Don't Blame The Defeat Of The Ossified Beltway Democrats On Young Voters Not Showing Up

Mostly old and in the way

Yesterday NBC News and the Wall Street Journal released a poll, from which the sclerotic Beltway Democrats, who are utterly steeped in denial about their own national rejection, will take solace. These are the 5 top priorities respondents gave the pollsters:

• 82% support Congress providing access to lower the costs of student loans;
• 75% support increasing spending on infrastructure, roads and highways;
• 65% support Congress raising the minimum wage;
• 60% support approving emergency funding to deal with Ebola in West Africa;
• 59% support addressing climate change by limiting carbon emissions

These are all Democratic Party initiatives being pushed aggressively by progressives like Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Raul Grijalva (D-AZ), Keith Ellison (D-MN) and Alan Grayson (D-FL). Conversely most of the conservative ideas that the Koch brothers have been pushing through their puppet politicians like Paul Ryan (R-WI), John Boehner (R-OH) and Mitch McConnell (R-KY) did not find majority support:

• 34% support gradually raising Social Security's retirement age to 69
• 41% support cutting federal funding for the Affordable Care Act
• 44% support TPP/NAFTA-like trade agreements with Asian countries
• 44% support reducing Medicare and Social Security benefits for wealthier retirees
• 49% support authorizing the use of U.S. troops to fight ISIS in Iraq and Syria

The only Republican Party position with actual majority support is for building the Keystone XL pipeline (54%)-- something that seems to be at odds with the even greater support to address climate change by limiting carbon emissions.

Nancy Pelosi replaced her failed Blue Dog head of the DCCC, Steve Israel, with someone, Ben Ray Lujan, who was once part of the Congressional Progressive Caucus and who can't help but be an improvement over Israel. But Israel was given a leadership position-- in messaging no less, his biggest single failure-- and Lujan has already announced he's not changing anything at the dysfunctional, corrupt and utterly incompetent DCCC. The Beltway Democrats, lead by a pathetically geriatric cadre of over-the-hill politicians, would rather blame the voters than look inward. That's not going to do anyone any good... except the Republicans.

Andy Bernstein of HeadCount and Ashley Spillane of Rock the Vote, dispute the narrative being pushed by hacks like DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz, eager only to deflect blame from herself, that it was the fault of young people not showing up at the polls. Even beyond what it would take to ask oneself why young people were discouraged from voting, the whole premise isn't even based in fact.

A week after the midterm election, you can hardly pick up a newspaper or turn on the TV without seeing a headline about disappointing turnout among Millennials this election cycle. We’d like to take this opportunity to say to all the Millennials out there-- and to their critics-- shake it off and take another look at the data.

In a horrendous political climate that left the majority of voters in the country opting out of this election, young voters didn’t succumb to this trend. According to data published by CIRCLE, Millennials comprised 13 percent of voters this year, up 2 percent from 2010, when youth voters counted for 11 percent of the electorate. They cast 9.9 million votes, up from 9 million four years before-- a modest increase of 0.6 percent.

Meanwhile, overall turnout was down to its lowest levels since WWII.

We aren’t declaring victory. When barely one-in-four young people voted in this year’s election, we know there is so much more work to do. But the bottom line is: young people are actually bucking the national trend.

They turned out in spite of growing up in an era of complete dysfunction in Washington, when approval ratings for Congress and party affiliations are at an all-time low. They turned out despite the lack of attention being paid to the issues they care most about. They turned out despite of the challenges erected to their participation through new voting laws all over the country.

Over the past two years alone, 10 states have passed restrictive voting laws purposefully intended to limit young people’s ability to register to vote and cast their ballots. This in spite of evidence that states with a photo voter ID law saw, on average, a 4.4 percent lower turnout than those that did not.

In North Carolina, early voting was curtailed and same-day registration was eliminated. In Arizona and Kansas, efforts included requiring voters to provide proof of citizenship upon registering. In Tennessee, college professors could use their university IDs to vote, but students were barred from doing the same. And perhaps most absurdly: voters in Texas could use a gun license to vote, but not a student ID.

...As a part of our coalition with civic engagement organizations, tech companies, and cultural leaders, our organizations registered nearly 700,000 voters this year-- critical considering that 12,000 young people turn 18 each day.

The increase in youth voter turnout in 2014 sends a powerful message that many seem to be missing: even with so much working against them, Millennials are on the precipice of becoming the most influential voting bloc in the United States. This is the country’s largest and most diverse generation-- over 90 million strong, with more than 43% identifying as non-white. Close to 90% say they gave to charity last year and close to 50% volunteer for causes they believe in.

Young people are the future, and this generation in particular wields incredible influence. Politicians and pundits should sit up and take notice; after all, Election Day 2016 is only 728 days away.