None of the Above: Young Voters, Apathy, and the 2012 Election
Image courtesy of Flickr, thecolumbiachronicle
about the author
Max Antonucci is a NGJ Staff Writer and a Syracuse University freshman, majoring in Newspaper and Online Journalism, and minoring in Information and Technology.
While today’s youthful generation was thrilled to be in President Barack Obama’s corner for his first election, the last four years in office has put a heavy damper on their enthusiasm.
A recent poll showed Obama’s popularity falling among millennials, or citizens ages 18-29, and their support isn’t going to Republican candidate Mitt Romney either. Young voters are simply too frustrated with both candidates to put their full support behind either of them.
For President Obama, it’s because many millennials feel his promised four years of hope and change still have yet to be completely realized. America remains stuck on issues like women’s health, which young voters tend to feel should have been resolved long ago despite heavy partisan arguments. And a major issue of class inequality, one that Obama had promised to solve partly through a stronger tax system on the wealthy, hasn’t become a reality, either.
And for Romney, it’s because the Republican Party’s principles have frequently been against federal student aid and shrinking the income inequality gap. Romney himself has spoken against the Occupy Wall Street movement, which has emerged to try and fix the issue of the enormous wealth gap, as “dangerous” and “class warfare.” This has never done much for young voters, who may be struggling to pay for a college education.
As the election gets closer, Romney has tried to pull together the youth vote for his party by also pushing for decreasing the student loan interest rate like Obama has. He’s also developed a friendly relationship with libertarian Ron Paul, a fellow GOP presidential candidate who has often had the highest percent of the youth vote among his colleagues, to garner more support. But neither tactic has gotten a decisive number of millennials in his corner.
So with young voters not only turning away from the Republican option, but also the Democratic option, many find themselves in a similar situation to those in the recently reignited Occupy Wall Street protests – demanding action for a more equal America, but at a loss for a specific candidate they can turn to for that.
This comes as an especially strong shock to Obama, who in the 2008 presidential election beat his opponent Sen. John McCain with young voters in a 2-1 margin. But the rise of cynicism and frustration about all the partisan deadlock has taken away Obama’s previous edge.
All this apathy comes despite both candidates making strong efforts to get the youth vote back on their side. Obama kicked off his presidential campaign by visiting two colleges, with the promise of getting the student loan interest rate down from 6.8% and back to 3.4% (saving college students roughly $1,000 per year). Romney has promised the same decrease in student loans but has a different plan on how to pay for the $6 billion that the interest rate decrease would cost. Obama has proposed paying for it through eliminating tax breaks on gas and oil companies, while the GOP has offered cuts to a preventative health care fund that mostly benefits women.
The bid for college votes has, like any issue in Washington today, the usual degree of partisan conflict – the exact reason much of today’s youth abandoned both candidates.
With the upcoming 2012 election, it looks like Obama and Romney are facing the same hurdle with millennial voters: frustration over the lack of real progress in the nation. These range from specific areas, like student loan interest rates, to broad issues, like class inequality. Today’s college-age voters don’t believe Obama has, or still can, deliver on his promises of change from the last election. And Romney isn’t doing well, either, since Republican principles of less taxation and regulation have never quite matched up with young voters’ interests.
Moving forward, both candidates will have to find new ways to woo millennials, or else let that swing vote demographic slip through their fingers.
A recent poll showed Obama’s popularity falling among millennials, or citizens ages 18-29, and their support isn’t going to Republican candidate Mitt Romney either. Young voters are simply too frustrated with both candidates to put their full support behind either of them.
For President Obama, it’s because many millennials feel his promised four years of hope and change still have yet to be completely realized. America remains stuck on issues like women’s health, which young voters tend to feel should have been resolved long ago despite heavy partisan arguments. And a major issue of class inequality, one that Obama had promised to solve partly through a stronger tax system on the wealthy, hasn’t become a reality, either.
And for Romney, it’s because the Republican Party’s principles have frequently been against federal student aid and shrinking the income inequality gap. Romney himself has spoken against the Occupy Wall Street movement, which has emerged to try and fix the issue of the enormous wealth gap, as “dangerous” and “class warfare.” This has never done much for young voters, who may be struggling to pay for a college education.
As the election gets closer, Romney has tried to pull together the youth vote for his party by also pushing for decreasing the student loan interest rate like Obama has. He’s also developed a friendly relationship with libertarian Ron Paul, a fellow GOP presidential candidate who has often had the highest percent of the youth vote among his colleagues, to garner more support. But neither tactic has gotten a decisive number of millennials in his corner.
So with young voters not only turning away from the Republican option, but also the Democratic option, many find themselves in a similar situation to those in the recently reignited Occupy Wall Street protests – demanding action for a more equal America, but at a loss for a specific candidate they can turn to for that.
This comes as an especially strong shock to Obama, who in the 2008 presidential election beat his opponent Sen. John McCain with young voters in a 2-1 margin. But the rise of cynicism and frustration about all the partisan deadlock has taken away Obama’s previous edge.
All this apathy comes despite both candidates making strong efforts to get the youth vote back on their side. Obama kicked off his presidential campaign by visiting two colleges, with the promise of getting the student loan interest rate down from 6.8% and back to 3.4% (saving college students roughly $1,000 per year). Romney has promised the same decrease in student loans but has a different plan on how to pay for the $6 billion that the interest rate decrease would cost. Obama has proposed paying for it through eliminating tax breaks on gas and oil companies, while the GOP has offered cuts to a preventative health care fund that mostly benefits women.
The bid for college votes has, like any issue in Washington today, the usual degree of partisan conflict – the exact reason much of today’s youth abandoned both candidates.
With the upcoming 2012 election, it looks like Obama and Romney are facing the same hurdle with millennial voters: frustration over the lack of real progress in the nation. These range from specific areas, like student loan interest rates, to broad issues, like class inequality. Today’s college-age voters don’t believe Obama has, or still can, deliver on his promises of change from the last election. And Romney isn’t doing well, either, since Republican principles of less taxation and regulation have never quite matched up with young voters’ interests.
Moving forward, both candidates will have to find new ways to woo millennials, or else let that swing vote demographic slip through their fingers.
