Mr. President, you suck. That’s not conservative America speaking; it’s young Americans. A new study from Harvard University’s Institute of Politics (IOP) shows that Americans under the age of 25 would vote to “recall the president,” according to National Journal’s Ron Fournier.
Fournier added:
The survey, part of a unique 13-year study of the attitudes of young adults, finds that America’s rising generation is worried about its future, disillusioned with the U.S. political system, strongly opposed to the government’s domestic surveillance apparatus, and drifting away from both major parties. It blows a gaping hole in the belief among many Democrats that Obama’s two elections signaled a durable grip on the youth vote.
Indeed, millennials are not so hot on their president.
Obama’s approval rating among young Americans is just 41 percent, down 11 points from a year ago, and now tracking with all adults. While 55 percent said they voted for Obama in 2012, only 46 percent said they would do so again.
When asked if they would want to recall various elected officials, 45 percent of millennials said they would oust their member of Congress; 52 percent replied “all members of Congress” should go; and 47 percent said they would recall Obama. The recall-Obama figure was even higher among the youngest millennials, ages 18 to 24, at 52 percent.
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IOP director Trey Grayson called the results a “sea change” attributable to the generation’s outsized and unmet expectations for Obama, as well as their concerns about the economy, Obamacare and government surveillance.
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Concerning Obamacare, it doesn’t get much better.
The survey of 2,089 young adults, conducted Oct. 30 through Nov. 11, spells trouble for the Affordable Care Act. The fragile economics underpinning the law hinge on the willingness of healthy, young Americans to forgo penalties and buy health insurance.
According to the poll, 57 percent of millennials disapprove of Obamacare, with 40 percent saying it will worsen their quality of care and a majority believing it will drive up costs. Only 18 percent say Obamacare will improve their care. Among 18-to-29-year-olds currently without health insurance, less than one-third say they’re likely to enroll in the Obamacare exchanges.
But what about the voter advantage Democrats say they’ll have with younger Americans? In August of 2011, Ruy Teixeira of the Center for American Progress and Michael Barone of the American Enterprise Institute discussed the politics of demography.
Teixeria has written extensively on the “emerging Democratic majority,” but support for Democrats amongst young Americans is slipping.
Democrats’ advantage among young voters is fading. Among the oldest millennials (ages 25 to 29), Democrats hold a 16-point lead over the GOP: 38 percent say they’re Democrats, and 22 percent call themselves Republicans. Among the youngest of this rising generation (ages 18 to 24), the gap is just 6 points, 31 percent for Democrats and 25 percent for Republicans.
Granted, the vast majority of Millennials identify as politically independent, but Obama lost a huge part of his base that is starting to say “no thanks” to his agenda. The real question is will Obama’s incompetence stain American progressivism with this voting bloc during future elections? I’m still skeptical, but it’s refreshing to see that the Millennial generation is starting to realize that Obama is a mile wide and an inch deep on policy and governance.
H/T National Journal