You know that popular saying attributed to Winston Churchill that goes “If you’re not a liberal at 20 you have no heart. If you’re not a conservative at 40 you have no brain”?
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It was a very astute observation, and it’s constantly backed up by any interaction you have with Millennials should you be so inclined to speak with them. The majority of them will likely give you a response I hear too often.
“I don’t really pay attention to politics, but if I had to describe myself I’d say I’m kind of liberal,” they will say.
Ugh. I can’t tell how many times the first part of that sentence explained the latter half. Thing is, it’s not just the idea of liberalism that them derned youngsters are enchanted by. It would appear that flat out socialism is a pretty popular kid walking the halls of Millennial High as well.
Why not? He looks good, talks about helping the poor and the environment, being “fair,” and his parents are like… totally friends with the President or something.
Reason.com recently reported that Pew Research Center found that 43% of 18- to 29-year-olds reacted positively when the word “socialism” popped up. The number of positive reactions to the word declined as the age bracket got higher. The left, the youth vote seems on lockdown, right? Probably not.
See, Millennials might have had a positive reaction to the word, but not the concept.
When confronted with a different term for the concept of socialism, like “Government Managed Economy,” Millennials were turned off. However, using words like “Free Market Economy” seemed to be a pleasing concept. When you refer to socialism by what it is, it would seem that the youth of America are not all that different from older Americans.
So what does this mean?
Reason.com reasons that it means youths doesn’t know how to properly define socialism. Having been brought up further and further from the Cold War era, they don’t have the “I was there” experience of seeing the fight between Soviet era totalitarianism and American style Capitalism.
Today, socialism might mean a barrier between corporate interests and their abuse of the people, while Capitalism might mean government and corporate collusion.
Reason also speculates that the right might have to take a bit of the blame. In our efforts to warn the populace that “Obama is a socialist,” we may have shot ourselves in the foot. American youths like Obama. Calling him a socialist put a soft filter around an ugly subject.
This report rings very true. Personally, I can tell you that most Millennials only believe they are on the left. When even slightly educated about what the left does and really stands for, they change their tone pretty quickly.
They’re not liberals so much as libertarians. They’re not leftists, and are generally more right wing than they realize.
All you have to do is talk with them.