Where are the millennials?

[Onlooker]

Are there signs that the millennials are taking this race seriously? While they won't be as pro-Hillary as they were pro-Sanders, hopefully the gulf between Trump and Hillary is enough for them to take this race seriously. My impression is that they have largely disappeared from DU, so for me that is a worrying sign. Am i wrong?

[redstatebluegirl]

1. A LOT of them were Bernie or Bust and one issue voters, free tuition.

At least the ones I know and I know a lot after working in higher ed forever. They are telling me that they won't vote at all since all of the Baby Boomers stole the election from Bernie (Bernie is a Boomer by the way).

There are some exceptions, but I have contact with a lot of my former students and this is what I am hearing from them. Many of them honestly don't know how the system works and they quote Bernie as to why they hate Secretary Clinton.

It distresses me, but I understand where they are coming from in a way. They don't have the same opportunities we had at graduation. Salaries are low when they do find a job and they are in student loan debt up to their eyeballs. But they also don't understand why tuition has risen so much. Much of the reason is an increase in the amount of services they require from Universities.

They treat higher ed like they are buying a car, they demand the best housing, the best food, the best student support (hand holding). That costs a lot of money. Plus they don't realize that state funding of higher ed has been eaten away at for the past 20 years so tuition must take up the slack.

I am not unsympathetic but I grow weary of the I want it now mentality.

[still_one]

5. According to the last polls at least 80% said they would be voting for Hillary. Also, your first

OP means they obviously are not even paying attention:

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/07/us/politics/hillary-clinton-bernie-sanders-education.html?_r=0

which makes me wonder if they even have the maturity for college material

I guess they didn't hear Hillary's view on Citizens United, and how she would appoint Supreme Court justices to overturn that.

[redstatebluegirl]

7. I support Secretary Clinton. I know what the polls say, I am responding to what

people of that generation I have contact with are saying. All of them are college educated in a professional field. They don't feel that the system cares about them and they don't think it works for them.

They spent over a year listening to a man they idolized the way I idolized John Kennedy say that Secretary Clinton was more of the same and didn't care about them. They bought it, all of it.

I also say this is not ALL of these young people, but a very large majority. I think saying they didn't have the "maturity for college material" is a pretty rash statement. These are VERY bright young people. The current curriculum doesn't require as much of a broad education as it used to.

Many of them did not pay attention to politics until Bernie. We have to find a way to bring them back in, get them to pay attention again. They were paying attention when Bernie was running but many have quit listening saying we don't get it. They don't read papers the way we do, they find like minded people and get their news from those websites. it is a very different generation.

Not paying attention is not the same as "not the maturity for college".

[LyndaG]

2. Hope they realize how important their votes are

They have a lot to lose if the Republicans are in office. Maybe they are too young to remember the 2000 election debacle?

[bigwillq]

3. Congrats on 400 posts!

[LyndaG]

4. Thank you !!!

[geek tragedy]

6. Young voters are easily the flakiest age group

when it comes to voting. It takes a couple of decades for them to learn how politics and the larger world work.

[Basic LA]

8. They seem to have lost the political thread.

Many, it seems, would be hard pressed to name the political party of FDR or Nixon. Democrat, Republican, it's all a blur, like Sunni or Shia.

I could be wrong.

[CBGLuthier]

9. My children take it very seriously. DU is a very insular community that can be very hard for some to

stomach.