Too Cool for School

Millennials are abandoning Obama and the Democrats:

A new and massive poll of 2,029 18- to 29-year-olds from Harvard’s Institute of Politics just released found that of those who say they will “definitely be voting,” 51 percent want the GOP in charge, 47 percent favoring Democratic control.

The unexpected anti-Democratic swing prompted a Canadian Broadcasting Corporation reporter quizzing poll experts on a media conference call to IOP blurted out, “How did the Democrats and Obama screw this up?”

All I have to say to the shocked reporter is, “Look around you, dumbass.”

But then I’d return to my normally polite self and thank them graciously for showing their true colors.

There is more to this story however than just a bitter laugh. Democrats’ big gains in the second half of the first decade of the 21st Century came from lopsided strength among single women, blacks, Latinos, and young voters. It does’t take a huge swing from those groups, or even just staying home*, to cause big electoral swings. We’re seeing cracks in three of those four groups (single women seem to be the exception), which is why I still believe the next two cycles are the right time for the GOP to launch a “50 State Strategy” of its own.

You can’t win if you don’t play, and the GOP has fooled itself for too long that it only has to play on its home turf.

* I propose we refer to staying home on election day as “voting with your butt.”