Showing posts with label Millennials. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Millennials. Show all posts

Friday, January 22, 2016

Millennials rule and they are for Bernie Sanders




There are 71 million Millennials and 41% of them support Bernie Sanders and stand 50/50 on going to the polls in November. That's almost 30 million voters tops, 15 million minimum going in the gate. Sanders opponent, Hillary Clinton, is losing voters under age fifty, trailing his 41% at 35%. But it would seem that the enthusiasm we have seen during Bernie's rallies is likely to bring out the majority of his supporters to the voting booth.

Clinton "has lost significant support among Democratic women, with her lead over Sanders shrinking from 45 points to 19 points in that group. Her support went from 64%-19% last month to 54%-35% now." With approximately 52% of the American electorate female, that puts another significant group in Bernie Sander's corner. As an example, there are 688,450 Millennials in Iowa of which almost 49% are women. The question is, how many of these are evangelical?

Of course Sanders can't depend on just these demographics to win the primary. And if he doesn't win, the hardcore Democrats are fearful Bernie's supporters won't come over to Hillary's side. After all he did call for a political Revolution and that does mean a fight against the Washington establishment, and Clinton does represent that faction. Considering the fact that the Bern did bring all these young voters out of the shadows, the Dems certainly can't afford to lose them.

The only answer is to nominate Bernie Sanders as the Democrat's candidate and elect him to the presidency in November.

Thursday, January 21, 2016

Sen. Claire McCaskill is nuts


Sen. Claire McCaskill

It's not enough that Hillary Clinton is disparaging her opponent, Bernie Sanders, but now the Democratic establishment is organizing to defeat the Bern. Sen. Claire McCaskill said, “I think it would be absolutely impossible for a self-declared socialist to win states like Missouri,” adding Indiana, Ohio, and Pennsylvania to the lot.But a 2010 Gallup poll reported that 36% of Americans had a favorable view of Socialism and that has improved measurably over the years.

 And just 9 percent of a select group of Millennial voters say Sanders' description of himself as a Democratic Socialist makes them less likely to support him. YouGov says that 36% of Millennials as a whole have a positive view of Socialism. In October 2014, a Rasmussen poll found that the Democratic Party views Socialism on a 50-50 basis with Capitalism. All of which makes McCaskill's "absolutely impossible" statement both dumb and ludicrous. But if the Dems do decide to mount an all out campaign against Bernie Sanders it will just piss off his supporters even more.

The Senator from Vermont seems to be ahead in both Iowa and New Hampshire, and that does not register well with the party's die-hards. Sanders committed a mortal sin by becoming an Independent to begin with. Then came the next egregious offense, at least as far as Debbie Wassermen Schultz was concerned, by daring to run in the Democratic Primary to oppose her favorite, Hillary Clinton. In other words, the Bern upset the establishment and that is what he is all about.  

Thursday, December 22, 2011

RELIGION: Evangelical youth tire of being told how to live…leave church

The religious conservative right has long been a thorn in the side of Democrats and progressives in general.  Mixing religion with politics has been considered much too acceptable for far too long and now young evangelicals are turning the tide in both church attendance and their voting habits, and, in compelling numbers.  It’s the 18-to-29-year-old age group producing a 43 percent drop in their participation in Christian church services.

They’re telling parents “Don’t tell me what to do,” saying they will live with their partner before marriage if they want to, and that means gay or straight.  And abortion is an option they want on the table if they decide to end a pregnancy.  In other words, mom and dad, we can think for ourselves and do not necessarily agree with your fundamentalist beliefs.  These young people maintain their Christian frame of mind but many have decided not to attend a church at all.

What is frightening is the fact that some say that based on politics as usual today, they may just not vote at all.  That is a dangerous precedent, one that is not prevalent only in their age group, but rather widespread among all ages due to congressional dysfunction going on in Washington.  76 percent of all voters say that most members of Congress should be dumped from office in 2012, the highest percentage ever says Gallup in asking the question over 19 years.

Laura Stepp
The whole thing is reminiscent of members leaving the Catholic Church for years because of the stringent discipline that allows them little leeway in making their life’s decisions.  My Catholic friends have told me repeatedly that the church is so demanding that it is impossible to think for yourself and be a loyal follower.  So, they leave.  And now it has reached the evangelical community and these millennials have decided they aren’t taking it anymore.

Here are some hot spots for this group in a CNN report by Laura Sessions Stepp:

·       70% are OK with unmarried sex and engage as much as non-Christians
·       Most women in their early 20s give birth unmarried
·       60% want abortion legal
·       60% support same-sex marriages

According to the Christian Science Monitor, millennials say the wealthy and corporations have too much power and should be taxed more.  Two-thirds want more regulation for financial institutions.  Stepp says this is beginning to sound a lot like Democratic ideology, but I say it is simply a new progressive tone from the young people who are sick and tired of the radical conservative dogma that has brought this country to its knees over the past few years.



It is apparent that the GOP is losing these young evangelicals in significant numbers, but that could also apply to the left if it isn’t careful.  It will take a definite improvement in the jobs situation to get this group’s attention.  And since elections in the past have been decided by the 40+ crowd, much of the emphasis of the President and fellow Democrats seems to have ignored these young people.  Obama received 33 percent of the young white evangelical vote in 2008, and he can’t win without it and other millennials in 2012.

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