Thursday, October 07, 2021

That's Not A Tiger In Their Tank* 🐯

I do wonder what the GOP turns to after 2022 when Trump’s endorsements are the kiss 💋 of death.☠️

Q. Considering the title of your book, would you say Generation Z could be a hidden factor in the political process?

A. Definitely. I think that young people, sadly, are still underestimated by the political elite and the political pundits and Washington DC. I'm still surprised that people say, "yeah but young people don't vote." In 2018 young people doubled their expected turnout in the midterm elections, which netted democrats about 10 seats that they wouldn't have won. They added two percentage points to the Democrats' overall vote total, which is incredible given their relative size of this generation.

Q. And that continued in 2020?

A. Yes. They voted in historic numbers. It was the first time in modern exit poll history that a majority of people under 30 voted. More young people voted for Joe Biden in 2020 than they did in 2008 and 2012 when Obama had that great energy.

Q. But people still underestimate the impact of young voters?

A. Yes. And I don't know, frankly, what else they need to do.

Q. This is a recent development, isn't it?

A. Yes. From 1986 to 2014, you'll find that the percentage of young people voting was pretty consistent, with the average turnout of 18-to-29 years old's right around 15%. Then it went up to around 18% and then it doubled in the 2018 midterms.

Q. And you're finding that the increased numbers are helping Democrats?

A. Right. They supported Hillary Clinton in 2016 at the same rate they supported John Kerry in 2004--about 55% percent. But in this post-Trump era, they are far more likely to reject the current Republican Party, and vote for Democrats. That is, if Democrats make the case that they're listening and will engage them on their terms and issues that they care most about.

...

Q. It's a nice thing that they object. But they're the always-on generation, and I would think that being always on, they'd be more susceptible to accepting his coarseness and the meanness of his politics because there's so much of that online. You can a make a case that it should have cut in his favor because they might have been conditioned not to mind that. But they seemed to have rebelled it, haven't they?

A: Fortunately, they have. The summer after Trump got elected, I spent a lot of time on the road for my book, talking to young people. And I would say things like, "What does an older white guy not get about what it's like to be a 17-, 18- or 19-year-old?" They would talk about this fear and anxiety and stress that they had. Being young is challenging enough, but he's making it worse. And maybe not for them, but for people they care about. If they were blocked, if they were gay, if they were female, he made it worse. The anxiety continued to increase and those people who were most anxious and stressed out were more likely to vote in the midterm election. That was the response. Rather than listening to the fear and try to calm it, Trump just poured gasoline on it.

Oh, well, we’ll always have racism.
Did I mention how much young people, especially, hate racism?  Most of them don't know what a "Communist" is, either.

Yeah, they're gonna go all in for the racism.  The xenophobia, too.

I really do wonder what the GOP has left in the tank.  It's not gonna be pretty, that's for sure.

*yes, you do have to be this old to get that pop culture reference.  Sorry.  The connection, in case you're wondering, is "gasoline."
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