Republicans won't be winning these guys anytime soon. (Reuters)
Got a great laugh from this emailed press release:
In the 2008 election, 66% of America's youth vote went to Democratic candidate Barack Obama, while roughly 31% of the youth vote went to Republican John McCain. This youth group, dubbed 'the millennials' (those born at the beginning of the Reagan era and the end of the Clinton era), are 50 million strong- enough to sway any election.
With 2012 in close sight, how can Republicans take back this key group of voters?
In "AMERICAN INDIVIDUALISM: How a New Generation of Conservatives Can Save the Republican Party" (Crown Forum, on sale July 19), conservative Margaret Hoover, a Fox News contributor and Cultural Warrior on the O'Reilly Factor, challenges the Republican party to take another look at the millennials, "The Republican Party has fallen dangerously out of step with this rising generation of young Americans. This up-and-coming millennial generation is sympathetic to the fundamental principles of conservatism, yet doesn't rally to the GOP."
Hoover believes that the Republican Party is best positioned to offer solutions for the most pressing problems facing America today-skyrocketing debt and deficits crises in education and immigration-but that youth are turned off. AMERICAN INDIVIDUALISM is Hoover's call to action for Republicans to win the support of the millennial generation by offering solutions to issues they care about (and most affects them):
-The environment
-Military involvement in Iraq, Afghanistan, and beyond
-The economy and job market
-Education policy and funding
-The freedom to marry
Of course, GOP solutions are as follows:
The environment: Trash it.
War: Wage it.
Economy: Undermine it (for all but millionaires and billionaires).
Education: Cut it.
Freedom to marry: Hate it.
And don't forget—nothing brings home the youngsters more than worshipping a guy who first got elected president 31 years ago. Fact is, as much as this granddaughter of the Founding Father of the Great Depression might want to talk about "individualism," it's Republicans who get in the way of the aspirations of the millennials.
Young people want to enjoy a clean environment. They want to grow up in a world free from getting killed in elective wars. They want an economic system that is equitable and allows for upward mobility. They want to be able to get an education, even if their parents aren't wealthy. And they want to love who they want, without government telling them their choices are unsanctioned because of a bigoted minority.
Republicans have no answers for any of that, because they are beholden to their Wall Street and Christianist wings. And that won't change until demographic changes force them to adapt—by either evolving and joining the 21st century, or getting comfortable in a deep minority.