Are the Millennials Reliably Leftist?

American Thinker ^ | Marck 15, 2014 | Janice Shaw Crouse

[neverdem]

According to exit polling data, in both the 2008 and 2012 elections, Millennials (young adults 18 to 33) were a reliably leftist demographic, both in their voting and their views. Now, it appears that – even though they remain decidedly liberal on political and social issues – this influential group of Americans is up for grabs in the 2014 and 2016 elections. That is to say that no specific politician or ideology can count on their support.

The Pew Research Center’s just-released survey reveals that as they move into adulthood, the Millennial generation is “at or near the highest levels of political and religious disaffiliation recorded for any generation in the quarter-century that the Pew Research Center has been polling on these topics.” In fact, Pew reports that half of that age group claims to be politically independent, and almost a third see very little difference between the two major political parties.

The growth of Millennial independents is disturbing to both parties because only 38 percent were politically independent in 2004, meaning, as NPR puts it, “both parties have lost ground among young people.” So much money spent targeting Millennials by both parties, and yet the voting bloc considered most vulnerable to political advertising and rhetorical manipulation is not falling in line on the issues. The left is losing them on gun control, ObamaCare, and the environment, while the right is losing them on abortion (at least in this Pew survey, in contrast to concessions by the abortion groups and other polls that show Millennials as more pro-life than their parents).

One of the troubling findings in the survey is that “about three-in-ten (29%) say they are not affiliated with any religion.” Coupled with their lack of political affiliation, this rootless generation, with little grounding in historical knowledge or moral...

[mindburglar]

Wait until they’re in their 30s and realize all the money they owe to government retirees. That should be fun.

I’m betting the millenials win that one.

[stanne]

The government money is going to run out while the millennialist (M.s) are in the middle of paying back the $20 trillion debt the GOP lets Obama run up.

The M.s are going to be In the middle of paying this back and their college loans their parents let them get into wont be halfway paid up.

They’ll continue to have a double digit unemployment rate

They’ll be still paying 25% of every paycheck to the SS for people who put them in this mess- that they’ll never see the end of

The peers ‘of color’ will have had a break with tuition, college entry, scholarships and job placement so some of them will have had enough of being told how racist they are, but some won’t be so sick of the arrangement

They’ve already shown signs in polls of having had enough of BO, whom they saw in their honest years (ms through HS) as being a complete bossy buffoon

They don’t like abortion a whole lottery that the baby boomers who didnt like it

And their literature and films are now dystopian tales of virtue, in particular, courage

They’re starting to reject college and the self respecting ones are horrified by the idea of living at home they see their older peers getting vortexes into

According to the poll read yesterday they don’t care about the environment

And they will have had their medical care taken away, forced, so far, to be the ones to pay for the older generation, who killed off their peers, burdening the M.s with their care and their bills, never having thought they’d ever get old, dumping these kids into daycare, not investing in relationships with them, not equipping them with self reliance, only a lot of hate white america that’s just not doing a whole lot for them

I guess some takers will be left but really that money’s got to run out and the printing farce has to stop before it becomes a security liability

Maybe there’ll be some liberals but they thrive on other people’s money and it’ll be gone

[freerepublicchat]

They feel powerless and believe the only way to increase their power is to organize and act collectively through the federal government.

It's a mistaken belief, of course. Conservatives know that government at all levels has been increasing its power. The people (millennials included) have seen their individual power decrease over time. People born into such a situation don't know anything else.

[kvanbrunt2]

they are a bunch of lost souls. pray for every last one of them. they have been preached a soulless religion of me me me and global warming crap and their parents were not there or didn’t care to correct the brainwashing. They are not a generation of readers, ponderers, figure it out, solve it. they want to be told what to do by someone on tv.

[steve8714]

The women sure seem to be.

[ansel12]

I think the term is shallow, no faith, no history, no nation, no great ideals of romance and the mystery of the fairer sex, no great art, no great music, no concept of “civilization” and the thousands years struggle to build it, no nothing.

I don’t think they will notice the loss much, they don’t know what they are losing now, and they won’t be much more thoughtful 30 years from now.

[Veggie Todd]

What’s the saying? If you’re 20 and not a libtard you have no heart, if you’re 40 and not a Conservative you have no brain.

[GeronL]

Reliably brainwashed

[nathanbedford]

I quite agree with your description of the millennial's instinctively turning toward government but I think it comes not from that generation's observation of government in action rather it comes and should be recognized as a triumph of social engineering.

The left has won the war over how our children shall be educated. Those who lost this war should be identified not just as conservatives but as patriots and believers in God or some reality apart and greater than themselves. So we have grown a generation ignorant of history, who despise their own country, or at least eschew patriotism as quaint, who, in the absence of a catechism, are shallow and acquisitive with no special skills which would cause society to favor them with the lifestyle which their narcissism demands.

Of course they are vulnerable to the siren of Barack Obama just as they have been indoctrinated to believe in diversity. As one who watches American television through German eyes, one can see how the German attitude toward, for example, George Bush in particular or African-Americans in general are shaped here in Germany. Germans gather their impressions of America almost exclusively from leftist media and Hollywood productions. What these images produce in the German culture is another triumph of social engineering.

We conservatives look at the failures of overreaching government and expect others to draw the same a rational conclusions we do. But those conclusions are only "rational" if they fit into a context which admits the notion that government is the problem and not a solution. If your context does not accept this possibility, you cannot draw conclusions we conservatives reach.

The social engineering produced in the millennial generation is that which was sought after by The Frankfurt School and it is grist for Saul Alinsky's mill. We lose the battle at the PTA level and suffer the consequences in national elections.

[ansel12]

It is a saying that doesn’t cover this situation, we have never seen anything like this, they only voted 32% republican in 2008 and will always vote democrat.

[Smokin' Joe]

Actually, the Right is losing Millenials to the same issues the Left is, because they fail to stop the Left, fail to de-fund Obamacare, and are pandering on the Amnesty issue while young people are either unemployed or wanting better jobs.

The construction of a white, male underclass is well underway.

[Berlin_Freeper]

http://youtu.be/pR6h2imFGv4

[Veggie Todd]

You’re right. I think the only ones that will vote Conservative will be the ones that own a business. We’re doomed.

[9YearLurker]

Indeed.

[firebrand]

I just read on Twitter from someone that the 18-year-olds went for Romney. If you just take the 18s as a separate group. Encouraging, no?

[neverdem]

It is a saying that doesn’t cover this situation, we have never seen anything like this, they only voted 32% republican in 2008 and will always vote democrat.

I wouldn't bet on that.

Millennials Abandon Obama and Obamacare

IMHO, Millennials are still up for grabs. Their voting for Obama dropped a lot from 2008 to 2012.

[firebrand]

John Podhoretz ‏@jpodhoretz 12h

help, hivemind. other day someone posted something about how 18 year olds (just 18 yr olds) voted for Romney over Obama. anyone see this?

This was posted at about 4 pm on Friday.

[Right Wing Assault]

They don’t like abortion a whole lottery that the baby boomers who didnt like it

Huh?

[EBH]

I’d say that used to be valid.

Based on my own experience from a decade ago and the conversations with my nephew currently there is a mild awakening going on.

It is funny to speak with my nephew, as he discusses his younger counterparts in college, and notes their complete ignorance of history. As he explained to me the young college student is well steeped in Marxist and socialist ideas. Or they are decidedly libertarian (Ron Paulish).

Even my nephew, who is not liberal by any notion, claims the Constitution doesn’t work. No matter how much I point out to him, the things in our culture/government he complains about are enumerated in the document. I think this generation doesn’t understand our nation has had the proverbial soft coup’. They don’t realize it because they were raised and taught in Marx.

Just last Sunday we had a conversation about the role of God in our country. My nephew said he thought he was starting to lean atheist, this partly due to the socialism of the church/religions.

I don’t know if we can get the America as we knew it back. Even as we embraced reacquainting ourselves, with our own nation’s founding principles with 9-12 groups and the Tea Party, we continue to fail to pass on those ideas to the millennials. We’ve got to come to terms with the idea that those values are indeed novel to many of the next generation.