The 2024 election, debates and interviews aside, will be decided by voter turnout, keeping illegals from voting, and getting key groups to see their future in the balance – especially the young.
Today, most seniors, 3 of 4 over the age of 55 plan to vote. History shows they do. Of those, Pew Research suggested in August, 50 percent support Trump, and 44 percent Harris.
Other demographics are split, some more favorable to Harris than Biden, others even. One group that could tip key states is those under 30, formerly 48 percent for Biden, now 57 percent for Harris.
Ironically, their big issues – things that keep them up – are what Republicans speak to well, what they care about. A stunning number of the young struggle for a good job, stability, care for others, affordable housing, home ownership, and the basic American Dream.
Why? The dream of a career, a chance to make a difference and affordable housing. It starts with good economic conditions, innovation, job growth, low inflation, and low interest. What creates that? Lower taxes, disposable income spurring private sector investment, stability.
What else? Confidence in the future – not just in the economy but in world peace, the sanctity of citizenship, a real border, lower crime, drug trafficking, and respect for the law.
Today, in just three years, we have seen the world catch fire, economic volatility, frightening jumps in crime, drugs, and disrespect for the law. Who delivers the opposite? Compare the Biden-Harris years with Trump years. Under Republican leadership, and more fiscal responsibility, the dollar undisputed world reserve currency, with higher growth, innovation, jobs, and wages across every demographic, plus low inflation, interest on credit cards, affordable housing, and tax cuts.
So, Issue One: Stable private economy, especially for the young. The Harris-Walz plan is an abomination, higher personal and corporate taxes (read: job cuts), wage and price controls (read: rationing), new regulations (read: federal overreach), unaccountable spending (read: higher inflation and interest), more debt (read: devaluation of the dollar), a nightmare for America’s young.
Issue two: Racism. Not surprisingly, young voters do not recall a time when race and ethnicity were not big issues, differentness a settled strength, when Republicans in the 1980s had replaced endemic southern Democrat racism with a push for equal opportunity and upward mobility.
Lost are the times when Democrats, from New York’s Daniel Patrick Moynahan to Georgia’s Andrew Young, were moving beyond the idea of dependence to opportunity – or as Martin Luther King said, a time when all can be “judged by the content of their character not the color of their skin,” the American Dream. That is what Republicans stand for!
Who did that – Trump or Biden? Trump produced record economic and educational opportunities for Blacks, Hispanics, and every minority, tops in 35 years. Biden-Harris personified the exact reverse, a grievance and dependence culture, reduced self-esteem, attacks, a slide not a climb.
Rather than money giveaways, reparations, more division, forced outcomes, Marxist critical race theory, and demeaning DEI hiring, most young want opportunity, and who offers that? The Republican philosophy, respect for laws, upward mobility, and the American Dream.
Issue three: Climate, environment, conservation, or respect for Nature. The narrative offered – which many wrongly accept – is that fossil fuels cannot work with renewable energy, that it is “all or nothing,” mass regulation, mandates, federalization of the economy, all pure wind and solar.
This is not just unrealistic; it is dead wrong and counter-productive, another source of wild inflation, high-cost gas, heating oil, groceries, rents, everything. The notion that you cut fossil fuel production, and hammer the remaining companies with wage and price controls is Soviet, produces bread lines.
Truth is, conservative Republicans are not against market-driven renewables, wind and solar to thermal and tidal, but know 75 percent of the grid is tied to fossil fuels. So how about clean fossils, and safe nuclear, to help maximize US advantages and keep prices down? Compromise, not nonsense.
Let us be historically accurate and philosophically consistent. Theodore Roosevelt was the most conservationist, nature-loving, park-creating, intergenerational president in history, a Republican.
And the greatest conservative writer, Edmund Burke, was about the intergenerational ties, that lives no longer in being and those not yet born are held together by those in being. His point was that we are stewards – of the land, life, and rights. Republicans know that.
Historically and philosophically, conservatives are about the future, but not high-handed mandates to kill lights, stoves, mowers, cars, trucks, plows, boats, or liberty, but balance, rights, and preservation – or as TR used to call it, conservation.
Point: Republicans must understand that their strengths – life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, economic freedom, fairness, opportunity, conservation, and respect for the law – align with the young.
So, what should happen? Republicans running for anything should take the truth to college campuses, get out there and speak with the young, talk turkey, listen and respond, believe, and communicate to create understanding. If they do this, the future is bright and free, not dark and left.
Robert Charles is a former Assistant Secretary of State under Colin Powell, former Reagan and Bush 41 White House staffer, attorney, and naval intelligence officer (USNR). He wrote “Narcotics and Terrorism” (2003), “Eagles and Evergreens” (2018), and is National Spokesman for AMAC.
I am a baby boomer This year I will be 78 years old I have always supported President Trump. I don’t understand how seniors are divided. All you have to do is look at the condition of the country in Trump’s years as president and the condition in Biden’s years. To me it is a no brainer.
The 44% of seniors who vote for liberals must be awfully wealthy, to the point that they have been insulated from skyrocketing inflation and gas prices. Either that, or The Almighty shorted them on common sense.
Several good points here. The Republican candidates do need to get out to college campuses and expose themselves to the young voters and explain their policies. Most young voters, unfortunately, continue to listen to the rhetoric that the Left is spewing out over and through MSM as well as professors that continue to preach the Marxist way of life. Everyone knows what is at stake.
I’m 71 years old.
I voted for Trump in 2016.
Our Economy was Great.
I retired in 2019.
God Bless Donald Trump!
Trump/Vance 2024!
Republican candidates should definitely be communicating with people between the age of eligibility to vote and their mid- twenties, and not just college students . Something of importance would be to provide an understanding of why political conditions are in the current state they are in and what the plans are for improvements And explaining the history involved , making sure that the younger voters grasp the fundamentals of what American government is — and what it isn’t. Comparing the present issues with the list of grievances in the Declaration of Independence would accomplish that and it would put in perspective just how serious things are now..To emphasize the values, the principles that are necessary to live properly, having an appreciation of Faith, family and freedom in mind will go a long way to achieve setting people in that age range on the right course for a better future based on courage, integrity, loyalty and the spirit of honor .
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Most young are steeped in the marxist ideology promoted by schools , they have no idea how poisonous it is. Too empty headed to try to figure out why people are desperately trying to escape into the hell of capitalism and leave the workers paradise behind. Too stupid and self centered to see the end of their nose. Useful idiots, allowed and encouraged to vote. Not all for there are plenty with good sense ,but far too many to cause a great damage.
How can they know “their lives aren’t better now than it was 4 years ago” when their Republican parents pay for everything for them?
Unfortunately, one of the reasons accounting for young Americans’ slavish adherence to the Democrat Party (& Harris in particular) is that America’s leftist educators have held sway over what our young people are learning for too many years. This began with Marxist professors, but has grown to include too many (NOT ALL, but too many) teachers who, having been indoctrinated in their training at universities, are now pushing radical ideas all the way down to the kindergarten classroom.
The wisest parents in America have begun to realize this, and are pulling their children from public schools, seeking out conservative and Christian private schools, or, even better, choosing to home school their children. Many are pressing thei legislators for state laws to provide “school choice” , which will refund their school taxes to cover the costs of these more effective educational opportunities. Some states already have such legislation in place; more should do so.
if you are the parent of a college -bound student, PLEASE be VERY CAREFUL in selecting a school which will educate your child in truth, not in hate, anger, and activism. America has lost generations of young people. We cannot allow this to continue…..
These young one has been so brainwashed ,they want a govt. nanny. Kyle L.
Agreed on what this article says about Trump and Republicans, but it seems doubtful that we Repubicans will have any runaway wins like 2016 until many of the young voters are cured of their “Democrat” brainwashing.
They’ve had both the liberal media and their morally damaged school teachers giving them constant propaganda while growing up… and they will need awhile to see past all that windowdressing.
I do think the habitual lying by Harris, Walz, “Filthy Hillary”, and others, will be somewhat useful in the present, by providing immediate, repeated exposure to “Democrats’ moral bereftness. At least it’s an “attention-getter” that actually helps the honest people who try not to be burdensome to our society. The liars also provide an unforgettable impression on our youth.
Mr. Charles’ phrasing is right on point, in that young voters are not voting with their own futures and interests firmly in mind.
Without clearly seeing the context of needing to make a comfortable (at least !) living with choices made at the polling place, the waters can appear muddy for young voters.
This is not something anyone can solve with a comment on an article, but a good start can be made in carefully observing the ethics of each candidate.
When candidates promise lower costs of living, after their political party just did nothing but raise those costs… that is an alarm.
When candidates say they’re going to lower drug prices, though drugs are already highly regulated, and terribly costly to begin with… that is an alarm.
It is likewise an alarm when a candidate says she wants to pay people to buy a house, in the face of the biggest budget deficit we’ve ever had.
I hope I’ve helped some younger people with this info.
Our political system is out of control with power-hungry permanent government “employees.” Congress works for we the people so they are in fact our EMPLOYEES. When most employees do not perform their jobs well, they get fired. Most in congress need to be fired, they’ve stayed too long and are using the office for power and wealth. The good ones stay in a term or two then get out in disgust. And I am talking to BOTH parties here. The Republican party has lost a LOT of seniors, myself included, because they are NOT helping to make seniors lives easier. We need term limits, which will kiss all of our government congressional employees in the A** to get to work for we the people. The only way to get this done is at the ballot box. No support for political wannabes unless they agree to support term limits!