National overview
A wake-up call for conservatives
Can conservatives find any comfort in the idea that children are our future? A new poll conducted by Echelon Insights on behalf of Young America’s Foundation (YAF) does not suggest. With a few exceptions, the data collected by 801 high school students and 819 college students make it clear that the Republican Party still associates with young people, or even convinces them to take the more conservative stand on discrete issues. This, of course, should not be particularly surprising. The youth are always more progressive, more taken by the latest social fads and convinced that they need more help than to be thankful for. After all, it was during Ronald Reagan’s governor of California that he told student protesters that he would sell his bonds if it were the future, as they claimed. Any reasonably conservative political stockbroker who analyzes these numbers should advise their own clients to follow the example of the Gipper. I’m not saying this because I’m particularly surprised or even worried about Joe Biden that he can boast a 60 percent approval rating for this demographic; or the Democratic Party’s favoritism rate + 23 points; or the Republican Party’s relatively depressing performance of 21 points. As discouraging as these topline numbers are, it is to be expected again. The rift between secondary and post-secondary students is much more disturbing. In almost every respect, those who visit university are more progressive than their younger counterparts. The difference in favoritism ratings between the two parties shrinks, for example, from a gap of 44 points to a point of 30 points if you only measure the younger group. However, this means that it expands to a shocking 59 points if you only examine the older group. College students are also much more likely to support defense cuts, believe in the efficiency of green energy spending, and prefer a larger government with more programs than a smaller one with fewer. Both groups prefer a federal minimum wage increase of $ 15 / hour – and with almost identical margins – but collegiate respondents are less likely to change their mind after being notified of the Congressional Budget Office’s estimate that such an increase 1 , 4 million would cost. jobs. It is not surprising that they are significantly less likely to believe that students like themselves have an obligation to repay their loans and are more likely to support a forgiveness program. The one issue that university attendees occupy the more conservative position with is taxation – for those who earn more than $ 400,000, that is, an income group to which they are likely to join more. These results should lead the Conservatives to two disturbing but hopefully motivating conclusions. The first conclusion is obvious: A college education is a non-gold ticket to a worldview that embraces the premises of the Left. This may be a seemingly obvious truth for conservatives, but there are those who deny it. This poll makes it clear that the time spent on campus – governed by progressive administrators, taught by progressive faculty, and most importantly living among progressive peers – tends to make you a much more progressive person. to change. Conservatives are quick to complain about this phenomenon, but it is quite possible that we are underestimating its consequences. Yes, perhaps the left-wing drive of university education can be somewhat mitigated by the recent gains of the IDP with the working class. Will that be enough with a rising high school education that may be slightly more conservative than those enrolled in college, but which is still far more progressive than the average American? Even if we assume that Republicans can compensate their losses in the short term election money, it goes without saying that there are fewer conservatives with university degrees who can enter fields such as education, journalism, government work and political activism. long-term implications on who is elected and how the country is governed. All voters can be equalized, but the pitfalls of under-representation in important – or at least influential – areas of life should be obvious to any conservative survey of contemporary political landscape. Everything in this poll points to a rising class of elite, as well as middle- and working-class voters, who, even out of proportion, are pulling obliquely to the left. The second conclusion, of course, follows from the first: conservatives do not do enough to persuade young people. Part of this can be attributed to a complacency from the belief that foolish young liberals will naturally turn into wise old conservatives. Wrong. Millennials show no sign of becoming more conservative over the Boomers, and there is little evidence that Generation Z will return to the average. There is nothing inevitable about ideological shifts of generation – it must be earned and not reckoned with. I have presented my own vision of what I think conservative students can do to make a difference on their own campuses, but their efforts will not be nearly enough. What is needed is a concerted effort by conservative organizations, publications and politicians to appeal to America’s youth, an effort that goes beyond the slogan and rendering of support to the couple who are already young men and women of the Right. Exactly what such an effort looks like may fall outside the scope of this column, but any successful approach will have to reach out with tangible political efforts. YAF’s “Long Game” Initiative Shows Promise. So does Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis for banning divisive, false racial theories from public schools. Simply addressing the concerns of young people (debt, the environment, etc.) while presenting the conservative perspective on other issues non-confrontationally can only yield positive results. Young people are the future of this country, and conservatives have devoted their time to shaping and changing their worldview.