“Being chubby for a while (provided you don’t give yourself diabetes) is a natural phase of life and nothing to be ashamed of. Like puberty or slowly turning into a Republican.” – Tina Fey, Bossypants
Despite the label “Generation Snowflake,” Millennials are leaning conservative at a younger age than Baby Boomers or Generation Xers did. The common demographic trend is that each generation starts out mostly liberal and then shifts toward conservatism as people age. Millennials follow that trend, but we’re moving faster to the right. This spells trouble for Democrats, since Millennials are now the largest generation of eligible voters.
A paper published in the Personality Social and Psychology Bulletin looked at three surveys taken on the political views of high school seniors. In 2014, 29 percent of high school seniors identified themselves as politically conservative. In 1976, only 21 percent said the same. Seniors in both generations were more likely to identify themselves as liberal.
Another survey of Americans ages 18-34 found that 92 percent are in favor of free speech, and 93 percent are in favor of religious freedom. This means that we’re only 7-8 percent snowflake. In addition, RedState reports that we lean more libertarian as young adults than our parents do in middle age:
This runs contrary to the common belief that Millennials are a tidal wave of social justice warriors coming to vote Bernie into the White House. The hand-wringing over our supposed liberalism is overwrought.
But if we really are becoming conservative faster than our parents did, then what explains the safe spaces and trigger warnings and general freak-outs happening on college campuses?
It only takes a few snowflakes – a few very loud, disruptive snowflakes – to freeze out free speech.
Republicans and conservatives shouldn’t celebrate just yet. Millennials still mainly vote for Democrats; just at a lower rate than our parents did at our age. In 2016, Hillary Clinton won the age 18-29 vote by an 18-point margin. President Trump won the 65 and older vote by 8 points, according to Pew Research Center.
We are looking at a huge generational divide, albeit a smaller one than was observed during the Obama years. In 2012, Democrats won with young voters by 24 points; Republicans won with 65+ voters by 12 points.
A trope sometimes attributed to Winston Churchill states, “If you’re not liberal at 20, you have no heart. If you’re not conservative at 40, you have no brain.” Studies show that Millennials are wising up faster than most people think.
