Older generations are constantly blaming millennials for ruining America.
They call us slackers, underachievers, technology-obsessed, and self-centered.
Well, culturally, they may be right — but politically, they could not be more wrong. The 2016 election is being decided by older voters; they dominate the primaries because they consistently show up. This year, polls show that older voters are going to show up to vote for Donald Trump.
Here’s the breakdown from a recent YouGov survey: more than 80 percent of Trump’s supporters are older than 45 years-old, and less than 2 percent are younger than 30.
Among Republicans, while 34 percent of those 65 and older support Trump, only 15 percent of those under 30 support him.
In a general election matchup, the gap gets even bigger. Only 17 percent of millennials have a favorable view of Trump, while 50 percent have a negative view of him. In a hypothetical Trump vs. Clinton matchup, Clinton wins by 13 percent, and more than 20 percent of younger voters would rather stay home than vote.
Trump’s candidacy is discouraging young Americans from participating in the political process, while energizing older voters. That in and of itself isn’t a great trend. But, the bigger problems are what a Trump nomination would potentially do to Republicans — and what a Trump presidency would do to the country.
For Republicans, it could mean furthering the loss of an entire generation of voters. As if attracting millennials wasn’t hard enough, Trump would reenforce all the misperceptions about Republicans: Rich, angry, and bigoted. That’s what the above polls show.
Now, older Trump supporters who are reading this are probably furious. What we see on Facebook is that when Trump supporters are shown that millennials don’t like their candidate, they attack millennials for being an awful generation.
At least we aren’t the ones beating people up at rallies, banning immigrants by religion, and telling women they have “blood coming out of her wherever.”
Older Republicans need to get this message: Without winning over more millennials, the election math is almost impossible for Republicans to win the presidency ever again. Without a Republican in the White House, we will never repeal Obamacare, balance the budget, and make our tax system more competitive — and we will have little hope of relaunching the American Dream.
That will ruin America, not make it great again.
And, let’s throw out math for a second and say, hypothetically, that Trump wins the presidency by turning out all these supposed angry older white voters who didn’t vote in 2012.
Just like President Obama during the 2008 campaign, we know next to nothing about how Trump will govern. He’s supported socialized medicine, the Wall Street bailouts, and higher taxes — and donated to every Democrat you can think of. He’s been on both sides of the abortion issue and gun issues.
The problem with electing a populist is that their only compass is their sense of what’s popular and their ego, both of which are usually short-sighted.
Certainly, for conservatives and libertarians who believe we need dramatic reform to get the economy back on track, it is tough to trust Trump because his history in economics has been being the beneficiary of crony capitalism, eminent domain abuse, and good land deals. Does he really have a vision for the 21st century economy?
For younger voters, the polls show we don’t think he has that vision. We’re left hoping that our elders wake up, stop being hoodwinked by blunt and empty rhetoric, and get serious about reviving our country.
