(Pew) and who'd have thought gun control would be their call to arms? Now the internet generation is growing up they're mobilizing to vote, supposedly, like never before. These are people who have grown up connected to the world and to worldwide information like no preceding generation, so it doesn't surprise me they'd be more mature, more precocious in their view of the world. What's particularly interesting is that they seem to be most upset with political dysfunction:
John Della Volpe, a pollster who studies young people’s political views for the Harvard Kennedy School’s Institute of Politics, said the gun issue was part of a larger array of social views that define the next wave of voters. While young people are largely liberal, he said they were united chiefly by their dissatisfaction with the existing political system.
Among some participants, the determination to defy an indifferent political system mingles with a persistent fear of disappointment. Dantrell Blake, 21, who was shot as a teenager in Chicago and plans to march in Washington, said he hopes to draw attention to gun violence in his hometown but knows that politicians could ignore the message. The mostly black victims of gun violence in Chicago, he said, had not drawn the attention of politicians the way the Parkland shooting did. “It’s still rigged and they’re still going to do what they want,” Mr. Blake said of elected officials.
Those competing impulses — the drive toward political confrontation, entwined with skepticism that government will accommodate them — may come to define these students as voters. As a group, they combine liberal social beliefs with an intensely wary view of the existing political and economic order, opinion polls have found. While young people are not uniformly Democratic-leaning or supportive of gun regulation, they are well to the left of the middle in their views. They have moved further toward Democrats since Mr. Trump’s election.
These young people appear to have minds of their own. They have a modern view of the world. Theirs is the whole planet and they care. But they have to vote to make a difference. Time will tell...Among some participants, the determination to defy an indifferent political system mingles with a persistent fear of disappointment. Dantrell Blake, 21, who was shot as a teenager in Chicago and plans to march in Washington, said he hopes to draw attention to gun violence in his hometown but knows that politicians could ignore the message. The mostly black victims of gun violence in Chicago, he said, had not drawn the attention of politicians the way the Parkland shooting did. “It’s still rigged and they’re still going to do what they want,” Mr. Blake said of elected officials.
Those competing impulses — the drive toward political confrontation, entwined with skepticism that government will accommodate them — may come to define these students as voters. As a group, they combine liberal social beliefs with an intensely wary view of the existing political and economic order, opinion polls have found. While young people are not uniformly Democratic-leaning or supportive of gun regulation, they are well to the left of the middle in their views. They have moved further toward Democrats since Mr. Trump’s election.
