, the level of support Keyes had against Obama demonstrates that, regardless of any disqualifying factors, there is a hard floor at around thirty percent constituting the “crazy fucking asshole” vote.
Angry, frustrated people make bad choices sometimes. This doesn’t just describe younger voters but applies to many of Trump’s older supporters as well.
Do you have a cite for that? If true, that’s gives me more hope for November than anything I’ve heard all year. I would predict another bump when registration drives kick in on college campuses in September.
Young men are biologically programmed to be edgelords. Unfortunately nowadays being edgy involves being racist, misogynistic, homophobic and xenophobic.
The loudest voices in our local high school (district was 56% Biden in 2020, 97% white) are all near-fascist ones.