Why aren’t So Young Americans Disturbed? The Case of Donald J. Biden and Cornel West in a 2020 Presidential Matchup
Young people are turning to social media and seeing the noted conspiracy theorist Mr. Kennedy railing against the elites and rallying “millennials and Gen Z” who have never felt at home in the two-party system and “are repelled by the toxicity, the pettiness and, more than anything else, by the dishonesty” of politics today. They are seeing that Mr. West wants equal status and dignity for Palestinians and Israelis. I have been talking to some of the young, independent-minded voters in the battleground state who are sticking with the messages.
There is no margin for error for Mr. Biden and his team. He beat Mr. Trump by less than 1 percent of the vote in Georgia, Arizona and Wisconsin in 2020 and less than 3 percent in Pennsylvania, Michigan and Nevada, in a campaign with no meaningful third-party competition. Mr. Biden is in a close race with Mr. Trump in early polls. For young Americans, even if they don’t vote, they’ll still consider Mr. Biden to be in good faith because he supports the values of freedom, justice and human rights.
Most, if not all, of these progressive voters still won’t embrace Mr. Trump, to be sure. But if they swing from being ardent Biden voters in 2020 to being skeptical, frustrated or forlorn voters in 2024, it’s the president who will pay the bigger price, even if his standing improves among some centrists and Jewish voters.
The backdrop of the presidential campaign in 2024 has all of this unfolding in it. Many young voters are already actively entertaining the alternative, independent candidacies of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Cornel West. According to a new Quinnipiac University poll last week, upwards of 40 percent of registered voters under 35 indicate they are supporting Mr. Kennedy and his anti-establishment message or Mr. West, the public intellectual and author, in a hypothetical matchup against Mr. Biden and Mr. Trump.
These opinions must be placed into the context of this unique American moment. The modern trickle-down effect theory is preached by young people if they spend too much time with you. This concept is a twist on the Reagan-era theory where wealth flowed from the top down. Today many young people see wars, problems and mistakes originating from the older generations in top positions of power and trickling down to harm those most vulnerable and least equipped to protect themselves. This is the fabric that connects people regardless of ideology. If not now, then is the time for a new approach? This new generation of people are asking these questions.
The administration has a challenge in connecting with the younger crowd and persuading them to see its achievements. According to the Pew Research Center, adults between the ages 18 and 29 have been following current events less closely than when Mr. Trump was in office: Fewer than one-fifth of Americans under age 30 reported following the news regularly last year.
The core of Mr. Trump’s strength remains his perceived skill at managing the economy — at least insofar as he’s compared to Mr. Biden. More than half of voters say the economy is in poor shape, despite a multimillion-dollar push by Biden allies to promote his efforts to rebuild the country. The country is going down the wrong path and Mr. Trump seems to be benefiting from not being a figure of responsibility or being out of the spotlight.
Women voters favor Biden by eight percentage points, 50 percent to 42 percent, but men favor Trump by a far wider 18-point spread: 55 percent to 37 percent. I don’t know if that’s a definition for “manspreading.” On the economy, voters prefer Trump over Biden by a 22-point margin. And a whopping 71 percent think Biden is too old to be president, as opposed to just 39 percent for Trump.
Gail Collins: I am looking forward to reading your thoughts as you are writing about your reporting trip to Israel. Can we discuss the Times-Siena poll on the presidential race that came out on Sunday? Donald Trump is in front in almost all of the states.
Bret: Basically, this poll is to Biden’s second-term ambitions what sunlight is to morning fog. Isn’t it time for him to bow out gracefully and focus his remaining energies on the crises of the moment, particularly Ukraine and the Middle East, instead of gearing up for a punishing campaign while setting the country up for Trump’s catastrophic comeback?
Gail said, “That’s right.” Well, you and I both hoped he wouldn’t run for re-election. But he did, and he is — and as I’ve said nine million times, he’s only three years older than Donald Trump and appears to be in much better physical condition.
Biden is not hiding what she knows: a reappraisal of the Tsar Bomba for the prosecution of a candidate’s lies
It could be helpful to say a good word for DeanPhillips, the Minnesota representative challenging Biden. Lloyd Austin, the defense secretary, would feel confident as a potential president if Biden lost to Harris in favor of a veep pick.
Harris is hiding what she knows, though she could be the best vice president ever. Voters are not impressed by her presence on the ticket, and that compound Biden’s abysmal numbers.
Gail: I am aware that Trump appears more energetic, but he isn’t much louder than before. Either way his multitudinous defects in character and policy really should make the difference.
Bret: Trump has always been the Tsar Bomba of idiocy. But too many people seem more impressed by his rhetorical force than appalled by his moral and ideological destructiveness.
Bret: That’s a great question. I believe Trump is in jail as a matter of law. The political problem is that the indictments help him, because they play to his outlaw appeal. He wants to cast himself as the Josey Wales of American politics. The system is corrupt and broken, so anything the system does against him is proof of its wrongdoing, according to his argument. There are lots of people who agree with him.
Source: Opinion | Trump May Not Need a Coup This Time
Why should a candidate run the presidency? Why Biden is not a good president, but a great president whose achievements have been appreciated by the public
I refuse to believe that Biden will become the next president. George H.W. Bush, Jimmy Carter and Gerald Ford have all had their presidencies shortened because of Republican primary challenges to Biden. But the alternative is to watch Biden risk his single greatest accomplishment — defeating an incumbent Trump in the first place — by heedlessly running in the face of overwhelming public skepticism.
Gail: Yes. Yeah, since Biden is very, very definitely running I don’t see any point in whining about the fact that I wish he wasn’t. He’d still be 10 times a better president than Trump.
Biden has a really good record. The economy has picked up. He’s gotten a huge program passed for infrastructure projects like better roads and bridges. He is always focused on the fight against global warming. He stands up firmly for social issues most Americans support, like abortion rights.
Bret: All the more reason for him to rest on his laurels and pass the baton to a younger generation. I can think of a half-dozen Democrats, particularly governors, who would trounce Trump in a general election just by showing up to the debate with a pulse and a brain. Let’s begin with four, including Wes Moore.
I would suggest that Tuberville watch what happened in Israel, since he’s holding some senior military promotions hostage because he objects to Pentagon policies on abortion. The country paid a terrible price when far- right politicians ignored the degradation of the country’s military readiness. I hope defense hawks like Lindsey Graham join forces with the Senate majority leader, Chuck Schumer, to change Senate rules and move the nominations to a vote.
Tlaib’s views are not correct and it will be no surprise to readers that I find them repulsive. She is not an embarrassment to her party and the House. I oppose attempts to censure her because of that. One of the things that distinguishes free societies like America and Israel from dictatorships like Hamas’s in Gaza is that we stand for freedom of speech as a matter of course, while they suppress it. The right censure for Tlaib would be to get voted out of office, not muzzled by her colleagues.
Source: Opinion | Trump May Not Need a Coup This Time
What do you want to do during the holiday season? Gail: a challenge to all of us in the public world to please don’t leave our beloved country
There was a time when my Alex P. Keaton was speaking. If they are so brilliant, so many American workers are reluctant to join them, then union leaders should stop. I think that the news media and other institutions are full of their own wonderfulness, which makes them hard to explain why people keep fleeing.
Last week we enjoyed trick-or-treating and were pleased to see that the popular costumes in our neighborhood seemed to be more toward skeletons and ghosts than celebrities and pop culture heroes. On to Thanksgiving and then I’m gonna challenge you to come up with a list of things in the public world you’re thankful for.
Gail: There is something. Meanwhile, this is Republican debate week, featuring several people nobody’s really heard of and an absent Donald Trump. I think that you think that your favorite person is the leader of the pack. Think she can pull off a comeback?
Not sure. You have reminded me of a beautiful poem that depicts my daily struggles with coherent prose as well as Haley’s candidacy.