Parties just don’t understand
Poll shows young Americans adrift from two-party system
WASHINGTON — Most young Americans say the Republican and Democratic parties don’t represent them, a critical data point after a year of ferocious presidential primaries that forced partisans on both sides to confront what — and whom — they stand for.
That’s according to a new GenForward poll that shows the disconnect holds true across racial and ethnic groups, with just 28 percent of young adults overall saying the two major parties do a good job of representing the American people.
The poll shows that despite this across-the-board feeling of disenchantment with the two-party system, the Democratic Party holds a clear advantage in appealing to young people of color. But among young whites, majorities feel left out by both parties.
More than two-thirds of young adults, including vast majorities of young Asian-Americans, Hispanics and blacks, say the Republican Party does not care about people like them.
Democrats fare a bit better among young people overall, with a small majority — 53 percent — saying the party cares about people like them. Among young African-Americans, Hispanics and Asian-Americans, most believe the party does care about people like them. But among young whites, majorities say both parties don’t care much about them, including 58 percent who say that of the Republican Party and 52 percent who say it about the Democratic Party.
GenForward is a survey by the Black Youth Project at the University of Chicago with the Associated PressNORC Center for Public Affairs Research. The firstof-its-kind poll pays special attention to the voices of young adults of color, highlighting how race and ethnicity shape the opinions of a new generation.
The results of the survey of Americans age 1830 reflect something of an identity crisis for both parties heading into the future, driven in part by deep antipathy toward the presidential candidates they nominated. Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton, the two least-popular presidential nominees in the history of modern polling, were opposed by large and bitter swaths of their parties.
Young people aren’t certain to fall in line behind the nominees, the survey found. Three-quarters of young adults say the billionaire real estate magnate is unqualified to be president even after he vanquished 16 GOP rivals. Half say the same of Clinton, a former senator and secretary of state, after unlikely rival Bernie Sanders forced her to fight for the nomination for a year.
Emiliano Vera, 22, of Bushnell, Illinois, says he isn’t coming back to the Democratic Party that attracted him with Barack Obama’s nomination in 2008.
Ideology this year drew him to Sanders. But disenchantment with what seemed like an obviously rigged nomination process in Clinton’s favor, he says, is what’s pushing him to the Green Party. Leaked Democratic National Committee emails confirmed for him that the party had their thumb on the scale for Clinton, Vera said.