Liberals need not be downtrodden about the midterm results. Minorities are growing and young voters are becoming increasingly liberal. In turn, the old, white guys of today’s GOP will slowly die out.
William Frey of Salon writes that “the conventional wisdom is that this [midterms] was a referendum on President Obama and a repudiation of his policies.” What Frey is asserting is that those who voted in favor of Republicans didn’t necessarily vote with the party. They were voting against the weakness and perceived bungling of President Barack Obama.
Surely, as Frey asserts, the old white guys of the establishment GOP think their victory this midterm is a return to stasis, a righting of the ship, but that notion is completely wrong. The Republicans didn’t pull out a victory against unspeakable odds. The weakness of the Democrats allowed the GOP to simply walk through the door. Democrats handed this election to the GOP on a silver platter.
Generally, American voters are becoming more liberal. The younger generations are becoming more tolerant of LGBT rights, possess liberals views on drug policy, oppose the war on drugs, and are more accepting of minorities and diversity. Sixty-one percent of 18 – 29 year-old Republicans favor same-sex marriage.
The tired politics of our grandparents are likely to not be inherited by the youth. As Ring of Fire reported in July, “young peoples’ aversion to modern American conservatism is rooted in three main tenets: working instead of fighting, accept peoples’ differences, and don’t overcharge us.”
Millennials, according to AlterNet, are “racially diverse, pro-pot, and pro-marriage equality.” Furthermore, 74 percent of young people think the government should guarantee food and housing to all Americans. Fifty-six percent think the government doesn’t do enough to solve problems.
The problem with these midterms doesn’t lie in the views of the voters. It lies within who voted, how they came to vote, and why they voted. The old GOPers came out in droves because the GOP hit the airwaves hard railing against the ACA, Obama, and the Democrats. They rallied support.
However, they wouldn’t have rallied support had these old white people not already been mad in the first place, which is where the Dems failed. The Dems failed because they sat on their hands, spineless and deadpan. They lost themselves the midterms, not the end of the world, but still bad. The GOP of now will eventually die out. But until that happens, the Democrats still have to actually fight back.
