Posted on 03/15/2014 12:01:10 AM PDT by 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...
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
The fact is that we have never seen anything like this, that doesn’t mean they will always be the same, and no one expected that in 2012, but they will never be a republican generation.
Owning a business will help, but the major factor will be if they become believing Christians or not.
My children are Millennials and they are great young adults. None of them voted for Obama and none of them have any college debt. Two of them have graduated from college and are full time employed. One of them is still in college, in ROTC, and will become an officer in the military. So, there are plenty of good Millennials out there. It just depends on how they were raised. There were many loser Baby Boomers and Gen Xers too. Our country has a lot of problems, no doubt. Many elements of popular culture are toxic to good social order and the concept of liberty. This toxic culture does not make the job of being a parent any easier. None-the-less, parent still have a job to do and many aren’t doing it. If there is any deficiency in this generation, then the fault resides with the parents who failed to do their jobs. Much of this failure can blamed on divorce and the plain selfishness of people who produce a child and then don’t stay together to raise that child. Sure, we can blame government, the terrible public schools, Hollywood, or just the general decay of a declining, decadent society, but in the end, the parents will make the difference.
Race.
Young people tend to vote slightly to the Left of their parents.
White Millennial voters gave a solid majority to Mitt Romney in 2012.
Even white females, 18-30 years old, voted 49%-48% for Romney.
The political damage is being done by non-white Millennial voters.
They make up about 45% of the voters in that age group, and they vote 80% for the Democrat Party.
Until we figure out how to convert them to Conservatives, our country will continue to move to the Left.
Because the Baby Boomer and older conservatives are cowards and allow the left to hold the moral high ground. Who is going to warm up to cowards?
Son is staunchly conservative. DIL is too; Well, NOW she is conservative! She voted for Obama first time around. She was in college at the time. Really regrets it now. She learned her lesson before the second go-round. She is now mid-20’s and he is 30. Their baby will be born within the next few weeks. They fear for her future, given the loon we have in the White House. Wish more young people would wake up.
“The women sure seem to be.”
They will be until blacks get them removed from the affirmative action racket; in the meantime, they get the freebies and benefits of “preferred Americans”.
I would consider them more “selfist” than “leftist”; they will vote for whatever benefits them. Six years ago it appeared to be the Dems; two years ago the ones that bother to vote seem to have lost faith in them. While the white male group may vote Republican (since they are often shut out of higher education, employement and promotions), at this point they make up a small percentage of young people. Young minorities (and white women) will continue voting liberal because they’ve been convinced by the left that they can’t compete with whites, which is turning into a self-fulfilling prophecy of sorts: nobody expects anything of them in education and work, so they don’t learn or accomplish anything.
One factor in favor of conservatives politically is that many of these young people can see the standard of living their parents had enjoyed, and resent that it is no longer available to so many of them.
The stage is being set for a future “Idiocracy”.
“If there is any deficiency in this generation, then the fault resides with the parents who failed to do their jobs. Much of this failure can blamed on divorce and the plain selfishness of people who produce a child and then don’t stay together to raise that child.”
This generation (for a variety of reasons) isn’t breeding; that is having demographic consequences visible everywhere. When a recent study proclaimed that “conservative” areas had higher rates of divorce, it conveniently omitted the fact that marriage itself is practically dead in “liberal” areas - divorce will be wiped out by the absence of marriage to start with...
They will their majority to the democrats, and spread the remaining 49% across the libertarian and republican brands. The REPUBLICAN Party is over, me thinks, due to their betrayal and wishy washy record when the real voting counted on major issues. The power sharing between the politicians from both major party’s does not reflect what the voters sent them to Washington to accomplish. Obama ran on an outsider platform. The libertarian platform is essentially an outsider platform and may well resonate into a solid bloc of the conservative platform that will include a small Republican party.
My auto correct
They don’t like abortion a whole lot more than the baby boomers do
Lets be honest, most of them just wanted to smoke pot. If Paul had been the Republican nominee, they would have voted for him in MUCH larger numbers.
(by the way i’m not a Ron Paul supporter)
Is it just me or does it seem like the “Millenials” would be most likely to be the generation to give this country away. To not even let it slip through their fingers...To not even realize what they had when it’s finally gone.
“Their voting for Obama dropped a lot from 2008 to 2012.”
A big factor now is the NSA expose’s and Snowden. He is a hero to the millenials. They love their etoys, but don’t like the idea of being spied on. So some healthy distrust of government has developed, if not Dim government.
The reason many Millenials see no difference between the parties is the similarities between Democrats and RINOS.
One of the stupidest things the stupid party has failed at is harnessing the inherent anti-establishment nature of youth (Because the stinking Liberals ARE the establishment!)
Millennians are more pro-life BECAUSE they're the first full generation to be survivors of the abortion culture. THEY LIVED.
That all said, I'm noticing a difference with those who are 18-24 now compared to those who were 18-24 in 2008. Those 18 then saw Bush as the f'up. Those today wonder what the big deal was with Obama and see him as an f'up.
There's a ways to go, but it's not all bad news.
>>A big factor now is the NSA expose’s and Snowden. He is a hero to the millenials. <<
I think this is one of the reasons Senator Paul makes a big deal about the NSA spying in some of his speeches. He knows that issue resonates among younger voters.
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