Young voters overwhelmingly voted Democrat in last year’s election, and greatly contributed to the GOP’s losses. Aside from alienating them on social issues, the Republicans have failed to deliver a consistent message about the economy that can appeal to America’s youth.
Students I interviewed at Fairfield University in Connecticut echoed a similar message regarding their views on the economy; they have never seen it as weak as it currently is, and it is causing them to worry about their future.
Through my conversations with students, I gathered three primary areas of concern regarding the economy: the availability of jobs, the cost of college and the cost of health care. Corey Dennis, who graduates in 2010, highlighted his fear about graduating and having to look for work in an economy that weakens by the day. “Many of my friends who are graduating in May can’t get companies to hire them. They don’t know what they are going to do for work when they graduate. I’m very concerned about having to enter the job market in a year.”
The cost of college has grown exponentially for years now, and college endowments have not kept pace with the increases. A number of students here at Fairfield and at universities across America will be unable to return for the fall semester because they and their families simply cannot keep up with the rising costs. Republicans need to find a way to address the cost of college in their rhetoric; Obama did (although his plan is to simply throw more federal money at the problem) and it caused voters to believe that McCain didn’t have any solution to this problem.
Young voters also fear the ability to cover health care costs once they are on their own. Many company’s health care plans don’t cover all necessary medical areas, and some have dropped health care coverage entirely. While the Democrats took this issue and ran on it, the Republicans have seemed concerned to talk about the problem and offer limited solutions. A more direct solution is needed, one that deals with the major problems at hand without mushrooming the role of government.
Republicans also need to work on an economic message outside of simply cutting taxes. That message failed, certainly amongst the young, to convince voters that Republicans have a plan to bring our economy back. Mike Sabato, a junior at Fairfield, articulated the way many college voters perceived McCain’s message on the economy. “McCain’s message focused on the reasons why Obama’s plan to increase taxes were wrong, not why his plan was right. When he did talk about his own ideas, it centered on cutting taxes without the explanation of how tax cuts would stimulate the economy.”
This hasn’t changed with the end of the election. Take the fight over the stimulus plan: Republicans are sticking to the same game, proposing to cut taxes for businesses without any explanation of how these tax cuts will end the recession. Obama is claiming that his plan will create 3 million jobs, a figure that is almost certainly wrong, but the Republicans haven’t communicated any message as to how effective their stimulus plan will be.
Since our party has lost so many congressional seats that it will be hard to lose many more, why not take some risks and propose something more daring? Why not target a key enemy of the middle and working class and slash payroll taxes as Republican economist Lawrence Lindsay proposed on the youth dominated “Daily Show” to an arousing applause?
Whatever they propose on the stimulus plan, Republicans need a new message to appeal to young voters concerned about the economy. They need concise plans to create jobs, make college affordable, and enable the private sector to provide healthcare that will be able to cover all working Americans. Young voters are deeply concerned about their future that darkens with every economic report. They want leaders who have the vision to make our economy strong again.
9 responses so far
1 Chekote // Feb 10, 2009 at 11:01 pm
The GOP needs to find new ways to talk about its economic plan. Just saying tax cuts is not good enough for any age group. It needs to talk about boosting private businesses so they will create jobs. Empowering consumers by letting them keep more of what they earn. That’s how you create jobs. On healthcare, the GOP needs to talk about reducing costs through competition, preventing frivolous lawsuits, technology upgrades designed to reduce administrative costs. The GOP needs a language overhaul.
2 esurience // Feb 10, 2009 at 11:27 pm
Does the Republican party possess the knowledge to actually come up with a sensible economic plan? Republicans in Congress are claiming that government spending in the New Deal didn’t work ( http://www.princeton.edu/~pkrugman/depression_gdp.png ), and Michael Steele is claiming the government has never created a single job (???). I don’t view the current Republican party as having any credibility on economic issues anymore.
3 gblittle // Feb 11, 2009 at 6:31 am
Interesting topic, but the youth vote is very problematic and I dont believe will be easily swayed by the Republican party anytime soon (in the long run). Ironically I believe the best hope the Republicans have is Obama. In real terms young voters have nothing to compare to as a basis of history (real life terms). Then we have the college teaching establishment which is left leaning. And finally we have a generation that is spoiled (meaning very few worked to put themselves through college and growing up parents showered them with excess). This alone firmly places them in the Democrat camp of thinking. Why could Obama be the Republicans best hope? Looking at myself going through college I lived during the Carter years. I remember filling up with gas every other day due to rationing, tuition too was going up every year and upon graduation finding a job was not easy. If you wanted to buy anything on credit interest was in the high teens or higher. Not a very nice welcome to the world of going it on your own.
This scenario seems to me as history repeating itself. Now its Obamas turn. The policies he is laying out currently will have a big impact on todays young. The debt they will have to pay for will have to come from taxes they will pay. The entitlements alone will leave them scratching their heads about their future. Someone entering college as a freshman today will more than be met upon graduation with hyperinflation, high taxes and limited job opportunities (unless they plan on using their sheepskin on some infrastructure project). Also as a society we need to reevaluate who goes to college. When in some institutions nearly 50 percent cannot read at a college level maybe a trade school would have been a better option. But of course everyone needs a 4 year college degree we are told. As conservatives we do have good ideas but unfortunately we have has terrible messengers as long as I can remember. The Democrats have had the best talkers but in reality that all it is. Until reality hits these potential young voters in the middle of the forehead (real life) dont plan on swaying the youth vote anytime soon. To win the hearts and mind of young votes will require planting seeds of thought about their long term future. Do they want to keep their money? Are they the best to spend it or the government? Do they want to invest for their retirement or rely on the government? Do they want their kids, yes their kids, paying for the financial missteps the government is currently making?
4 gblittle // Feb 11, 2009 at 6:42 am
esurience, What point are you attempting to make with that chart?
5 Paulie Carbone // Feb 11, 2009 at 9:52 am
I think a large part of this problem is that Republicans still can’t get over Ronald Reagan. The ominous warnings about “big government,” the obsessive focus on tax cuts, all this is straight out of the Reagan playbook. It worked in 1980, but young voters today weren’t even born then.
6 ZacMorgan // Feb 11, 2009 at 12:00 pm
Hear hear on the payroll tax slash. How many young workers have looked at their first paycheck and wondered who thel FICA was?
7 sinz54 // Feb 11, 2009 at 3:44 pm
Today’s GOP needs to explain their policies in pragmatic results-oriented terms, not as ideological ends in themselves. Obama is able to assert (incorrectly, I believe) “Our stimulus package will create *3 million* jobs”. Republicans haven’t phrased their proposals in such pragmatic results-oriented terms. (How many jobs do Republicans claim they could have created, had McCain won the election?) Instead, Republicans tend to phrase their proposals in ideological terms: Expand the private sector, shrink the size of government, etc. What the average American voter wants to hear is: What does all that do for me? Will it make it easier for me to get a job, to save a dime, to get health insurance, etc.? This preference for ideology over pragmatism reached its climax with the debate over the TARP last summer, when some free-market conservatives were suggesting seriously that in order to preserve the free market, it might be better to just let the U.S. economy collapse, after which these free-market conservatives would show how to rebuild the shattered economy. If this sounds to you like the plot of “Atlas Shrugged,” you’re right; I was hearing that novel cited excitedly by some of these free-market conservatives.
8 dendup // Feb 11, 2009 at 4:15 pm
If the topic here is young people, one of the legacies of the Bush years is a reduction in college tuition assistance. On top of that, the current financial situation makes getting a loan harder for everyone. We may see a significant number of college students needing to drop out because they can’t get loans. If Republicans want to develop young people as the GOP voters and future high income donors, they need to propose solutions to this problem.
9 Bulldoglover100 // Feb 11, 2009 at 9:13 pm
The GOP needs to set up a tuition assistance hot line at each college in this country and really help these kids get an education. So many do not know where to turn for help and the coucilors are not much help. IF we help them in the door? they will support us when they walk out after 4 years.
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