Joe Biden does not have a complicated relationship with young voters. He has made no real effort to get us to like him and accordingly a large majority of young people do not like him.
Generation Z and Millennials are some of the most left leaning generations ever. In the famously “leftwing” hippy generation 46% of 18-24 year olds voted for Nixon and in 1980 Reagan and Carter also tied the 18-29 year old vote. In comparison Clinton won 55% to Trumps 37% of just millennials. Generation Z is even more left leaning. in 2020 Millenials will make up 27% of the electorate and Gen Z will make up 10%. Together a huge 37%. And Gen Z especially votes, in 2018 the very first among them allowed to vote, had 30% turnout, compared to the first Gen X and first millennials at 23%. 2018 displayed the first time Gen X, Millenials and Gen Z out voted the Boomers and the Silent Generation.
So all this sounds very promising for the 2020 general election and future elections for democrats.
Well it depends. Young voters even though they are far more liberal than earlier generations, are very much less in love with the democratic establishment.
And they don’t necessarily show much faith in the Democratic establishment. In a recent Harvard Institute of Politics poll, 38 percent of young voters (and 48 percent of millennial “Likely Voters”) agreed that the Democratic Party “cares about people like me,” while 31 percent (and 32 percent of young likely voters) disagree. That’s a positive margin, but it’s far smaller than the 44-point margin by which House Democrats won young voters in the 2018 midterms, suggesting that young voters prefer Democrats to Republicans but don’t deeply love or trust their party.
Young voters have the potential to turnout big and win this election for us. But we cannot offer them someone they just do not like. Biden Just does not do well with young voters at all. Even in Biden’s South Carolina blowout he could only get 26% (way more than he got anywhere else) of the youth vote compared to Bernie’s 43%.
Biden has very low favorable ratings among 18-29 year olds (18% very favorable, 32% somewhat favorable, 22% somewhat unfavorable and 27% very unfavorable), especially when compared to Bernie Sanders (41% very favorable, 19% somewhat favorable, 10% somewhat unfavorable, 29% very unfavorable). So Biden only has +1 among the youth vote, who is very overwhelmingly left leaning. And that +1 is mainly from somewhat favorables, compared to Bernies +21 which has a staggering 41% very favorables among them. It is clear who they would turnout for and who wouldn’t motivate them.
And really can you blame the youth for not liking Biden? The quote at the top of this Diary just goes to show the disdain Biden holds for my generation. His policy positions prove it. Biden has played a key role in creating the Student loan debt (44 Million americans owe 1.6 trillion in student loans). Biden is weak on Climate change. The Sunrise movement has called his plan“a death sentence for our generation”. Biden is against legalizing weed, the war on drugs is greatly responsible for ruining many innocent (most often young, minority and male) lifes. He is also against Medicare for all, a very popular proposal among young americans, who are more often than most other age groups not insured at all. Nothing, absolutely nothing in Bidens platform shows any kind of outreach to young voters.
That lack of outreach will doom his election chances against Trump. Young voters, when polled frequently say they care more about a candidate sharing their views, than a candidate who can beat Trump.In Bernie we have a candidate who can do both. In Biden we have one who probably won’t do either. So when the party establishment is now rallying hardcore around Biden it clearly shows us younger voters, just how much the party establishment rejects us. And that is a damn shame, because studies show, that when young voters vote for a few times in a row, they are most likely to become lifelong voters of that party. Biden will not motivate young voters to come out and vote.
Ignoring this fact, will allow the democratic party to throw away one of the most left leaning generations in history, while It could be embracing that vote by rallying behind Bernie Sanders who is extremely popular among younger voters. So if you haven’t voted today or your vote is still to come some other day, I beg you, please think about if you want to embrace or reject the youth.