Who uses rap lyrics, Snapchat updates, and shirtless photos to get attention?
If you were going to guess teenagers, you’d be wrong.
The 2016 presidential primaries have been marked by several attempts from the candidates to gain the support of the younger generation. Millennials have the potential to be the largest voting bloc in the November presidential election, therefore, candidates have been desperate to gain their attention throughout the primaries.
The candidates’ strategies have been fairly obvious — from Clinton’s tweeted invitation to discuss student loans via emoji, Cruz’s mock Simpsons audition, and Bernie Sanders’s dancing with Ellen DeGeneres. These strategies are all attempts to appear relevant and involved with the culture of the millennials.
But, according to a survey conducted by Ipsos for USA Today and Rock the Vote, and subsequent analysis from the Latin Post, millennials prefer Sanders and Trump because they are the candidates who are considered “counter-culture” and “outside the system.” If this is true, then why have the presidential candidates been engaging with the culture in order to win the votes of young people?
The Atlantic’s Derek Thompson wrote, “In the biggest picture, young people don’t just feel that they have been uniquely disadvantaged by the economy, but also that they are revolutionaries for urgent social rights.”
Millennials want to vote for the candidate they feel confident about when it comes to managing the nation’s economy and ensuring equality for all.
Millennials want change. They do not want to be targeted by Twitter discussions and their loyalty cannot be won because a candidate participated in National Cat Day…and posted photos of it.
Bernie Sanders, the millennial-favored Democratic candidate, is running his campaign on the principles of “democratic socialism.” His goals involve a political transformation — a call for change that young people are excited to support.
As the remaining candidates prepare for November, it may be in their best interest to evaluate their visions for the future. Do they plan on addressing the issues that millennials are interested in? Do they plan on promising change and political transformation?
If not, they can plan on polls that are largely void of millennials.
