An influential data guru expounds on why he thinks his party is losing ground: Their reserve army of young, upscale liberals keeps stepping on their message.
The notion that highly-educated young liberals might not be the best mouthpiece for the Democratic Party’s message received more traction following the 2020 election, in which Democrats made significant gains among young voters but continued to lose ground with other key Democratic constituencies, including voters without a college degree and some Black and Latino voters. The question of how Democrats should engage with young people has taken a new urgency in recent weeks, as the party takes stock of the political implication of the 2020 census data, which painted a picture of an America that is younger, more diverse and more city-centered than ever before.
Living around political people in DC during late 90s through 2010s, I don’t think this is a new thing. The young people with election campaign jobs have always been further to the left than swing voters. Those jobs pay very little, you travel constantly and you’re working 80+ hours/ week with no breaks until after the election— so naturally the people who are drawn to them are very ideological and have enough wealth/ financial support to sustain low paid jobs with constant lay offs.
Maybe the difference now (with social media and the polarization of Cable news) is that there is a much bigger gap between the left and swing voters. I agree with the author that more campaign discipline is needed. I also think that the more time these young people spend in swing areas, directly interacting with swing voters who are older and have different life circumstances, the more they’ll figure out how to message to them.