With Mitt Romney’s Etch-a-Sketch-iness, it was no surprise when, at the Oct. 16 presidential debate, he told college student Jeremy Epstein he’ll make sure young people can afford college and get jobs once they graduate.
I don’t think too many young people fell for that promise.
With Mitt Romney’s Etch-a-Sketch-iness, it was no surprise when, at the Oct. 16 presidential debate, he told college student Jeremy Epstein he’ll make sure young people can afford college and get jobs once they graduate.
I don’t think too many young people fell for that promise.
It came from the guy who embraced as his running mate the author of a budget that would shred Pell grants. A guy who thinks giving tax breaks to the rich and calling open season on job safety and the environment is what creates jobs. A guy who advised young people to get all the education they “can afford” and just “borrow money if you have to from your parents.”
Balance the fake concern he expressed for young people with his pledge to kill Obamacare on his first day in office. Swoosh, young people are off Mom and Dad’s insurance policy. Swoosh again, and young women have new obstacles to getting health screenings and contraceptives.
These are just some of the reasons young voters prefer President Obama to Romney, 55 percent to 36 percent, according to a recent poll for the Harvard Institute of Politics.
But I keep hearing that young voters aren’t as enthusiastic about President Obama as they were four years ago. The pundits make a big deal of this. I’m not sure why. Honeymoons never last forever, and what follows them is hard work. I reject the assumption that young voters are too naive to recognize this.
Young people have legitimate concerns about the challenges they face in this economy. Finding a decent job out of college is incredibly hard—and student debt is out of control.
But look, young people see we’ve turned a corner out of the Great Recession, private-sector jobs have grown for 31 straight months and the American auto industry is standing strong. They’re also well aware that “don’t ask, don’t tell” is gone, while DREAMers have new opportunities for education and military service in this country.
We have a president who doesn’t want women in binders and won’t give companies even more tax breaks for shipping away our jobs.
Even better, we have a president who doesn’t lie to us or Etch-a-Sketch himself on a daily basis—a president who honestly cares about the future of this country’s next generation.
If young people get out and vote—and I believe they will—we will have that president for the next four years, too.