Only 28% Of Millenials Plan To Vote In 2018

[Cheerful Charlie]

https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/7/18/17585898/young-voter-turnout-polls-midterms-2018

Democrats are winning over younger voters by huge numbers, but as a highly contentious, voter turnout-dependent midterm election inches closer, there’s a serious question of whether these young Democrats will come to the polls.
A recently released poll from the Public Religion Research Institute and the Atlantic conducted in June showed only 28 percent of young adults ages 18 to 29 say they are “absolutely certain” they’ll vote in midterms, compared to 74 percent of seniors.

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I wish I could grab these little bastards by the scruff of the neck and shake some sense into them. This is why America can't have nice things.

 

[prideandfall]

I wish I could grab these little bastards by the scruff of the neck and shake some sense into them. This is why America can't have nice things.

so the argument here is essentially that "voting" as a concept breaks down to a seething tide of stupidity that has to be constantly held back by a faceless mass that gets no reward for doing so, but for which you will condemn for failing to succeed?

i mean that study says only 30% of americans are consistent voters in the first place so 28% of a given sub-group polling that they'll for sure be doing it makes statistical sense.
instead of grabbing those little bastards and blaming them for the fact that old people are a bunch of fucking retards, perhaps shake the old people? a good number of them might die from the shaking, and then we'd have less old people voting which would also fix the problem.

 

[starwater]

I wish I could grab these little bastards by the scruff of the neck and shake some sense into them. This is why America can't have nice things.

so the argument here is essentially that "voting" as a concept breaks down to a seething tide of stupidity that has to be constantly held back by a faceless mass that gets no reward for doing so, but for which you will condemn for failing to succeed?

i mean that study says only 30% of americans are consistent voters in the first place so 28% of a given sub-group polling that they'll for sure be doing it makes statistical sense.
instead of grabbing those little bastards and blaming them for the fact that old people are a bunch of fucking retards, perhaps shake the old people? a good number of them might die from the shaking, and then we'd have less old people voting which would also fix the problem.

YIKES! I think you missed the satire in his post.

 

[Trausti]

 

[prideandfall]

YIKES! I think you missed the satire in his post.

i didn't, i'm questioning the 'satire' on a conceptual level.

there is a strong tradition of disdain for non-voters, and while i can get the argument from principled grounds (regarding participation and utilizing your rights as a citizen, etc) i find the argument from the perspective of "obligation to conter-act the stupidity of other people" to be rather disingenuous.

 

[Opoponax]

YIKES! I think you missed the satire in his post.

i didn't, i'm questioning the 'satire' on a conceptual level.

there is a strong tradition of disdain for non-voters, and while i can get the argument from principled grounds (regarding participation and utilizing your rights as a citizen, etc) i find the argument from the perspective of "obligation to conter-act the stupidity of other people" to be rather disingenuous.

What? Look at the leadership of this goddamn country, and then look at how many people didn't bother to vote who could've made a difference. The following words are synonyms for lazy for a reason.



apathetic
careless
dull
inattentive
indifferent
lackadaisical
lethargic
passive
sleepy
tired
weary
asleep on the job
comatose
dallying
dilatory
drowsy
flagging
idle
indolent
inert
laggard
lagging
languid
languorous
lifeless
loafing
neglectful
out of it
procrastinating
remiss
shiftless
slack
slothful
slow
slow-moving
snoozy
somnolent
supine
tardy
torpid

 

[repoman]

What are the millennial, gen-x and boomer attitudes about electronic black box voting and the fraud you can drive a mack truck through with it?

It without a paper trail is the suicide of democracy in my opinion.

 

[prideandfall]

What? Look at the leadership of this goddamn country, and then look at how many people didn't bother to vote who could've made a difference.

k i hear you, but two things:

1. the leadership in this country is nothing more or less than being exactly what the populace of this country deserves - whether you want to put that on the shoulders of the voting public directly, or whether it be caused by institutional corruption, the leadership in the US is a direct result of fundamental aspects of the core spirit of the US as a country.
thus, i think it's specious at best to suggest that *moar* voting is the solution to the problem of idiots being elected by the process of voting.

2. the suggestion that more voters would have changed an outcome to one you like better is predicated in this case on the false notion that more voting would have equaled more votes for clinton which would have equaled her winning.
firstly, this assumes that of the pool of people who would be inclined to vote in the first place (which remember per the study is at best only 30% of the country) but who didn't vote were all people who would have voted for clinton, which is a claim that i feel has no merit whatsoever.
secondly, it assumes that even if those who didn't vote had voted, it would have been in areas where those votes would have changed the electoral college outcome.
just look at this electoral map:
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/20...aps-can-show-your-neighborhood-s-vote-n740616

Show

all the populated cities voted for clinton. every state where a decent chunk of the population is centered in the urban areas went to clinton (except florida because fuck florida) so unless your argument is that there are massive teeming swarms of liberally leaning voters who are normally inclined to vote democrat hiding out in the rural bum-fuck states who would vote ordinarily but choose not to, the argument being put forth here sounds really good in terms of star-spangled-boners, but has little connection to any verifiable political reality - and in fact i think if you look at voting results over the last 50 years you'll see that at least on a purely demographics basis this claim is kind of blatantly ridiculous.

The following words are synonyms for lazy for a reason.

and is "laziness" the reason why people who don't vote don't vote? i mean obviously that is the case for some people, but is there a study of "non-voters by reason" out there? how many are just 'lazy', how many are effectively excluded from the process by political maneuvering, and how many are conscientious objectors?

 

[ZiprHead]

What are the millennial, gen-x and boomer attitudes about electronic black box voting and the fraud you can drive a mack truck through with it?

It without a paper trail is the suicide of democracy in my opinion.

Yup, those things are just not right.

We have paper ballots here that are counted by machine not connected to the internet.

 

[Jayjay]

This is silly. They should ask women they know how to vote, if they were serious. That way not only would these men eliminate their own votes, but amplify women's vote.

 

[repoman]

That picture and caption is a 4chan psyop, clearly...

Don't forget to prep the bull!

 

[Elixir]

Rather than laziness, I put down the low participation rate to a carefully cultivated sense of futility. How many synonyms can you come up with for that?

 

[bilby]

There's a very simple solution.

 

[ZiprHead]

This is silly. They should ask women they know how to vote, if they were serious. That way not only would these men eliminate their own votes, but amplify women's vote.

That's obviously a fake.

 

[Jayjay]

This is silly. They should ask women they know how to vote, if they were serious. That way not only would these men eliminate their own votes, but amplify women's vote.

That's obviously a fake.

Ya think?

 

[braces_for_impact]

Depending on where you look, there are signs of a blue wave or signs of typical American apathy. One thing is for sure, we could certainly use one.

 

[Opoponax]

...and is "laziness" the reason why people who don't vote don't vote? i mean obviously that is the case for some people, but is there a study of "non-voters by reason" out there? how many are just 'lazy', how many are effectively excluded from the process by political maneuvering, and how many are conscientious objectors?

Bah. Fair enough. I'm in California, and we get to mail in our ballots. It's as simple as filling it in, sticking it in the envelope, putting a stamp on it, and then putting it in the mailbox. So in my state, there's really no excuse. But in others, where you have to go somewhere and wait in line, and likely have to take time off work, it is a different story.

I think though, that if more people voted, or if voting was compulsory, it would truly give us who we deserved. There's also the problem of the Electoral College, but that's already being done in another thread.

Right now, Trump's disapproval rating is near 60% (or thereabouts). And it's not like him being a horrible POTUS wasn't easily foreseeable. So where were all these people when it came time to vote? Will they vote next time if they can? I hope so.

Edit: to be clear, I admit to going off half-cocked in first post in this thread, and I concede you're right.

 

[prideandfall]

I think though, that if more people voted, or if voting was compulsory, it would truly give us who we deserved.

i'd agree here, but of course that's a two-pronged issue - compulsory voting on a population and geographic scale like the US only works with a great investment in infrastructure and a commitment to access and institutional fidelity, which quite frankly i can't see being possible within the current framework of our political and social structure.

this is just one among the many reasons that i am heavily interested in politics and avidly keep myself informed of the political goings-on of this country, but have never voted and will never vote - it's an inherently and necessarily corrupt and broken system, and i feel that participating in it tacitly endorses it.

Right now, Trump's disapproval rating is near 60% (or thereabouts). And it's not like him being a horrible POTUS wasn't easily foreseeable. So where were all these people when it came time to vote? Will they vote next time if they can? I hope so.

and therein lies the fundamental other aspect of the problem: look at the actual polling numbers compared to other presidents at this stage of their term.
https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/trump-approval-ratings/

pretty much about the same for every president for the last 80 years or so, he's not some special unique bottom-dweller.
and then you look at somewhere like this which breaks it down by state:
https://morningconsult.com/tracking-trump/
and you see that his numbers are fine in the places where it matters - where people vote for him.

this again highlights a fundamental schism in the US: trump isn't a terrible president to the people who voted for trump, just like bush wasn't a terrible president in the minds of these same people. you seem to be operating under the same false premise that so many liberally minded folks have: that if only more people voted we'd have more liberal votes, and if only the sheeple would wake up they'd see how terribad this guy is and the tide would change... but trump is precisely what those people want in a president.
trump and bush were both the epitome of what happens when the electorate decides political office on "who they want to have a beer with."

Edit: to be clear, I admit to going off half-cocked in first post in this thread, and I concede you're right.

meh i mean i don't even know if it's about being "right" so much as simply having a different perspective on the issue, at least in terms of how i see pragmatic and applicable logistics within the currently existing system.
it's easy to want things to be better and thus come up with a way (any way) to ascribe how they could be better, i have the advantage of being far more cynical and disinterested in the well-being of the US as a country and humans as a species so i look at it all far more starkly.

 

[southernhybrid]

According to Pew, over 60% of milennials are looking forward to the midterms. And, btw, baby boomers tend to lean toward the Democrats. It's only those who are older than boomers that lean towards Republicans. Even at that, I know quite a few Democrats in their 80s that vote regularly. So, please stop blaming people over 55 for the mess we currently have. White men are the biggest supporters of Republicans if you want to get down to get to the facts. And, 41% of milennials, as well as about 50% of white male milennials voted for Trump, so let's not heap too much praise on them. But, I digress.


http://www.people-press.org/2018/03/01/1-generations-party-identification-midterm-voting-preferences-views-of-trump/

Millennials’ early interest in this year’s midterms is greater than for the past two congressional elections. This year, 62% of Millennial registered voters say they are looking forward to the midterms; at similar points in 2014 and 2010, fewer Millennials said they were looking forward to the elections (46% in 2014, 39% in 2010).

There has been less change among older generations. This year, 73% of Silents, 64% of Boomers and 62% of Gen Xers say they are looking forward to the midterms.

I have personally persuaded some younger voters to vote in the midterms in the past or made them promise me that would never skip another election. You just need to sit down with them and have a discussion about the benefit voting versus the risk of not voting.

I agree that we need to fix our system of voting and our machines are past their due date in Georgia. Still, we do have an entire three weeks of early voting and the results we've had in recent elections do seem to reflect people's views in this rather purple state, and it's predicted that Georgia just may turn blue in the near future. So, maybe our machines won't fail us. Voting sure beats staying home and whining.

 

[Elixir]

There was a survey study to determine why people don’t vote, but it was later found to be impossible to correct for the reticence of lazy people to respond to survey questions.