The GOP’s youth-vote disaster: Donald Trump’s nomination could hurt Republicans for years to come

[DonViejo]

Republicans were already at risk of sacrificing a whole generation of younger voters, and then they nominated Trump

SIMON MALOY

There’s really quite little in the world of political polling that shouldn’t scare the hell out of Republicans right now. Their presidential candidate, Donald Trump, celebrated his first two weeks of official nominee-dom with an extended and baffling implosion that drove down his numbers nationally, in battleground states and even in some states that a Republican shouldn’t have too much difficulty carrying. As of this writing, he’s hovering around 40 percent in the national polling averages. The recent state-level polling shows Hillary Clinton is eating Trump’s lunch in New Hampshire, Pennsylvania and Florida. And Trump’s struggling in reliably red states like Georgia and Arizona. Pretty much everywhere you look, it’s ugly.

But there’s one polling trend in particular that should have Republicans feeling frigid stilettos of panic pricking their necks: Young voters absolutely loathe the uniquely toxic Republican nominee.

Attracting the young ‘uns has been a problem of mounting significance for Republican presidential candidates for some time now. Back in 2004, a comparatively high 45 percent of 18-29 year olds voted to reelect George W. Bush. Four years later, John McCain took home a measly 32 percent of those votes. Mitt Romney performed slightly better among younger voters in 2012, but he still got blown out by Barack Obama in that age cohort.

Newly christened Republican nominee Donald Trump, however, is comically underperforming even McCain’s awful showing. The most recent McClatchy-Marist poll shows Trump running fourth among 18-29 year olds – behind both Green Party nominee Jill Stein and libertarian candidate Gary Johnson – with a miserable 9 percent. Fox News’ latest poll puts Trump’s support among voters under 35 at 23 percent, just ahead of Johnson. He’s at 15 percent with voters under 30 in the latest Economist/YouGov poll. That’s obviously bad news for Trump’s chances in November, but the longer term implications of having a presidential nominee who so effectively repels younger voters could be a big problem for the GOP.

-snip-

http://www.salon.com/2016/08/08/the-gops-youth-vote-disaster-donald-trumps-nomination-could-hurt-republicans-for-years-to-come/

[Gothmog]

1. Trump may kill the GOP for young voters

[Hortensis]

2. A mitzvah if so. It had already become something no

responsible, decent American should support.

I suspect young voters are not yet as indoctrinated in the ideology of dysfunctions of government/evils of Democrats as their parents have become, even after growing up with them. Perhaps this eye-opener of an election, for even those who don't pay attention, may provide an important generational break in the passing on of wisdom.

[VulgarPoet]

3. Couple that with the growing trend of youth becoming more socially aware

and you've got yourself a silver bullet to end the GOP, if this is the case.

[Hortensis]

4. Yes. The internet has to be an enormous game-changer.

You remind me that almost every time I think back to when I was a young adult I realize the comparatively tremendous lack of ready information about virtually everything under the sun.

I didn't drive to the library 20 times a day to find the answer to a question or read up on something. I didn't quickly check or read further on what I heard on TV. We did start the day with the LA Times, and got Newsweek weekly, but I closed them feeling I qualified as a reasonably well informed person, not like today when I close an on-line paper with dozens of links to wider and deeper information I'll never read.

Reality is really, really different for today's young adults.

[BigDemVoter]

5. Good for young voters.

I am proud of them. MY generation voted for Ronald Reagan when WE were young (I didn't!), and I'm so pleased to see a generation of young people with some fucking sense for once instead of voting for another bill of goods.