Reaching Young People
May 14, 2009 / 10:56 am • By Dr. Melissa ClouthierThe Boomers spawned and their progeny distilled their pot-tootin’, free-lovin’ parents’ belief system to this: community, environment, activism. This from a Detroit News editorial:
In the 2010 off-year election, half of millennials will be eligible to vote, representing about a fifth of the overall electorate. By 2012, 60 percent will be eligible to vote, and they could make up about a quarter of the American electorate when Obama runs for re-election. By 2020, when virtually all millennials will be over 18, they will represent 36 percent of the electorate and will completely dominate elections and the political agenda of America.
And it seems likely that this civic generation, like its “Greatest Generation” great-grandparents, will vote in big numbers. Turnout among voters under 30 has been rising steadily since millennials began to replace the alienated and more cynical Gen-Xers in this age group. From a low of 37 percent in 1996, turnout increased to 53 percent of all eligible millennials, and 59 percent in the key battleground states in 2008.
Their unity of opinion and their numbers will make millennials’ preferences for economic activism, a nonintrusive approach to social issues by government at any level and a multilateral interventionism by America in foreign affairs the policy paths to political success during the next decade.
Some of the data is derived from a Kos poll and is obviously skewed. Still, these young people supported Barack Obama 2:1 and they don’t have jobs. So, unless they become employed here soon, and not by the government, their notion of the government being a benign and noble force in their sad sack lives will prevail. That will steer them toward voting for Democrats.
Additionally, the Republican Party MUST have a cohesive, positive position about what I call the “Softer Side Of Sears” issues: health care, the environment, education etc. Since the younger people are all about doing their own thang while paradoxically being smothered by hovering helicopter parents, they want the government to butt out on social issues and help out on economic ones. That is, they want to be able to do socially irresponsible things and have someone else pay for the consequences.
So, free sex is okay and people shouldn’t be judged for the STDs, pregnancies, etc. they create. And also, for the poor unfortunate folks who get themselves in a bad way, the government should help out. Remember, these are the 22 year olds living at home where mom is still doing their laundry, but they have no problem telling you to turn down your thermostat and stop driving your Suburban.
The authors of the editorial take a shot at Twitter and the conservatives there. Meh. The conservatives there aren’t trying to reach the Millenials. That social group isn’t primarily on Twitter. They’re on Facebook–the social media platform that Facebook Founder Chris Hughs is personally helping Barack Obama to own. And, he does own FB.
Sigh.
Reaching young people will require showing them in emotional ways how liberal orthodoxy is harmful and how conservative orthodoxy is caring and loving. I happen to believe this is the case, in fact. The recent D.C. school choice, magnate school voucher program protest demonstrate the harsh reality of government controlled education. Students with hope were FORCED to go to a school AGAINST their will that HARMED them and their futures. Many of these students were DISADVANTAGED, MINORITY and the children of SINGLE MOMS. All of this is the truth. It’s an outrageous situation and evokes my emotions, that’s for damn skippy sure. These stories need to be told.
Now, find stories about someone who has an environment-saving technology (you know they’re out there) that’s received the ax because it ticks off another of Obama’s greedy constituencies. Then craft a positive message about how the conservative way promotes freedom, individuality and cares for the planet.
Find health care stories. There are plenty of them…where people on government run health care suffer. This shouldn’t be difficult to do either. More government run anything isn’t the answer.
Now, craft a message about Smart Government being lean, healthy and helpful. A big, fat, immobile government doesn’t help, it gets in the way. Showcase government programs that work and then contrast them with government programs that are a disaster. Again, that shouldn’t be difficult.
A “no government” message won’t work with these kids. Freedom and holistic health will, though.
Does it sound like I’m going soft? Every time I talk about message to conservative readers, that’s the accusation. Well, I am small-government to the core. I also want to win. Promising lower taxes, lower spending, and better government is how Barack Obama won. That’s how a Republican will win, too. And in the Republican’s case, it will be the truth.
9 Responses to “Reaching Young People”
May 14 2009 / 1:36 pm
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Spot on Dr. Clouthier. We have the power of our ideas but we seem to come up short on the ways to articulate them to others. Communicating the ideals of conservatism to a Halo playing, MTV watching and Star Trekkie – JJ Abrams era(I’m a Trekkie – original series)is more of an art than science. I feel confident we will find those voices with people like Alfonzo Rachel on our side.
May 14 2009 / 2:37 pm
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I agree with everything except one word in your last sentence. It should read, “And in the Republican’s case, it MAY be the truth.”
It’s up to us to hold their ever-expanding feet to the proverbial fire, exterminate the RINOs, and educate existing and future leaders of the GOP who have never had to litmus test their alleged ideologies in the real world.
I support Republicans on a case-by-case basis; only a percentage of them are actually limited government, pro-freedom conservatives. We need to continue to purge the bad apples and replace them with the real McCoys. Only then will we really WIN.
May 14 2009 / 4:43 pm
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To be honest Melissa,
I’m not sure that the Republicans can really reach out to the Millenials (at least for the time being) because they’ve been so utterly saturated with leftist ideals that it will be next to impossible to turn them towards conservatism, at least until it’s too late (i.e. when they actually start paying for these gargantuan spending increases over the last couple of years). You have to remember that in general, this generation is very short term in its’ thinking. They don’t think five minutes ahead of time, much less a decade or so when they’ll see the consequences of their actions.
As for changing the message, I’m getting pretty frustrated from what I hear from young people (and I see and talk to them all the time at the university that I work at). It’s either they know it’ll be a lot of money, but they’ll somehow get through it (which is misplaced optimism and total underestimation of the problems at hand) or they’re just utterly clueless about what’s going on around them. That unfortunately seems to be the future.
I really do think that this country is going to just have to take its lumps and we’ll either stand or fall.
One thing I have noticed (and this also disturbs me) is that conservatism has increasingly gone on the defensive for the past couple of decades (only really noticable over the last few years or so). Anything, whether it be a country or an ideology that stays continuously on the defensive will eventually lose. Sooner or later, one must take the offensive and that means hitting back. So far, the conservatives have not really done that. They have let the liberals label them and refuse to engage them.
I must again reiterate (and I can’t emphasize this enough) that the conservative message is correct. It’s not always nice, but it’s correct. When you suggest that we soften the message with golden promises that we won’t be able to keep, then you’re already being swayed by the liberal side. You say look for fuzzy, feel-good stories to make us look better. However if you step back and look at what you’re writing, you’ll see that you’re reacting exactly how the liberals want you to. It’s a slippery slope.
May 15 2009 / 12:57 am
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Millenials will not be brought into our way of thinking. They have been conditioned as such by their parents and their school teachers (P.C. school teachers, BTW).
The only way I can see them changing their minds is with that metaphorical mugging, the bucketfulls of ice-cold water called Reality.
May 15 2009 / 12:03 pm
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If the GOP has any future, it will convey the lessons John Stossel is teaching. …Teach them the truth about Medicare and Social Security. Teach them the truth about freedom from government.
May 15 2009 / 3:39 pm
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Jason,
John Stossel is an excellent example of how to reach people without giving up the principles. Unfortunately, many conservatives are either backpedalling on their beliefs in the idea that if they water it down enough, people might understand some of it. And then you have the moderates who essentially act like Democrats most of the time.
The real crux of the problem is that the said examples above are entrenched in leadership or information centers. They’re not going to leave quietly (cripes, look at the fight they’re putting up now, even though they got crushed in the last election), which means it’ll be a long and bitter struggle to dig them out.
The fact is that when you have a large (probably majority) of the millenials getting their news from Jon Stewart, it’s very hard to see how the GOP in particular and conservatives in general can make a lot of headway. As I said before, I think the only thing that’ll get the younger ones to listen is if they proverbially get knocked on their collective asses hard.
The problem with that is it’ll probably be too late to rectify the situation as we’ll be in debt well above our heads.
May 15 2009 / 11:13 pm
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As far as it goes wrt reaching young people, we really need artists, filmmakers, musicians, and kickass videogame creators on our side. And we need to emphasize that socialism is caveman economics, and that free markets and liberty, all those falsely accused fuddy duddy things at the root of America, are actually the most radical and miraculous new science of happiness and wealth creation the world has seen in the last three thousand years, since money was invented.
Or they could live like cavemen. And make everybody else live like cavemen. That’s where we are going if we don’t reverse course.
For those who want to hold Republican feet to the fire, do not withhold your vote or go third party. That’s how Obama got elected. Instead, you must double down and join the party. Join your local committee.
May 16 2009 / 1:31 pm
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Don’t forget – young people are idealistic and sensitive. They want everyone to be a “have” and don’t like social classes of “haves” and “have-nots” It won’t do any good to pretend that you’re ’soft’ if you’re not – they’ll see right through that. Most of the kids in my class that I teach view repubs as mean-spirited, obnoxious, uneducated, devoid of compassion for the less fortunate and angry and bitter. They know about Limbaugh, Hannity, Coulter, Malkin and of course Bush and Cheney and they don’t like them — they think they’re mean, nasty and selfish (their words and remember they’re teens now but will be voting age in a year or two) Get some better representation and maybe you’ll see a change. These people I mentioned seem to drive gentler people away and are too good at attracting the nutcases. Not good for the party.
May 17 2009 / 6:51 pm
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So melissa mcavoy,
What you’re essentially saying is that the RINOs should dominate and that the Republican Party should become, what, Democrat-Lite? Yeah, that strategy worked real well last year.
What you said pretty much summed up my previous postings: that kids are completely clueless and that they’ll either see the light or they won’t.
As for being “big meanies,” the fact is that the world isn’t a nice place. It’s just the way it is. Either you become strong enough to deal with that or you stay “pansified” and you let this country fall. I reiterate that many of your students will figure this out way too late to help any of us, particularly the responsible ones.