this post was submitted on 09 Jul 2024
1519 points (93.2% liked)
Progressive Politics
840 readers
98 users here now
Welcome to Progressive Politics! A place for news updates and political discussion from a left perspective. Conservatives and centrists are welcome just try and keep it civil :)
(Sidebar still a work in progress post recommendations if you have them such as reading lists)
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
Change starts from the bottom, not the top.
Young people aren't voting = political parties seeing no reason to appeal to them.
Older generations vote, so politicians who appeal to older generations get promoted over ones who might otherwise have broad appeal.
Don't complain about there being nothing but geriatric candidates if you're only engaging in National level races and not taking part in local, regional and state elections that are spring boards for the younger politicians to rise up the ranks to get onto the national level.
You want to see change? Vote. In every election you're eligible to vote in. And get all your friends and co-workers to do the same. Doesn't matter if it's for city council, school board or senate races. Just fucking vote.
when the dem party ran a candidate that young people liked, we went out and voted for him. so it's not the young people's fault that they don't vote, it's that the party doesn't care enough to put forward a candidate that young people actually can get behind.
Not to defend dems strategy but look at 2010 for a prime example of what my post above was talking about. ACA is exactly what young voters wanted, what dems pushed for in 2008 and was exactly what GOP ran against in 2010. And in 2010, young voters didn't show up, so all the congressional members who pushed it through got unseated by conservatives eager to rip it apart and stonewall anything else Obama did.
So yes, my point stands. It's because young voters do not vote, especially not in midterm years between presidential elections that we aren't getting politicians who appeal to the under 50-60 block. Because even when Dems go all out and give them everything they want, they still don't show up at the polls to maintain momentum, and Dems lose a ton of ground. So can you blame them for making the choice between getting once in a generation power plays to change the status quo then go right back to letting GOP rip everything apart piecemeal and load the courts with conservative judges, or pick safer bet candidates who appeal to the ones who regularly turn out to vote even if progress only comes in bite sized changes they can slip through with aid of moderates and independents?
The math is there, you just have to look at the entire equation. GET OUT AND VOTE. EVERY ELECTION.
Young voters wanted rebranded RomneyCare?
Absolute nonsense. Young people wanted universal healthcare, not new tax bureaucracy to deal with. Young people wanted something akin to M4A, but instead got RomneyCare
Joe Leiberman
Rotating villain
Senate pissed away their majority and thought that people wouldnt notice the stone-walling and nuclear option and other bullshit shenanigans that MAJORITY elected officials were letting Republizards get away with. Liebermann and other DINOs were allowed to run free and destroy the MAJORITY vote.
Guess why the 2nd-term of Obama DID NOT GET THE SUPER MAJORITY? FAILED TO KEEP PROMISES.
Biden was the Veep responsible to ensure that Senate and the House did their job.
Geriatric Dog Pony Soldier Biden screwed around during the Obama Presidency and now doing worse.
Biden could nominate Bernie, dude is older than any one else. AND STILL THE DEMS WILL WIN THIS 2024!
@@@@$##$&#%#%&^#$%&#%^%(&%
I feel worse than just cursing at the 'Murican stupidity on display. Hate this crap. You cannot blame voters when your candidate is brain-dead. So get serious or get out.
Drumpf is elected because of all the lies he tells and not because he is competent. He is the "Set everything on Fire and watch it all Burn down" candidate. IF YOU CANNOT BEAT THIS DUMB DEADBEAT YOU ARE NOT WORTH ANYTHING.
During the Drumpf Rule, Republizards silently pass every rule-breaking garbage and rig every system beyond breaking-point and create an unfixable situation everywhere again.
Dem Candidate has to :
Inspire voters
Unbreak all the broken systems since the time of Jimmy Carter.
Implement new systems that are robust and unbreakable.
Imprison every rule-breaking politician regardless of party or affiliation.
Simplify everything for anyone earning below 1 MILLION USD.
Tax 90% everything for anyone earning above 1 BILLION USD.
You need a very brave candidate. Bernie will do it. Biden is a zombie without even the brainworm.
Even IF they let him near a primary, even if he won primary and general, and had a majority of both houses... Do you think every Dem would vote with him? Even if they wanted to?
I hear ya. I so wish we were in a better spot.
But here we are with ~14 weeks left.
Not really? The highest turnout for under 25s over the last 58 years was... in 2020 (~50%), when it was literally the same matchup . And that's still significantly lower than other age groups (62% 25-44, 71% 45+).
There was a small bump in 2008 (assuming you mean Obama), up to 49%. But in 2004 when John Kerry was the candidate the turnout was about 47% so not like. A huge change. And nobody remembers John Kerry.
Looking across the pond, in 2019 when Corbyn was head of the labor party and ran on a lot of lovely progressive issues, the turnout under 24s (they use slightly different brackets) was... Just over 50%
It kinda seems like young people just don't vote at very high rates, period. So it doesn't make a ton of sense to focus on them over other groups if you actually want to get elected and hold power.
Yes but they post more on online!?!?
Voting - not as much no. Many people are scared by it. Well, apprehensive, maybe. Which is understandable.
And that works great until the old farts start dying and the young people the party spent so long alienating don't trust them for some fucking reason.
No, then change simply starts automatically as the party appeals to the remaining voters. There's not some special dynamic happening there, it's just that simple: politicians want power, they're going to do whatever gives them the most power.
So the fun thing is that you get older every year. So does everyone around you. What seems to actually happen is that as younger voters age they realize that they should actually vote* -- in 2000 32% of the 18-24 bracket voted. By 2020 those people are at the upper end of the 25-44 bracket [the census has wonky ranges], and 55% of them voted.
This trend has been going on back as far as there is data. There is no 'until'.
And if those numbers seem really low to you - yeah they are. For comparison about 70% of people 64+ have voted every presidential election year, back to like the 80s. And it's even worse for midterm years! In 2022 people 64+ voted at about a 2.5:1 rate to people under 25.
*in fairness there's also the factor that as people age they tend to have more stable lives, more ability to take time off, etc. And there are states that DO make voting hard on purpose (notably all governed by the same party). Reasons why supporting early voting, mail in, mandatory time off, etc. Are all also very important. But in much of the US it's not particularly difficult and people still don't do it.
voting, as it currently is, is a top down system, not a bottom up one
Bullshit. The primaries decide it all.