Millennials are turning away from political parties, with nearly half of them describing themselves as independent. Associate Dean for Research and Professor at Tufts University, Peter Levine, explained why that may be.
The irrelevance of political parties is framed as a marker of Bernie Sanders’ success. The research team at Tuft’s Tisch College estimated that young voters ages 18-30 have so far voted for Sanders more than they have for Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump combined. And, at least to Levine, “Sanders is a party outsider.”
It comes down, in part, to a cultural shift. Because of social media, Levine wrote that “millennials both expect and prefer loose networks that allow individuals to personalize their views and form and shift relationships freely,” which does not fare so well for a political party, lacking personalization, because it focuses more on a platform.
Another explanation is that along with the culture, political parties are changing, and not for the better. Levine noted that “the parties now do very little,” and according to him:
This means that despite how involved young people are in party campaigns, they “lack any contact with the party itself,” and are therefore neglected.
Levine argued the rise of young voters who turned out for Barack Obama in 2008, and are currently turning out Bernie Sanders in 2016, are not voting based on political party. He pointed to sobering results from the General Social Survey, which showed only one in 40 young people “actively participated” in a party in 2014.
As Levine said in closing, “as long as [parties] don’t do much for young people, young people will naturally learn to ignore them.”
The parties do make some effort. The GOP has a section for “GOP Millennials” on its website, as well as the Republican Leadership Initiative. And, the Democrats have a section for “Young People and Students.”
