'Clear warning signs': Focus group shows lack of enthusiasm for Biden among the young

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Stop Blaming Young Voters for Not Turning Out for Sanders...

When younger Americans did swing to voting in the 2020 Democratic primaries, they usually cast ballots for Sanders by large margins, even in states that Sanders lost by large margins. Take Michigan, where Biden won by nearly 17 points. Sanders won 18-to-24-year-olds by 61 points; 25-to-29-year-olds by 56 points; and 30-to-39-year-olds by 19 points—while losing 40-to-49-year-olds by 6 points; 50-to-64-year-olds by 44 points and voters aged 65 or over by 52 points. Biden prevailed in Michigan because the two oldest voting categories cast a decisive 52 percent of the ballots.

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But why? Why does this age voting disparity exist and persist? Why is it growing? Some Americans have been taking the easy way out—people blaming. It is easy to blame Sanders and his supporters for naively relying on the unreliable youth vote to carry him to the Democratic nomination. It is easy to blame the Sanders campaign for not turning out the youth vote. It is easy to blame young voters for not turning out for Sanders—all their rallying in person and on social media failing to result in voting. But what if something else is happening?

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Simply put, the reason young Americans have been less likely to vote than older voters is the same reason for the better part of American history people of color have been less likely to vote than white people; why women were long less likely to vote than men; why poor people have been less likely to vote than wealthier people; why prisoners have been less likely to vote than non-prisoners. For the better part of American history, Americans have been taught there is something behaviorally wrong with prisoners, with poor people, with women, with people of color—with young people—and not with the policies stopping or suppressing their voting. These ageist ideas cover up the ageist policies that make it tougher for young people to vote, just as racist ideas cover up the racist policies that make it tougher for people of color to vote, and just as the intersection of ageist and racist policies make it the toughest for young people of color to vote...https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/03/stop-blaming-young-voters-not-turning-out-sanders/608137/...