It is no secret that a significant majority of young people (voters 18 to 29) have jumped on the Bernie Sanders bandwagon -- and their support of Sanders is passionate. But it is becoming very clear now that Sanders will not be the Democratic nominee. Hillary Clinton will be the nominee.
And social media is full of young people who are saying they will not vote for Clinton. The question is whether this is just a small minority of young voters, or represents the feelings of most of them. Could young people actually abandon Hillary Clinton and the Democratic Party in November?
The answer, according to a new Harvard University Youth Poll, is NO. A huge majority of young voters will vote Democratic in November. That poll showed that 61% of young voters preferred the Democratic Party in this election, and only 33% preferred the Republican Party. That an even bigger majority than preferred the Democrats in the Spring of 2015 (when the percentages showed 55% for Democrats and 40% for Republicans).
The chart above, by Daily Kos using Harvard youth poll figures, represents the position of young voters in a Clinton versus Trump race. Note that overall, and in most groups of the young, the figures of those supporting Clinton are pretty overwhelming -- even better than the youth vote for Barack Obama in 2008 (which went overwhelmingly for Obama).
Young people are not stupid. They know this is a very important election. And in a Clinton - Trump race, they will be solidly behind Clinton.
NOTE -- This speaks well for the future of this country also. As political scientists have shown, most people tend to stick with the party they voted for in their youth.
It makes sense that young people would prefer Bernie since he promises "free college". Hell, if I were their age and looking at mortgaging 20-30 years of my future, I'd be for Bernie too. But I'm realistic, that's why I'm for Hillary. Of course, "the Donald" isn't a true Republican either. He's some sort of hybrid, but unlike my chi-weenie that looks like a cross between a chihuahua and a dachshund, I can't figure out what combo Trump represents.
ReplyDeletethere is some website that has picked the president since ??? 1975 and they say Sanders will be president..hmmmm
ReplyDeleteWebsites didn't EXIST in 1975. It wasn't until the 90s that the web was opened to the general public. Before there was such a thing as '.com' the web was onlu abailable to Universities, scientific, military, and fovernmental users -- one reason why one of the earliest site was just a shot of a voffee pot in a lab that got fhousands of viewers. and, before broadband replaced dial-up (may ye ne'er have experienced that horrorrrr of horrrrroorrrrrs) you couldn't put much on a website if you expected it to become visible in less than 30 minutes.
ReplyDelete