Unshackling the Young
I’ve been pondering the problem of how the Republicans might attract more young voters this year. Everyone knows by now that the young have cooled on Barack Obama since the 2008 election, as well they might. Unemployment and looming debts are an unhappy combination, especially if you happen to be young. Even so, the Millennials are not yet flocking to the GOP. Conservatives are still searching for a message that will truly bring the newest generation of voters out of its progressivist funk.
For conservatives, appealing to young voters is always hard. Though not necessarily unintelligent, they tend to be simpletons. They crave ideological clarity, and are too inexperienced to appreciate that many conservative arguments are complex and nuanced precisely because the world is complex and nuanced. They shy away from hard truths. On top of that, Millennials have been thoroughly habituated to trust in institutions. It is counterintuitive for them to consider that, in a crisis, more government is not always the answer.
So, it’s a hard problem. Nevertheless, I think I may have come up with the right slogan for the 2012 election: “You shouldn’t have to pay for your parents’ mistakes.” This message simultaneously promotes the Republican party’s agenda and reminds us of Obama’s failures. It has the kind of easy-to-find moralistic bottom line that young people like. And really, is it ever that hard to persuade the young that their parents are screw-ups?
Of course, like all slogans, this one is deceptive in some ways. The reality is that we do all have to pay for our forbears’ mistakes to one degree or another, even as we enjoy the fruits of their triumphs. Still, I don’t think this message is too irresponsible as such things go. Let the Republicans portray themselves as liberators, balancing budgets and lifting regulations as a means to unshackling the young from the burdens of the past. Emphasize that we trust them to use these freedoms to build a better future. Of course, they may not actually succeed in doing so. But the fact is that when we tell our children that “they are the future”, this is not really starry-eyed optimism. It’s a truth hard enough for any conservative.
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May '10
Re: Unshackling the Young
We are a generation crippled by student loan debt. As the issue grows, we continue to see delayed family formation and reduced home ownership. I don't know the answer, but if we free market conservatives can formulate a way to help young adults overcome this burden, we can win a new generation of conservatives. Unfortunately, this answer will have to be clearer than just "vote for us and we promise the economy will employ you out of this debt."
Edited on May 2, 2012 at 2:39amMar '11
Re: Unshackling the Young
If the GOP abandons social issues, then there wont BE a GOP for long after that. It'll return to the dust of the Whigs from whence it came. Because conservatives will go elsewhere.
As for the "youth vote"... kids have always been naive and utopian. You tell them the truth, and as they grow up, the honest ones will remember. The others will keep voting for utopia regardless. Changing your party platform does nothing but surrender to the other side.
Nov '10
Re: Unshackling the Young
Rachel Lu:
2) The inclusion of young people makes a party feel energetic and hopeful. In that respect, they count for more than just numbers. · 5 hours ago
My husband is always talking about this: how the "young people" were out in force for Reagan and how encouraging it was to watch the young Reagan enthusiasts. I totally agree that it would be a joy to see that come back.
However, my favorite young people are the ones who go to my church, and they are all theological and social issues conservatives but economic liberals. They have bought into the idea that liberalism is best for the poor and that Christianity requires us to vote for what is best for the poor. I am not sure an appeal to their self interest is at all likely to carry any of them; in fact many of them would recoil from such an appeal.
Nov '10
Re: Unshackling the Young
Ann Coulter said that in her most recent book: liberalism is full of slogans: Hope and Change, for example. She uses it to point out that conservatives are more complicated and nuanced, and that our thoughts are more intelligent. But the reality is, we really ought to be able to come up with slogans, catch phrases, bumper-sticker arguments, and the like. That stuff appeals to people.
Nov '11
Re: Unshackling the Young
Call his fans whatever names you want, but less than a month ago he drew a crowd of 7,000 to UCLA to visit to listen to a lecture about Austrian economics.
Apr '12
Re: Unshackling the Young
David, I have nothing against scientists so long as they stick to science. Or, if they want to discourse on something else, at least read a few books about it! The trouble is that people who do well in the sciences command a high level of respect in our society, which makes them think they are qualified to discourse on everything. Why read any books on philosophy (my field)? Surely Plato never said anything that I, Richard Dawkins, cannot intuit in five minutes' reflection. I mean, that loser never even took a physics class!
These are the sorts of attitudes that occasionally cause scientists to embarrass themselves. But truly, I do have many good friends in the sciences. It's a friendly rivalry, most of the time.
Apr '12
Re: Unshackling the Young
Unfortunately I don't think messaging will change the youth vote in 2012. Obama speaks to the Jon Stewart generation...although I loathe it, the espn NCAA brackets, being interviewed by jimmy kimmel, all of that is appealing. The best chance at recapturing the youth vote is 2016 if Romney wins and if he can turn things around. Competence will win them over.
Oct '10
Re: Unshackling the Young
That obama "kill bid laden" ad would have even been more effective against THAT guy.
Mar '12
Re: Unshackling the Young
As slogans go, Rachel's is as good as any I can come up with. (My thoughts run more along the lines of hitting them directly in the false consciousness: What's Wrong with the Millennials? at the end of an ad featuring Greedy Geezers chuckling evilly as their idealistic kid goes off to vote for Obama).
Seriously, though, I suspect the Democrats have understood for 30 years that status anxiety is the key concern of unmarried 20 and 30 somethings (particularly women). SNL, Letterman, Maher and Stewart have drilled into their brains that Democrats are cool, Republicans are not. (I remember seeing the bumper sticker "Friends Don't Let Friends Vote Republican" in the early 90s.) For the recently college-educated, residents of predominantly Blue States, and African-Americans, the social problem presented by voting Republican is probably more significant than any clever slogan or rational appeal to economic self-interest is able to overcome. The savaging of Sarah Palin is a brutal reminder of the social consequences that await those who stray from the path of Democrat righteousness.
Jan '12
Re: Unshackling the Young
Bah, the vast majority of young consider only immediate gratification. Thus they readily fall prey to the lotus-peddlers, and they never ask how they shall pay for their pleasure.
The minority who know well enough that something must abide beyond momentary excitement fall prey to another drug, the nebulous idealism that transfers family-feeling to the all-beneficent "parenting" of a socialistic nanny-state.
The hard truth of adulthood, that free men and women both look to and contribute toward the state only for the common defense and for the provision of what is without partiality proper and necessary for the general welfare, that they rely upon their own labor for the obtaining of what they desire, and that they take personal responsibility for personal failings; these reflections never even occur to that sorry syzygy, puer and puella, who suckle at the great pap and resent any interruption.
Oh, the situation could be different--but only under a much more sober regime of education than exists in our unhappy land today.
Edited on May 2, 2012 at 8:05amDec '10
Re: Unshackling the Young
Lucy Pevensie
However, my favorite young people are the ones who go to my church, and they are all theological and social issues conservatives but economic liberals. They have bought into the idea that liberalism is best for the poor and that Christianity requires us to vote for what is best for the poor.
This is exactly right. This is also why we should stop pretending that value-voters are ipso facto conservative. They are not. As any trip to a Black congregation throughout the country will show you.
This make it all the more notable that a candidate who is a pro-life Constitutional conservative has excited the passions of many young people despite being uniquely uncharismatic.
For for those who wish that wing of the party would stop threatening to leave the GOP, and instead work from the inside: Don't worry. You're getting your wish. I am one of those people, in fact:
http://www.ronpaul2012.com/2012/04/30/last-man-standing/
But every time we win fair and square, the establishment pitches a fit, and frequently tries to change the rules. Is it any wonder we tire of continuing to play by their terms?
May '12
Re: Unshackling the Young
"Though not necessarily unintelligent, they tend to be simpletons. They crave ideological clarity, and are too inexperienced to appreciate that many conservative arguments are complex and nuanced precisely because the world is complex and nuanced."
I don't think conservative arguments are inherently complex. Just the opposite, I think students have been exposed mostly to clap trap in college and haven't seen good ideas or good writing to know the difference.
Apr '12
Re: Unshackling the Young
Maybe "complex" isn't the right word. But I think conservatives are attentive to aspects of reality that liberals just miss. Maybe the right thing to say is that liberals, like the young, have not fully internalized the "reality principle"; that is, they don't quite realize yet that the world does not simply conform to our wishes. Human nature is not infinitely malleable, and aspects of the conservative worldview that seem random/antiquated/prejudiced to the young turn out, as they get older, to be mere reality.
Jul '11
Re: Unshackling the Young
I don't like Rachel's slogan - precisely because she claims that young people are looking for simpler, more idealistic ideas. "Us vs. Them" - i.e. divisiveness against parents is a lousy idea.
Having said that, we do need to acknowledge that of all the Republicans, only Ron Paul has a bigger youth following than most. The reason is the simplicity and constancy of his message. "End the Fed" is not divisive, and conveys a clear idea.
The other issue is the ability of the left to get the young voters on empathy. A better choice would be to appeal to empathy of young voters, from a conservative point of view. Regan's "I am from the government, and I am here to help" appealed to the youth. Reason's Free Minds, Free People is an appealing slogan.
The complexity argument is a cop-out. Einstein said that if you cannot explain your ideas to your grandmother, then perhaps you are not the expert you think you are...
How about:
Reality over Hope
Free Enterprise, not free handout
Freedom to Work, freedom to play, freedom to pray
End the Nanny State
Jul '11
Re: Unshackling the Young
"Rise Up, not Take Down"
"Citizenship today for Liberty tomorrow" (Ben F.)
"Jobs - no shovels, no debt"
"Don't let the Politicians Waste your Future"
"Jobs, not handouts"
"Unlock the American Exceptionalism"
"The Right thing for our future"
"You don't need a Nanny"
"Be Responsible, Be Right!"
Jul '11
Re: Unshackling the Young
How about a "Most interesting Man in the world" style ad?
Who's OK with you using cell phones while driving?
Who thinks it's cool to carry weapons?
Who's OK with you smoking?
Who's idea of fun is to kill, skin, and eat a deer?
Who thinks Banks should bail themselves out?
Who thinks babies should be protected and terrorists tortured?
It's the Most Interesting Party in the Nation - The Republicans!
Apr '12
Re: Unshackling the Young
One of the big things people my age tend to miss is the old saw about anything with the power to give you what you want can take it away.
I don't know a word better than "complex" either-- is there a word for a concept that isn't all that hard to explain, just to understand for some probably world-view reason?
Mar '12
Re: Unshackling the Young
I have not read all of the comments, so perhaps someone else has made this somewhat peripheral point.
The difficulty in attracting young people to conservatism is that having a conservative point of view requires some previous education and thoughtfulness. As a teacher of young people, I can tell you that more often than not, they are not thinkers but feelers, thus the tendency toward liberalism.
We're all familiar with Churchill's comment about being a liberal when young and a conservative when older, and there is much truth in this. So appealing to the young to try to get their votes means asking them to go against their natural tendencies.
As someone noted above, conservative children tend to come from conservative parents, so the twig has been bent, so to speak.
An appeal such as Rachel suggests walks the line between reason (conservatism) and feelings (liberalism), so it could be valuable. But it would need to be very quickly followed up by some further education about the long-term benefits resulting from the kinds of sacrifices we are facing, else they will quickly become disenchanted with the whole discussion and stay home.
Apr '12
Re: Unshackling the Young
choirmurph-
in before the rush-- No, there's no record of Churchill saying that in a speech, and the notion is much older and the quote seems to be a corruption of one from a French guy, but it's totally possible that he did say it and the notion has a lot of merit while being more concise than I'll ever be.
I don't think anybody's pointed out the thinking/feeling aspect yet, no. Most of the liberals I know are perfectly intelligent folks-- sometimes highly intelligent-- just some things they refuse to think about. Santorum's line about Obama being a snob for saying everyone should go to college ended with a guy I know is very bright insisting that it was on the same level as universal literacy.