The Bad News for Joe Biden is that youth (18-30, roughly) have fallen out of love with him.
The Good News is that the youth, in most elections, don’t show up in large numbers.
Usually.
But In 2020 the youth turnout climbed to a high of 50%, and Biden captured about 65% of it, beating Donald J. Trump by more than 25 points. Analysts believe that was an anti-Trump, and a pro college-debt-forgiveness vote, but now that huge lead has collapsed. Trump now is leading Biden among a segment of the population that usually spurns the anti-choice, and anti-climate change attitudes of the GOP.
The last Republican president to capture the youth vote was another old man — Ronald Reagan, whose sunny description of America was the opposite of the apocalyptic one painted by Donald Trump.
The conundrum for Biden is the belief system of the young seems tied more to what they see on TikTok than on reality. The “youth” are out of step with other age cohorts, and too much of what they believe is anti-democratic rot.
It is not all youth that have become unmoored from reality, but the numbers of those who have strayed are distressingly large.
Here are some examples of their beliefs, reported in just the last year:
The most shocking was a Daily Mail poll that revealed one in five Generation Z youth have a positive view of 9/11 mass murderer/Islamic terrorist Osama bin Laden. That would be like 20% of young Americans in the ‘50s having a favorable view of Nazis.
In case you find the Daily Mail poll is too awful to believe, remember that a few months earlier, a copy of bin Laden’s 2002 “Letter to America” was circulating on the Internet — with large numbers of TikTok “influencers” wondering why they had not been told the “truth” before. Yes, these blockheads read anti-American propaganda, a justification for killing nearly 3,000 Americans, and are convinced by it. Bin Laden was expressly addressing young people. It had no traction when he wrote it in 2002. Millennials spurned it. But the next cohort, Gen Z, fell for it.
At no time in history, thanks to the internet, has access to the truth been more available. However — conspiracy theories and lies, thanks to the internet, have never been in wider circulation.
And this is before deep fakes and AI, which have the capacity to make major lies seem like the truth.
We are raising a generation that seems unwilling or incapable of determining the truth.
Which is not all that surprising when you understand they seem incapable of determining their own sex. A skyrocketing number have renounced heterosexuality in favor of… well, you name it, being as social scientists have created more gender choices than Heinz has varieties. Wikipedia has provided a helpful list from A to Z. Read it and scratch your head.
The number of young people claiming nonbinary status is literally blasting through the roof. Sure, there are nonbinary people, but in the numbers claimed? Seems unlikely.
The New York Times reported in 2022, “Experts said that young people increasingly have the language and social acceptance to explore their gender identities, whereas older adults may feel more constrained. But the numbers, which vary widely from state to state, also raise questions about the role of peer influence or the political climate of the community.” (Italics added.)
That the numbers vary widely from state to state is important. It strongly suggests that what is at work is not biology, but sociology, and geology.
And it’s not just America. A year earlier, NBC News reported that one in five — 20% of young people — globally claimed to be some flavor other than straight. (The other countries were Western, not Islamic.)
I know of no scientific study that has ever shown that more than 7% of the population is nonbinary. But now, in the words of an old song, “Anything Goes.”
The younger the respondent, the more likely they are to claim nonbinary status.
The Brown University student newspaper reports that 38% of its student body claims to not be heterosexual, a number that doubled since 2010 and is five times the national rate. (The key word is “claims.”)
At that rate, in another 13 years, Brown will be 76% queer.
Is that remotely believable?
The Brown newspaper is reporting what students say, not what they actually practice.
Today, rather than Oscar Wilde’s “love that dare not speak its name,” gay is being shouted from the rooftops. It has cachet. It is cool.
So is nonbinary. How else can you explain public schools putting Tampons in the male bathrooms? Are male lactating rooms next?
I think what I might call the queer surge is mostly peer pressure, and its locus is on the coasts. It closely ties to political identity. Like sanctuary cities, it is most prevalent in blue states.
So while Brown students in Rhode Island may think they are going gay, I’ll bet not many student Hoosiers in Indiana University share those beliefs.
But nonconforming sexual identities won’t hurt Biden much, if at all. The Dems are gay friendly. I doubt I’ll ever hear Trump say, “I love the gays,” and he has with vets, and Blacks, and Hispanics, and the non college-educated.
I saved the worst for last.
Asked to say which side they sympathized with more — Palestinians or Israelis — the 18-29 group were the only cohort to choose the Palestinians. And that was before the Hamas slaughter of 1,200 Israelis — including arson, rape, torture, the murder of babies and elderly, and the kidnapping of hundreds of people.
Pew research says about 41% of Americans oppose the Biden policy — which supports Israel. 35% agree with the policy, while a whopping 24% are unsure.
In this country, and in the media, the pro-Palestinian side has been extremely effective in pushing their narrative, convincing the uneducated, as Osama bin Laden did from beyond the grave. Most of that narrative is lies.
The three big lies are genocide, apaetheid and colonizer. None is true, as I have previously detailed.
There’s not much Biden can do about the warped ideas a bloc of the young have about their sexual identities. That will straighten itself out when they start having children, hopefully after marriage. None of the mothers will be biological males.
Their views about bin Laden, and 9/11, figure directly into attitudes about the situation in the Mideast today.
Biden must explain what is going on, and why.
He may not be the best person to do it. He needs a surrogate.
No, not Kamala Harris. Not Barack Obama either. He basically kept Israel at arm’s length.
My choice would be Bill Clinton.
He’s still pretty popular — more than Biden, that’s a fact — and he did take a swing at bringing peace, when in 2000 he brought Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian Liberation Organization chief Yassir Arafat together at Camp David.
As usual, the talks failed. As usual, the Arabs said no. Clinton laid it at the feet of Arafat.
The American public (and me) rightfully freaked out by the excessive destruction in Gaza, but Americans are largely ignorant of the history of the region. Until about 40 years ago, the Arab world had but one desire — to destroy Israel. Surrounded by 300 million enemies, Israel had no choice but to develop a military that could offset the numerical odds.
Is it a Goliath now? Yes, of necessity.
Most Americans see Goliath, but not the necessity for it.
They need to be told. Clinton can do that.
Swinging just 20% of those who oppose Biden’s policy could provide a margin of victory.
You just explained why you shouldn’t vote for Biden and the democrats. These kids weren’t brainwashed by conservative republicans they were brainwashed by far left democrats. Biden has to explain to everyone why he dropped sanctions on Iran and allowed them to make enough money to fund the war in Gaza. He has to explain why he is letting our military be target practice for the Iranian proxies. He has to explain why he didn’t stop Putin ibefore he went into Ukraine. He has to explain why he doesn’t go back to Trumps policies on the border. He could do it with the stroke of a pen. These are just a few of his many failures. None of these things would have happened under Trump. And a vote for Biden and the democrats is a vote for the further destruction of the country.
It just show the contempt I have for your orange God. I will take the muddled scarecrow.
You either hate the country or your to much of a egotist to say your wrong. Anyone who would want 4 more years of Biden and the democrats is a fool. Stop being a hateful old man and do what’s best for the country. You admit you were happy with a lot of his policies. It’s results that country not personality.
I don’t hate my country. I love it. I don’t love Biden. I don’t hate Trump. I don’t hate you. Trump is a low-intellect narcissist unfit to be President. Please don’t waste your time trying to change my mind. I won’t, nor will I read and respond to anything you post under any of your aliases.
You can vote for anyone you want. I just want people to know that Trump has a 4 year record of success and Biden has been a complete failure. I think most of the people know that and will vote for Trump. You suffer from Trump derangement syndrome . And its so obvious you hate him.
Since your not going to read this. I just want to warn the readers who don’t already know that Stu is a cry baby and doesn’t like it when you disagree with him. Instead of having a debate he will attack you. He usually resorts to name calling or shunning you like a little girl. Don’t let that stop you from voicing your opinion.
Fool because they like:
1. Highest oil production and greatest energy independence in history Gas prices have come down since they spiked due to Trump’s soulmate Putin made the genius move (according to Trump) of invading Ukraine, and Trump’s best buddies the Saudi’s cut production to make up for low demand during Covid.
2. Record high stock market. Trump predicted that the stock market would crash if Biden was elected. Maybe you haven’t checked but the Dow Jones has hit record highs. It is true the market had larger percentage gains under Trump, but it had much higher percentage gains under Obama. (Another reason why when folks say Biden is Obama’s puppet, I say “If only!”)
3. Record low unemployment
4. “GDP has grown at a 3.4 average annual rate since Biden became president, while Trump trails badly at an average 1.8 percent growth. Trump allies aren’t wrong when they complain that the 2020 downturn wasn’t his fault, so we’ll give him a pass for the year. The result still shows more robust growth under Biden: From 2017 to 2019, the economy grew an average of 2.8 percent per year, a rate still 18 percent slower than under Biden
.https://washingtonmonthly.com/2024/01/26/data-dont-lie-bidens-economic-record-is-much-better-than-trumps/
Remember Trump promised 3% growth. Never happened. Trump promised, but Biden delivered.
5. Taming inflation with a soft landing. The combined policies of the Biden administration with the Fed appears to have attained the holy grail of economic policy: shutting down inflation without throwing the economy into recession. This is the economic equivalent of Sully’s landing the crippled plane in the “Miracle on the Hudson.” Inflation is down to what it was under Trump (2.1%) while maintaining more robust growth than under Trump.
Trump knows this, which is why his newest trope is claiming that Fed chief Jerome Powell (his appointee!) is intent on giving “help to the Democrats”–in other words, doing his job to give us all a good economy. He already said his hoping for economic downturn before the election, and apparently believes that Powell should be “helping Trump” instead of America by driving the economy into a ditch. Millions should suffer to get him elected. This is despicable. I don’t think you hate America, but to support Trump you need to love Trump more than you love the United States. He is, most accurately, “Trump First” and not “America First.” Any overlap between the two is strictly coincidental. This goes way back. He accused the Fed of “helping Obama” by lowering interest rates to help the economy. He fumed that Biden’s bipartisan infrastructure bill should not have been supported by the GOP because it gave Biden “a win.” The fact that it was “a win” for America was not, and never will be part of his calculus.
Most recently he killed the bipartisan border security bill (including aid for Israel and Ukraine) which would have literally shut down the border, as he claims he wants, for sole purpose of being able to run on the border security issue. He said, “blame it on me” and I will. From this day forward, the crisis at the border is on him, not Biden.
It is painfully clear that he will throw anyone and anything under the bus for his own advantage. Remember how anti-abortion he was once? He didn’t like it when Roe was overturned because it would hurt Republicans. Now he promises that he won’t sign a national abortion ban. Instead he will “negotiate something” that will make everybody happy. LOL as they say. This is along the lines of his claim that he’d have been a better president than Lincoln because he would have “negotiated” the slavery issue and avoided the Civil War. (This is from the guy who was surprised to learn Lincoln was a Republican.)
And by the way, what policies is he running on?
From what I’ve seen, it is: (1) Revenge on his political enemies; (2) Re-instituting family separations at the border, and (3) more government shutdowns. Maybe he will try to beat his own record of the longest government shutdown on record–for which he got absolutely nothing. (He also said back then, “Blame [the shutdown] on me” and I did!)
Better economic growth, low unemployment, no government shutdowns, bipartisan deals. Yeah, I can live with four more years of that. What is Trump offering instead? Revenge, cruelty and government shutdowns. I’ll pass on that.
I think YOU ought to be Biden’s surrogate.
Joe Biden addressing a gathering of ‘youth’: “It’s good to be back here in Peoria — excuse me, Seattle — to address the members of AARP — excuse me, the World Youth Council…” And it goes downhill from there.
He wins at malaprops, but Trump is gaining. Ask Nancy Pelosi.
Some choice we’re going to have: an aged narcissist sliding into dementia, or a superannuated bumbler who’s already there.
There’s always Cornel West. 😄
I disagree that Clinton would be the best surrogate. Obama would do better precisely because Bibi turned on him to earn the title of “GOP Senator from the 51st State of Israel.” Obama’s only sin was reiterating the unbroken position of every president before him: Israel should not build settlements in the territories, and that the US supports a two-state solution–which Netanyahu opposes. Despite Bibi’s false and destructive attacks on Obama and attempt to destroy bipartisan support for Israel (the first job of any Israeli Prime Minister is to get along with the US and maintain its bipartisan support–I would argue that one of the causes of the youth problem was Bibi’s bad political move in doing this–why intentionally alienate the constituency of an American President?) Obama staunchly stood by Israel–with zero thanks by the way. Under Obama, the US nevertheless vetoed a UN Security Council resolution condemning settlement building in 2011, he increased aid to Israel, including funding the famous “Iron Dome” missile defense. He supported Israel’s right to self-defense during the 2014 Gaza war. In fact, in 2014 Obama said the Zionist movement and Civil Rights movement both sought to bring justice and equal rights to historically persecuted peoples. He said, “To me, being pro-Israel and pro-Jewish is part and parcel with the values that I’ve been fighting for since I was politically conscious and started getting involved in politics.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middle_Eastern_foreign_policy_of_the_Barack_Obama_administration
A 2023 poll of Americans (pre-Oct 7) found that 42% of Americans do not have confidence that Bibi “will do the right thing” 32% that he will, and 26% never heard of him. https://www.timesofisrael.com/plurality-of-americans-view-netanyahu-unfavorably-26-dont-know-who-he-is-poll/. Bibi’s open enmity against Obama would make Obama the ideal spokesman to defend Biden’s handling of the Gaza war. I am less worried about who gets more sympathy, than the ends of the spectrum where folks have NO sympathy for one side or the other. They are lost causes in all events.
You and I, and Biden and Obama and Clinton know the history. But Bibi’s outright rejection of the two-state solution is, if nothing else, bad PR. The era of sympathy for Israel was one during which it repeatedly offered “land for peace” and was rejected time and again. Even if Bibi had given no more than lip service to the position, it would have been better PR. But you have a generation of people who have seen nothing from Israel except the message that Palestinians are entitled to nothing. This is a far cry from Golda Meir’s statement that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was a matter of “right versus right.” We understand how Israel and Israeli’s got frustrated and concluded offers of peace were useless, but it and they should have continued to do the right thing. Beyond sympathy for the underdog, people also prefer the side that wants peace. Trump, in alignment with Bibi, stopped supporting a two-state solution. To his credit, or at least his political savvy, Bibi recently moved quickly to shut up a far-right minister ranting about Biden’s concerns about civilian deaths in Gaza, and how Trump would give Israel complete free rein to level Gaza, and, as the minister would like, let Israel empty it of Palestinians. https://www.timesofisrael.com/attacking-biden-ben-gvir-says-trump-would-have-been-more-supportive-of-israel/ My suspicion is that the minister is not far from truth, so it seems to me Biden could win back some of the “more sympathy for Palestinian” vote by pointing this out. It seems crazy to me that some lefties are planning to vote against Biden because he didn’t prevent Israel from acting after Oct 7, in favor of Muslim-banning Trump. It makes no sense, and some spokesperson should make that clear.
Of course, there is nothing to stop using both Obama and Clinton, which I think Biden will. Clinton can bite his lip and feel their pain, while Obama can rally them with hope for new solutions.
ASKING Obama to defend Israel would be like asking Inga Saffron to defend me.
Who better? If Inga came out with gushing praise for you, everybody would have to believe her, and it would probably make someone who hates you (hypothetically speaking, as I cannot imagine such an individual) give her a listen, when they would have dismissed it from anyone else.
It occurred to be that we are missing one person who certainly can affect young people’s opinions, and whom the GOP now appears to be deathly afraid of, and is therefore preemptively attacking: Taylor Swift!
Don’t forget the under 4% unemployment rate for the last two years and all of the over 14 million jobs created under Biden while under Trump 3 million jobs were lost. And wages have been climbing under Biden, too.
“We are raising a generation that seems unwilling or incapable of determining the truth.” Unfortunately, Stu, there are a LOT of people OUR age who also cannot tell fact from fiction. All you need to do is read some of the replies above to confirm this. However, Tom A’s response (above) lists some solid FACTS (yes, FACTS) about why the choice in this election is very, very easy for anyone with a brain.
I no longer read anything by any of the Daniels. Total waste of time, but I won’t block him because I don’t believe in canceling. But I am OK with you defending me. 😉