Recent findings from a Pew Research poll titled “Millennials in Adulthood” should leave conservatives, capitalists and generally anyone embracing smaller government, deeply concerned -- because the America they know today will be much different in the near future. And here’s why.
According to this poll, millennials, now ranging from age 18 to 33-1/2, are unique, in that they are “relatively unattached to organized politics and religion.” The Pew poll also found millennials are “distrustful of people” but still lean heavily Democrat, despite the intellectual dishonesty liberals regularly display.
The poll points out that the racial makeup of millennials “is one of the key factors in explaining their political liberalism.” Millennials are “the most racially diverse generation in American history, with 43 percent non-white,” due to “a trend driven by the large wave of Hispanic and Asian immigrants who have been coming to the U.S. for the past half century, and whose U.S. born children are now aging into adulthood.”
To America’s credit, we are a nation of immigrants, but the problem for conservatives is a majority of non-whites lean left and the trend will continue over time with “about half of newborns” in America today being non-white, and the U.S. Census Bureau predicting whites will be the minority by 2043.
Moreover, the survey found white millennials have moved much further left than white counterparts of older generations in their support of issues like marijuana legalization and same-sex marriage. Millennials also join liberals in their reluctance to be affiliated with any religion. They do, however, lean right regarding abortion and gun control.
Besides religion, this generation has also distanced itself from another core institution of society, marriage, with only 26 percent married as compared to 36 percent of Generation X, 48 percent of Baby Boomers and 65 percent of the WWII Generation - when those generations were the same age.
Sadly, 69 percent said they would like to marry but lack “a solid economic foundation” which they deem a prerequisite. A study, “Intimate Inequalities: Love and Work in a Post Industrial Landscape,” by Harvard University and University of Virginia in 2013 supports this marriage decline. It found the Obama economy has stifled millennials’ ability to marry due to “the decline and disappearance” stable full-time jobs with health insurance and pensions, which has had profound effects on young working-class Americans, now less likely to marry and have children within marriage.
Millennials have soured on Obamacare about as much as they have soured on the president. According to ABC News, millennials comprise “only a quarter of the enrolled, down two points from a month ago,” making them “a crucial missing demographic for the law, which banks on the young and healthy millennial generation to bring down costs.” Previously, the administration’s enrollment goal of 7 million needed a 40 percent millennial participation to make it viable, explaining why President Obama diminished the office of president with an appearance on the internet comedy show “Between Two Ferns” to garner support.
Nanny State Obamanomics has failed the 86-million strong largely educated and debt-burdened millennials who can’t afford to carry the Obamacare burden, let alone get married or even leave home. According to Harvard University, half of the 6 in 10 which are employed -- only work part-time.
GOP beware: Although another Harvard poll found that 52 percent of young millennials and 47 percent of the elders want Obama ousted -- millennials love you less -- thanks to Republican dinosaurs like Mitch McConnell, John McCain, Lindsey Graham, and others -- who pollute the conservative message.
Once the GOP cleans its own house, conservatives stand a better chance to create jobs and give millennials the opportunity they deserve to chase the American Dream capitalism affords.
Susan Stamper Brown is an Alaskan resident who writes about politics, the economy and culture. Email Susan at writestamper@gmail.com or her website at susanstamperbrown.com Be the first to join the conversation at her newly created Facebook page.