this post was submitted on 21 Jul 2023

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658

Republicans Are at War With College Towns. And They’re Losing. (www.politico.com)

submitted 2 years ago by YoBuckStopsHere@lemmy.world to c/politics@lemmy.world

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[–] flossdaily@lemmy.world 285 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (63 children)

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.

[–] Whatsit_Tooya@lemmy.world 77 points 2 years ago (3 children)

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/

[–] evatronic@lemm.ee 104 points 2 years ago (10 children)

Young people have jobs

Old people are retired.

Voting is on a Tuesday.

One of the underlying reasons for turnout is pretty simple.

[–] Khanzarate@lemmy.world 74 points 2 years ago

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.

[–] CADmonkey@lemmy.world 41 points 2 years ago

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.

[–] PeleSpirit@lemmy.world 30 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 children)

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.

[–] evatronic@lemm.ee 14 points 2 years ago (1 children)

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.

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[–] irkli@lemmy.world 13 points 2 years ago (2 children)

Fkn vote like your life depends on it. It does. Call on sick if you have to.

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[–] rambaroo@lemmy.world 16 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (4 children)

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.

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[–] Ensign_Crab@lemmy.world 13 points 2 years ago

Who cares if you lose the support of a block who isn’t going to vote anyways.

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?

[–] TwoGems@lemmy.world 65 points 2 years ago (2 children)

They're fascists. Their only goal is to seize power at any cost. Future elections may be the only chance to stop this, honestly.

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[–] Kerred@lemmy.world 109 points 2 years ago (1 children)

I thought I read over a decade ago the main strategy in Republican campaigns is to convince young people to just not vote. As it's easier to convince someone not to do anything than it is to convince someone to do something for you.

[–] utopianfiat@lemmy.world 77 points 2 years ago (3 children)

That's why they like to promote the message that the Democrats are inherently ineffective as a party. It's a self-fulfilling prophecy if they're never given real power.

[–] hoodatninja@kbin.social 50 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 children)

It’s amazing how often I see democrats blamed for Republican policy as well. “WHY DIDN’T THE DEMS PREVENT THIS!?” “Did you vote for them?” “NO! THEY FAIL TO STOP THE GOP FROM DOING GOP THINGS!” It’s baffling.

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[–] Mudflap@lemm.ee 35 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Which is funny because the parallel narrative is that the democrats are an evil manipulating government force hell-bent on destroying America. But then again the GOP is big on projection...

[–] shadmere@lemmy.world 27 points 2 years ago (2 children)

Our enemies are both terrifyingly strong and laughably weak.

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[–] ProfessorZhu@lemmy.blahaj.zone 97 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (10 children)

Are they really though? Everyday there is a new "GOP IS LOSING!" article but they are still restricting abortion, attacks LGBT people, and changing curriculums to racist dog shit

are they losing or do we just say that to make ourselves feel better about doing nothing about the encroaching fascism?

[–] astronaut_sloth@mander.xyz 19 points 2 years ago (2 children)

Little column A, little column B. They're losing the demographic war, and if the trend continues without any outside influence, they are a dying party. Because of that, they're resorting to fascism to hold onto power with a dwindling minority. That is, their dwindling power in a fair system is leading them to turn to more drastic measures to retain power. We're watching them take off the fig leaf of acting as if they are bound by laws and norms.

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[–] LEDZeppelin@lemmy.world 86 points 2 years ago (2 children)

Republican solution: Raise the voting age and disqualify students voting in their college districts (force the students to return home to vote).

[–] GingeyBook@lemmy.world 47 points 2 years ago (6 children)

Maybe some sort of requirement that states you must own land too?

[–] marx2k@lemmy.world 22 points 2 years ago (1 children)

There's been a not-single-digit amount of arguments from the right lately that only people that pay taxes should have a vote because they're the ones putting skin into the game.

Its like no one on the right ever picked up a history book.

We did all this already. We decided as a nation that it was dumb and moved on.

[–] ShakeThatYam@lemmy.world 19 points 2 years ago (1 children)

If all taxpayers can vote then a lot of young people who can't currently vote would become eligible. Also, so would most non-citizens, including undocumented immigrants. What conservatives don't realize is that most undocumented immigrants pay taxes (and generally get back less than they pay).

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[–] IphtashuFitz@lemmy.world 15 points 2 years ago (1 children)

There’s a 30 acre plot of woods for sale behind my house. Somebody should buy it and sell 1 square foot blocks of it to people for something like $5 each.

Yeah, I know it’s not truly viable, but it would be awesome if it worked as a tactic to land ownership clauses.

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[–] Norgur@kbin.social 14 points 2 years ago

You can get all of your rights back of course, if you agree to submit a special voting form that only contains the republican candidates.

[–] SSUPII@sopuli.xyz 13 points 2 years ago

I've played enough Victoria 3 to know that returning to landed voting after universal suffrage is not a good idea

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[–] fleabomber@lemm.ee 46 points 2 years ago (2 children)

New strategy. Make more fucking college towns.

[–] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 24 points 2 years ago

Would making more colleges make them cheaper? Because if so, double bonus!

[–] sxan@midwest.social 15 points 2 years ago (2 children)

You unintentionally(?) came up with a brilliant strategy! Fucking colleges! There's no way those won't be popular!

Plus, a ton of people could use some real education in that area.

[–] Gustephan@lemmy.world 19 points 2 years ago (6 children)

That's gonna be tough. Saying this as a recent M.S. graduate of a FL university, I got the hell out. I'm starting a PhD program very soon, but there's absolutely no way I'm doing it in a state where I'm reasonably worried that the next piece of legislation is going to result in Desantis' brownshirts arresting me for thought crimes. Red states are dangerous places for academics.

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[–] beccaboben@lemmy.world 31 points 2 years ago

Republican redistricting and gerrymandering intensifies

[–] Hazdaz@lemmy.world 20 points 2 years ago (5 children)

30% of 18-29 year olds voted in the last election, while almost 70% of seniors (65+) voted.

So this article might be claiming that Republicans are losing a war against college towns, which basically is a war against young people, but if those young people don't bother to vote, it can't be that big of a loss for the GOP.

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[–] MiddleWeigh@lemmy.world 18 points 2 years ago (5 children)

They want a whole separate nation. People are even actively relocating to rural areas to "get out of woke blue states", just like people are fleeing red. It's surreal to watch, and I can't take my eyes off the train wreck that is American society.

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[–] s_s@lemmy.one 13 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

College towns aren't even changing. Republicans are sprinting towards christian nationalist fascism and the people with any exposure to people slightly different than themselves (like near college towns) aren't falling for the lies perpetuated by rightwing social media and fox news.

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