• TheFonz@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    I never said people don’t vote BECAUSE they are leftist, did I? Nothing you said disagrees with what I said: left leaning people (and by inclusion: young people) tend to participate less in elections. The current political leadership represents the people that voted for them: predominantly boomers. So in that regard, politicians are doing exactly what they were elected to do. What’s so difficult to understand?

    • Cowbee [he/him]@lemmy.ml
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      9 months ago

      You gave a source that says young people are voting less, not leftists, and your conclusion was that because young people tend to be more leftist, they aren’t voting.

      • TheFonz@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        Correct: Young people are overwhelmingly left, and young people don’t tend to vote. Where is the contradiction?

        For comparison: conservatives are overwhelmingly older, and older people universally show up to vote.

        I must be stupid and maybe I’m missing something. Walk me step-by-step where is the contradiction.

        • Cowbee [he/him]@lemmy.ml
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          9 months ago

          The statement was “leftists don’t vote,” not “young people don’t vote.” Leftists aren’t only young, and conservative youth don’t vote either.

          • TheFonz@lemmy.world
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            9 months ago

            Oh, I see. We’re being pedantic with words. I guess I should have been precise in my language for people so people like you can have cause to split hairs. What I meant to say is “the majority of leftists don’t vote” and this is well researched and supported by the numbers. Does that make you feel better? It doesn’t matter if conservative youth don’t vote, since the majority of the older population skews moderate or conservative. Both conservative and left youth can stay home, but that’s how we get where we are.

            Edit: also, it doesn’t matter if conservative youth don’t vote. Youth vote skews left. If younger people OVERALL showed up to vote we would have more progressive candidates. I think we’re really struggling with stats today.

            • Cowbee [he/him]@lemmy.ml
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              9 months ago

              You didn’t give any numbers to support your claim, just a different claim.

              To support the claim of leftists not voting, you need numbers showing that leftists don’t vote, not young people not voting.

              I hope this helps!

              • TheFonz@lemmy.world
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                9 months ago

                The numbers are clear. I’m not sure where the break down is happening.

                1. Young people constitute the predominant portion of the left base, especially if you account the far left. In other words, lefties and far lefties make an overlapping Venn diagram with young people. They are the same population.
                2. Young people do not vote.

                Conclusion: 3. The current electorate is composed of old people that tend to skew conservative. Those people show up to vote -every time.

                Where is the contradiction?

                More info from Pew 2022 election polls:

                Age and the 2022 election Age continues to be strongly associated with voting preferences in U.S. elections. Nearly seven-in-ten voters under 30 (68%) supported Democratic candidates in 2022 – much higher than the shares of voters ages 30 to 49 (52%), 50 to 64 (44%) and 65 and older (42%) who did so. Compared with 2018, GOP candidates performed better among voters who turned out across age groups.

                Also:

                Older voters turned out more reliably in both elections – and continued to be largely loyal to Republican candidates.

                • Cowbee [he/him]@lemmy.ml
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                  9 months ago
                  1. You have not proven this.

                  2. You have proven this.

                  Even if you did prove 1, you still aren’t tying not voting to leftists, but young people.

                  • TheFonz@lemmy.world
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                    9 months ago

                    For the last five decades, younger people have been trending left:

                    Statista

                    Edit: Just that most recent bar (gen z) should solidify this point. Despite a predominant portion being represented by Gen Z, we still only ave a slim majority in the House (and minority) in the senate. How do you explain that if your point is that left leaning people show up to vote?