49% agreed to some extent that elections in the country don’t represent people like them; 51% agreed to some extent that the political system in the US “doesn’t work for people like me;” and 64% backed the statement that “America is in decline.” A whopping 65% agreed either strongly or somewhat that “nearly all politicians are corrupt, and make money from their political power”
Nearly all of these statements are, I think, undeniable if you’re paying attention. I’m surprised the percentages are so low.
“I think these statements blow me away, the scale of these numbers with young voters,” Evan Roth Smith, Blueprint’s lead pollster, told Semafor. “Young voters do not look at our politics and see any good guys.”
(Emphasis mine)
And that is exactly the point where the misinterpretation train leaves the station. The excitement generated by Bernie Sanders / Beto O’Rourke / etc seems to suggest otherwise.
If you wanted to check whether young voters feel that the right answer to that bleakness you asked them about is to give up on politics and let whatever happens happen, rather than to get involved and fix it, you could have asked them that directly. My observation is that they are voting and getting involved in protest movements a lot more so than other younger generations in the recent past, but it kinda sounds like you don’t want that to be true, so you asked them something different and then decided that they said something different than they did.
The excitement generated by Bernie Sanders / Beto O’Rourke / etc seems to suggest otherwise.
The fact that Bernie lost the nomination twice and Beto is persona non grata in Texas politics suggests that they’re right that there’s no good people in government. Hell, I was excited about Fetterman and look how he turned out.
Agreed with you on Sanders - he is an incredibly rare occurrence in politics. He is someone who was :
Not ever rich so he understands from a very real perspective the economic stratification that many of those in higher government offices ignore or are oblivious to.
Didn’t seek politics as a means to enrich himself (unlike Sinema for example)
The closest other analogs I can think of are a few members of the “squad…” but even a good number of them come from some sort of modest means… although - again - that garbage pile Sinema shows us that’s no guarantee when it comes to class solidarity… :(
Beto on the other hand - who I actually met in person once and shook hands with - although he is a thousand times better than Cruz or Abbott - is basically backed by his very well-to-do in-laws and more of the “New Democrats” coalition - aka Obama / Buttigieg / thinly-veiled neoliberal “look how cool I am but don’t check my voting record too closely” group of pretend-progressives backed by a lot of capital trying to appeal to the folks who like the politics of Sanders, AOC, Warren, etc.
Although Beto’s better than some of the others in my opinion, his voting record shows he’d be another Obama policy-wise so no public healthcare probably, no ending massive private-kick-back driven “Military Industrial Complex” contracts, probably not great on foreign policy, and I wouldn’t expect him to crack down on billionaire tax evasionists.
Nearly all of these statements are, I think, undeniable if you’re paying attention. I’m surprised the percentages are so low.
(Emphasis mine)
And that is exactly the point where the misinterpretation train leaves the station. The excitement generated by Bernie Sanders / Beto O’Rourke / etc seems to suggest otherwise.
If you wanted to check whether young voters feel that the right answer to that bleakness you asked them about is to give up on politics and let whatever happens happen, rather than to get involved and fix it, you could have asked them that directly. My observation is that they are voting and getting involved in protest movements a lot more so than other younger generations in the recent past, but it kinda sounds like you don’t want that to be true, so you asked them something different and then decided that they said something different than they did.
The fact that Bernie lost the nomination twice and Beto is persona non grata in Texas politics suggests that they’re right that there’s no good people in government. Hell, I was excited about Fetterman and look how he turned out.
Agreed with you on Sanders - he is an incredibly rare occurrence in politics. He is someone who was :
The closest other analogs I can think of are a few members of the “squad…” but even a good number of them come from some sort of modest means… although - again - that garbage pile Sinema shows us that’s no guarantee when it comes to class solidarity… :(
Beto on the other hand - who I actually met in person once and shook hands with - although he is a thousand times better than Cruz or Abbott - is basically backed by his very well-to-do in-laws and more of the “New Democrats” coalition - aka Obama / Buttigieg / thinly-veiled neoliberal “look how cool I am but don’t check my voting record too closely” group of pretend-progressives backed by a lot of capital trying to appeal to the folks who like the politics of Sanders, AOC, Warren, etc.
Although Beto’s better than some of the others in my opinion, his voting record shows he’d be another Obama policy-wise so no public healthcare probably, no ending massive private-kick-back driven “Military Industrial Complex” contracts, probably not great on foreign policy, and I wouldn’t expect him to crack down on billionaire tax evasionists.
I was a young person excited for Bernie in 2016. That was almost 10 years ago. I am no longer the younger generations.
A lot of people were excited for Bernie and the Dems (and media) coordinated to kneecap him rather than chance the vote.