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Republicans are at war with young people in general. It honestly looks like they are actively TRYING to lose as much of the youth vote as possible:
Young people deeply feel the existential dread of climate change. Republicans still deny the basic facts about it, and fight all attempts to mitigate it.
Young people understand that their lives have been destroyed by student loans at rates and amounts unheard of in the past. Republicans not only have ZERO empathy, here, they are actually delighting in cruelty about it. They actively tried to add RETROACTIVE interest charges to student loans as we reach the end of the pandemic loan freeze, on top of their efforts to make it virtually impossible to have loans forgiven for public service.
Young people are less religious than ever, while the right wing is using the court to turn us into a theocracy.
Young people have progressive attitudes about LGBTQ rights, and the Republicans are centering their 2024 campaign on a contest of how bigoted they can be in this area.
While I agree with all this, the issue is that young people in general are also some of the least likely to go vote. Who cares if you lose the support of a block who isn’t going to vote anyways.
We’re seeing a slow rise in voter participation but even in one of our most active elections ever (midterms 2022 had a whopping 52% participation!), <35% of eligible youth (18-29) actually voted compared to ~58% of 45-64 and ~68% of 65+.
It’s really sad to think about where we could be if just 50% of the youth range had voted in 2020 and 2022, might have had Dems in control of both the house and senate.
Source: https://www.brookings.edu/articles/new-voter-turnout-data-from-2022-shows-some-surprises-including-lower-turnout-for-youth-women-and-black-americans-in-some-states/
Young people have jobs
Old people are retired.
Voting is on a Tuesday.
One of the underlying reasons for turnout is pretty simple.
Add in that's why they're against Mail in voting and making voting day a national holiday like most other countries.
They're trying to speedrun oligarchy and theocracy, legalize more gerrymandering, and consolidate power because they're slowly losing votes, and that means this is the best chance they'll have, for the rest of their party's existence.
It's even worse than that. In my state, some polling places are in the lobby of retirement/nursing homes. My polling place is. I have to drive/bike a mile to vote while Gertrude can just roll her Rascal scooter into the elevator and go vote for the loudest person on her TV.
In quite a few states, including mine, we have a pamphlet sent out with all of the people you're voting for, a picture of them, and their statement of what they're going to do. You can vote any time and drop it off or mail it in by a certain date to be sure it gets there. You get a tab that has a bar code on it to check if it got there. Every state should have this, this should be federally mandated.
Edit: Also, you can vote naked and in bed.
Yes - Vote by Mail is an absolute win for democracy. It's no secret why the GOP rabidly opposes it.
That said: It's also difficult to demand at a federal level.
The US Constitution delegates running of elections to the States, though it does allow Congress to claw back that delegation "by appropriate legislation." You saw some of that regulation in various things like the Voting Rights Act. Congress, if it had the political will, could pass laws to declare how elections are run in all 50 states.
It would be a hard-fought battle, though, and eventually end up in the Supreme Court, which, these days, would laugh, rule 6-3 against it, and say, "Whatta gonna do 'bout it?"
The realistic solution is the long-term one. Everyone needs to vote, not once every 4 years, but in every election, and especially local elections. City, County, and State elections matter more. These are the races that govern your day-to-day lives. Stop electing Republicans to local offices and start electing people who respect our form of government and have, at least, a modicum of honesty, or enough shame to keep their corruption under wraps were we don't have to know about it.
Fkn vote like your life depends on it. It does. Call on sick if you have to.
Which means exactly nothing in an at-will work environment like most states in the US
What? Voting is on a tuesday. Why on earth is that?
historic reasons. Of course one party will definitely fight tooth and nail against any attempt to change that
https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/2/7
Because that's when the law says ~~last days~~ it is.
It's Tuesday because a bunch of farmers had to travel a long way (2+ days) to the town for polls, and we can't have them miss church on Sunday.
edit: never trust mobile autocorrect
I'm sick of Democrats whining about young people. They've literally never voted at high rates, the fact they you're even entertaining the idea of 50% turnout is pure fantasy.
The fact is that zoomers vote at higher rates than every other recent generation did at the same age. We wouldn't have won 2020 without them.
It's almost like some people are trying to depress turnout with how much pointless whining they do about everyone under the sun... except the DNC and incompetent establishment leadership of course. Somehow low turnout is never their fault.
Why wouldn’t I complain about my fellow peers being slacktivists and not voting? I vote. I encourage my peers to vote. But so many can’t be bothered and then turn around and complain when the GOP wins and passes shit/blocks good legislation. I refuse to be content with <35% turnout just because it’s better than the past. It’s not enough to outvote the older generation which trends conservative, so it’s not enough for me.
It sure looks like Republicans care a lot about making it harder for them to vote. Wonder why, since Democrats keep saying they don't vote. That certainly couldn't be a bogus justification for not supporting progressive policy that would appeal to younger voters, could it?
They're fascists. Their only goal is to seize power at any cost. Future elections may be the only chance to stop this, honestly.
Their wont be future elections once they have consolidated power. The problem isnt just the republicans being fascists. It is also the democrats appeasing them and being happy with their economic policies. From the outside the US elections look like a choice between outright fascists, and a far right party with lgbt rights.
As long as the incitors and enablers of the 6th of january insurrection are still not in jail, because prosecutors are too afraid of angering them, then you will lose. You cannot win in an election against the violent criminals that don't recognize election results. You can only win by prosecuting them for their crimes and tucking their leaders away for good.
Maybe Republicans can inspire young voters to vote against them, since Democrats consider appealing to young voters to be beneath them.
Joe Biden is at least trying to do SOMETHING to reduce student debt.
Not enough, but something.
He is indeed. Biden is persevering on both student debt and sick days for rail workers. I'll not fault him for either. Both are commendable. He needs to crow a lot louder about both. Particularly the sick days, since everyone got to see Biden the strikebreaker and too few people even know about the sick days.
He's not only trying, he's trying again. He's not just giving up forever after encountering one little setback.
I wish more Democrats would show the same level of persistence.
Counterargument to this, from the viewpoint of the gqp:
America is getting older, so the boomer vote ends up counting more. Young people don't vote.
While I agree those that vote are getting older. The reason young people don't vote has nothing to do with not wanting to vote, it's the GOP constantly change the rules and places of voting.