• TheFonz@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    For the last five decades, younger people have been trending left:

    Statista

    Edit: Just that most recent bar (gen z) should solidify this point. Despite a predominant portion being represented by Gen Z, we still only ave a slim majority in the House (and minority) in the senate. How do you explain that if your point is that left leaning people show up to vote?

    • Cowbee [he/him]@lemmy.ml
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      8 months ago

      Young people swing liberal, or even left. That doesn’t mean the left is majority youth, or that leftism is what is tied to not voting, as opposed to youth.

      I genuinely don’t understand why this is a difficult logical hurdle for you to overcome.

      • TheFonz@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        Maybe I should be more precise in my language. I’m starting to realize that my rhetoric is a bit too general for social media and I’m painting with broad brush strokes to favor brevity (and I’m also tired). I never intended to say the left is predominantly youth, but rather that most youth skew left. If the youth showed up to vote, we wouldn’t have a slim majority in the house thus making any legislative progress almost impossible because of moderate democrats like J. Manchin — who are clearly representing their electorate— blocking any progressive bill. This topic is really well studied, I’m not sure why we’re even arguing.

        Eligible Outsider Left were 9 percentage points less likely to vote in the 2020 presidential election than the average adult citizen and 11 points less likely to vote than the average Democrat or Democratic-leaning citizen. Only about two-in-ten (21%) say they follow what’s going on in government and politics most of the time.

        From: Pew Research

        • Cowbee [he/him]@lemmy.ml
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          8 months ago

          Sure. I agree with that. That’s not what you were originally saying, but if you’re retracting the initial and inserting this statement, we agree.

          • TheFonz@lemmy.world
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            8 months ago

            I think I can sort of meet you half way. I don’t think the numbers detract a whole lot from my original point. Sure, many lefties vote, but if a significant portion of the Democratic electorate does not participate, that’s already incapacitating it to a degree. Imagine what we could accomplish if we had supermajority in both houses and didn’t have to cater to moderate Dems like Sinema or Manchin? Imagine if we could primary actual progressive candidates and young people showed up to the ballot. Instead we are left with an insular slim majority in only one of the houses.