The College Republican National Committee commissioned a report to try to understand how the party stands with voters under thirty. What they discovered was that their policies are almost universally rejected by young voters. Typical terms used to describe the GOP were: “closed-minded, racist, rigid, old-fashioned.” Only three percent of young voters thought taxes should be reduced on the rich, while 54% thought taxes for the rich should go up. After perusing the results of several polls and focus groups, the CRNC implored the national party to moderate their position on gay marriage, to stop attacking Planned Parenthood and contraception, to police the rape-defenders and anti-abortion extremists, to develop a completely different economic message, and to recognize “the difference between legal and illegal immigrants and to also differentiate illegal immigrants from the children of illegal immigrants.”
Young voters felt that the GOP’s economic policies only benefit the wealthy.
“Policies that lower taxes and regulations on small businesses are quite popular. Yet our focus on taxation and business issues has left many young voters thinking they will only reap the benefits of Republican policies if they become wealthy or rise to the top of a big business,” the report says. “We’ve become the party that will pat you on your back when you make it but won’t offer you a hand to help you get there.”
And they didn’t share the party’s position on defense spending.
On issues ranging from gay marriage to foreign policy, the report acknowledged ongoing debates within the party. The generation that grew up with a decade of war in Iraq and Afghanistan appears less interested in defense spending and less concerned about terrorism than older leaders of the GOP, with only 17 percent of respondents from one survey calling keeping citizens safe from terrorism one of their top priorities for elected officials, and many opposing an expanded military.
“Focus group participants consistently characterized Republicans as the party that was strong on defense, but did not always mean that as a positive; the key for the party is to merge that attribute with fiscal responsibility, rather than allowing the two to stand in conflict,” the report said.
While they try to put a brave face on it, highlighting a few areas where Republican policies resonate, the overall impression is that young voters think the Republicans are wrong about almost everything.
There is still a left/right divide among young voters, but that dividing line is very far to the left of where it resides in Congress. Part of this is explained by the general skew we get from gerrymandering and the anti-Democratic Senate and campaign finance rules that let finance dominate our politics. But part of it tells a story about the near-future. Conservatism is a zombie ideology. It’s still walking, but it’s dead.
