SUMMARY: Are young voters about to repeat 2016 and hand Trump a victory because the Democractic nominee isn’t quite good enough? Young voters have expressed frustration with President Biden and the Democratic Party, feeling that their promises have not been fulfilled. But, are they right? One of the lessons of 2016 was that the presidency has limitations and the president needs a cooperative Congress to achieve major policy goals. Instead of voting for everything we want, we should be voting strategically voting and considering the potential consequences of not uniting against the Republican Party. Young voters of today need to take take history and civics lessons taught to us in 2016 and consider the bigger picture and the impact of their choices on the future of democracy.
KEY WORDS: Youth voters, 2024 elections, Joe Biden, the Democratic Party, Voting strategy, the Republican Party, Democracy, the Great Civics Lession, 2016 elections
COMMENT: What do you think of the upcoming election? How concerned are you about the youth vote? Do you see the trends in the election changing? We’d love to hear from you!
A year out from Election 2024, there is alarming news everywhere. Did the Great Civics Lesson of 2016 not take hold? Do we not remember what a pre-Dobbs, pre-Federalist Society SCOTUS was like? Do we really want Trump Redux: The End of Democracy? Do people not SEE what’s happening with the Supremes, or is it now that we’re locked in for the next generation of a 6-3 conservative split, no one thinks it matters? Is anyone out there thinking? At all?
I understand that both regular and occasional readers are aware of this. However, a recent article from NBCNews discusses the findings from focus groups conducted with young voters aged 18 to 34. It suggests that we haven’t learned anything from the tumultuous years that the narcissistic raging grievance-laden I2I4 has had on the national political stage.
Let me quote some of the absolute buffoonery coming from the yutes of today:
“I genuinely could not live with myself if I voted for someone who’s made the decisions that Biden has,” said McKenzie, a 23-year-old working at Starbucks and as a union organizer in Madison, Wisconsin. “I didn’t even feel great about” voting for Biden back in 2020, he said.
And what decisions would those be McKenzie? Backing Israel over Hamas as every administration has done back to 1947? Getting the infrastructure bill passed? Doing more to address climate change than any other administration? What decisions has Biden made that are so terrible that you would rather risk flushing our entire democracy down the shitter for than vote for him?
“It’s so complicated, because it almost feels like if I were to give my vote for Biden, I will be showing the Democratic Party that what they are putting out is enough, which is the bare minimum in my opinion,” said Camarena, a 24-year-old living outside the Bay Area.
Yeah, Camarena, let’s teach those terrible Democrats a lesson by letting the wannabe dictator pay pee hookers to piss on the US Constitution and your rights as he establishes himself and the Republican Party as the only possible winner of every election after 2024. That’ll show those Democrats! Jesus fuck me with a spoon.
“I want to show the Democratic Party as a young person that you still need to earn our vote and if you don’t, the consequences will be your career,” McKenzie said. “A Republican getting elected isn’t the end. It is the beginning of a much larger fight.”
We’re back to the sage genius, McKenzie. It’s like hearing Susan Sarandon saying that the good thing about I2I4 being elected is that it will speed the revolution along. Really, y’all, how’d that work out for us? What fight is he talking about? We’re in the fight of our lives right now. We’re fighting for our democracy right fucking now. If we’re not willing to make the most strategic vote to keep the Republicans out of office, then we can’t keep our republic, just like Ben Franklin warned us about.
“I mean, he made a lot of really big promises in his campaign and virtually none of them were followed through on,” said Austin Kapp, a 25-year-old living in Castle Rock, Colorado. “I mean, he could have codified Roe v. Wade, he could have stood up for the rights of people all over the country, he could have done a lot of things, but he didn’t.”
How could he, the president have codified Roe v. Wade? The Democratic Congress tried, but Republican filibuster. Biden recommended — he’s the Executive Branch, remember Austin? — to the Senate — that’s the Legislative Branch, which the executive is not a part of — to end the filibuster.
What else could he do? Other than urge people to elect more pro-abortion rights senators, which he did!
How does one stand up for people’s rights all over the country? Does he give speeches supporting the people whose rights have been attacked? Does he join protests? Does he write editorials? Pass state and local legislation? Wait a minute, he’s part of the federal government and has no state or local power? Does he direct the DOJ to launch investigations? Wait a minute, there is a line between the presidency and DOJ that shouldn’t be crossed to prevent political prosecutions. Does he direct the federal agencies to center the rights of marginalized groups in their rules and regulations and enforcement actions? Wait a minute, he did that.
What exactly do you think he could do to stand up for people’s rights all over the country? It’s a great line, but it’s meaningless, essentially.
“It feels like the best option that we have isn’t good enough,” Camarena said with a sigh, adding, “It can feel really powerless.”
Her remark came after saying how outraged she was by Biden approving the Willow oil drilling project in Alaska because Biden wasn’t doing enough to fight climate change. I get that, he hasn’t. No one in power has. They will do the minimum necessary. It doesn’t matter that Biden has done more than everyone else before him.
However, the alternative is putting Trump back in office. We didn’t learn a thing from2016.
“I don’t think the presidency has too much of an effect on what happens in my day-to-day life,” she [Carmichael] said.
Yeah, Carmichael, Roe v. Wade was only a federal thing. It has no effect on anyone’s day-to-day life. Mother of god, is she a plant? She’s a Republican stooge, right? She works for Project Veritas or some such shit, right? Can anyone post-Dobbs be that deluded? Please, join me in banging your head against the fucking wall!
“I’m glad it’s the most ever” canceled student debt, he [McKenzie] said. “It’s still not even close to what was promised,” he added. “And I think that that’s sort of what I’m going into this campaign feeling, like broken promises all around.”
McKenzie may have a bachelor’s degree — the article described him as having graduated last spring with student debt — but he obviously didn’t learn how the government works. Biden can’t do it alone. With a thin majority in the Senate and a Republican House, very little legislation gets passed. In his first two years, he had thin majorities in both houses, but he Mancenima to contend with.
In a sense the Republicans have won. They’ve demonstrated that democracy doesn’t work by gumming up the federal government and passing radical bills in the states they gerrymandered themselves into permanent majorities. But, the voters have accepted the outcome because they don’t understand how democracy works.
If you agree that the yutes of today are misguided, then please consider doing one of the following:
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Image Attribution
This image was generated using Poe’s StableDiffusionXL bot using the prompt, Create a drawing of a young adult with a thought bubble containing Joe Biden, Donald Trump, and Robert Kennedy, Jr.
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Categories: Politics
The Psy of Life 
This speaks to something I’ve pondered for decades, the way Americans (and presumably others) see the President as all-powerful, able to simply make things they want so by an act of will, and also as a powerless sock puppet of the real movers and shakers. Often, when I hear the sorts of complaints about Presidents quoted above, I hear people actually wanting a dictator who agrees with them, and thinking that is what whoever gets their vote is supposed to be.
Democracy is always an experiment in compromise and we rarely get a chance to vote for a perfect candidate for any office. More often the safest guide is to avoid letting the perfect be the enemy of the good, and to vote for the lesser evil. In this election that can only mean a Democrat or left leaning Independent, not just one at the top of the ticket, every one for every office. The greater evil is that much worse.
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Howdy Bob!
We do tend to see the president as a ruling figure similar to a king or dictator and not as one of three co-equal branches of government. I guess there are several reasons for this, not the least of which is the campaigns to get the job in which the promise the sun and the moon and claim that they can control forces like inflation that they can’t. Correlation is just enough to make it seem like they do, though.
The other problem with the yutes of today is that they are young. Younger people tend to see the world in absolutes and in black and white. They get enthusiastic about a cause, believe they have the one truth about that cause, and set about implementing it. It’s what makes them such a fickle voting block. No one should rely upon them for their winning margins. They are icing on the electoral cake.
Huzzah!
Jack
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Hopefully, for enough of them, the message will get through: “This guy may have disappointed you in some ways, many of which were not under his control, but are you ready to live in the world the other guy will make even if he doesn’t get to do everything he is promising?”
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Howdy Bob!
The economy is improving and more people are feeling it. The threats to our democracy are getting clearer because Trump won’t shut up and has to double down on everything. As the Biden campaign starts up, he’ll get his message out both positive and negative. But, the youth vote is fickle and has consistently disappointed when relied upon.
That said, it’s time to start working towards voter registration and getting out the vote.
Huzzah!
Jack
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Yes, come election day, turnout is the key.
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