What does the GOP offer to appeal to "Millennial" voters? (born post-1980)

[sg0508]

The Millennial have absolutely killed the Republicans, although many would say the GOP killed itself.  That being said, the GOP has lost states like: CO, VA, NC (possibly), and even partly in FL because they are not appealing to younger voters. 

Millennials:

1) 90% of what they care about concerns social issues, which are far more liberal on a national front
2) 10% is economics, largely because Millennials often don't care about fiscal responsibility and since many feel entitled to be taken care of by the gov't and those that have put in their time
3) Far less religious overall than the national mean

While many seem to think the Millennials could actually the generation under which the economy and country blows up, due to diminishing quality of education, lack of overall work-ethic and lack of overall responsibility, plus entitlement, the Democrats seem to cater far better to this generation.

What does the GOP offer, if anything to the dot.comers and if the answer is "nothing", then what?

[Frodo]

Nothing really -I feel they have lost my generation completely.  Better luck with the next one coming up....   

[bgwah]

They are obviously horrendous on social issues, but as someone who is fairly centrist on economic & fiscal issues, I don't really see much to like about the GOP in that area either.

[Blue3]

The Millennial have absolutely killed the Republicans, although many would say the GOP killed itself.  That being said, the GOP has lost states like: CO, VA, NC (possibly), and even partly in FL because they are not appealing to younger voters. 

Millennials:

1) 90% of what they care about concerns social issues, which are far more liberal on a national front
2) 10% is economics, largely because Millennials often don't care about fiscal responsibility and since many feel entitled to be taken care of by the gov't and those that have put in their time
3) Far less religious overall than the national mean

While many seem to think the Millennials could actually the generation under which the economy and country blows up, due to diminishing quality of education, lack of overall work-ethic and lack of overall responsibility, plus entitlement, the Democrats seem to cater far better to this generation.

What does the GOP offer, if anything to the dot.comers and if the answer is "nothing", then what?

Maybe the GOP could stop thinking about Millennials in the way described by this OP?

[All Along The Watchtower]

largely because Millennials often don't care about fiscal responsibility and since many feel entitled to be taken care of by the gov't and those that have put in their time

[IceSpear]

Translation: "Damn, how can we possibly get these stupid and entitled millennials to vote against their own interests? They won't even respond to our dog whistles!"

[DINGO Joe]

Benghazi

[Person Man]

This sort of elitist thinking is what totally killed the Democratic brand in the south and in rural/exurban communities.

"These kids are f[inks]ed!" is no different than saying "No wonder why these hicks are poor!"

[GaussLaw]

http://generationopportunity.org/#axzz33LTptS7n

This is a pretty decent website trying to attract the youth to the GOP.  Clearly libertarianism is appealing to some of the youth.

Also, I've posted this before, and it bears repeating.  Romney won the 18-20 year old demographic.  You read that correctly.  Now, the poll may not be perfect, but it seems to line up well with other analyses and it was cited by Nate Silver as evidence of generational changes in voting.
http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/DC-Decoder/Decoder-Buzz/2014/0328/Young-voters-more-Democratic-That-s-not-the-whole-story


Richer millenials(at this point, mostly engineers and members of a few other select occupations) are almost certainly more conservative than the poorer ones.  To those who do make a comfortable living of $80,000-$90,000/year (a decent number of engineers fit this description), the argument for lower taxes (which is definitely a draw at STATE-level races) would be fairly enticing. 


The GOP's biggest problems with millenials overall are as follows:
1) They're poorer/browner(more minorities) than average.
2) Many of them turned 18 when Bush 2 was President
3) They're socially liberal.

However, Romney's 18-20 year old performance proves that this isn't insurmountable. 

I personally think that millenials would in their best interests vote Democratic on average, but for some of the wealthier ones, that would probably not be the case.

[sg0508]

http://generationopportunity.org/#axzz33LTptS7n

This is a pretty decent website trying to attract the youth to the GOP.  Clearly libertarianism is appealing to some of the youth.

Also, I've posted this before, and it bears repeating.  Romney won the 18-20 year old demographic.  You read that correctly.  Now, the poll may not be perfect, but it seems to line up well with other analyses and it was cited by Nate Silver as evidence of generational changes in voting.
http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/DC-Decoder/Decoder-Buzz/2014/0328/Young-voters-more-Democratic-That-s-not-the-whole-story


Richer millenials(at this point, mostly engineers and members of a few other select occupations) are almost certainly more conservative than the poorer ones.  To those who do make a comfortable living of $80,000-$90,000/year (a decent number of engineers fit this description), the argument for lower taxes (which is definitely a draw at STATE-level races) would be fairly enticing.  


The GOP's biggest problems with millenials overall are as follows:
1) They're poorer/browner(more minorities) than average.
2) Many of them turned 18 when Bush 2 was President
3) They're socially liberal.

However, Romney's 18-20 year old performance proves that this isn't insurmountable.  

I personally think that millenials would in their best interests vote Democratic on average, but for some of the wealthier ones, that would probably not be the case.

I'm from Long Island, NY.  Even white Millennials who come from money and who have a decent education and make a good living are still voting Democratic for the most part and remember, LI prior to the 90s was strictly GOP territory.  Where I come from, you have quite a few financial professionals, including accountants/attorneys and most up here that I know of tend to vote Democratic.

Your #2/#3 hit the nail on the head and to add a #4, many of the Millennials were exposed to politics for the first time when BILL CLINTON was president under the dot.com boom and saw his presidency as a success....then, they saw Bush come in and under their perception, he blew it up. Let's not forget that Karl Rove's basic strategy in 2004 was to draw out enough conservatives to the polls in key states by running a bigtime anti-gay marriage campaign against a relatively weak John Kerry.  That was the last time I voted Republican at the presidential level (I'm 30 now).  The 2000 version of George Bush wasn't that unattractive to younger voters, although Gore did well with them (largely as I said, due to Clinton's presidency), but 2004 and Bush's second terms did a lot of damage with the youth vote.

[Oldiesfreak1854]

Libertarian positions on national security issues and even some social issues.  In fact, many Millennials would consider themselves "spiritual but not religious," and polls suggest that they may be more prolife than previous generations on abortion.

[GaussLaw]

http://generationopportunity.org/#axzz33LTptS7n

This is a pretty decent website trying to attract the youth to the GOP.  Clearly libertarianism is appealing to some of the youth.

Also, I've posted this before, and it bears repeating.  Romney won the 18-20 year old demographic.  You read that correctly.  Now, the poll may not be perfect, but it seems to line up well with other analyses and it was cited by Nate Silver as evidence of generational changes in voting.
http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/DC-Decoder/Decoder-Buzz/2014/0328/Young-voters-more-Democratic-That-s-not-the-whole-story


Richer millenials(at this point, mostly engineers and members of a few other select occupations) are almost certainly more conservative than the poorer ones.  To those who do make a comfortable living of $80,000-$90,000/year (a decent number of engineers fit this description), the argument for lower taxes (which is definitely a draw at STATE-level races) would be fairly enticing.  


The GOP's biggest problems with millenials overall are as follows:
1) They're poorer/browner(more minorities) than average.
2) Many of them turned 18 when Bush 2 was President
3) They're socially liberal.

However, Romney's 18-20 year old performance proves that this isn't insurmountable.  

I personally think that millenials would in their best interests vote Democratic on average, but for some of the wealthier ones, that would probably not be the case.

I'm from Long Island, NY.  Even white Millennials who come from money and who have a decent education and make a good living are still voting Democratic for the most part and remember, LI prior to the 90s was strictly GOP territory.  Where I come from, you have quite a few financial professionals, including accountants/attorneys and most up here that I know of tend to vote Democratic.

Your #2/#3 hit the nail on the head and to add a #4, many of the Millennials were exposed to politics for the first time when BILL CLINTON was president under the dot.com boom and saw his presidency as a success....then, they saw Bush come in and under their perception, he blew it up. Let's not forget that Karl Rove's basic strategy in 2004 was to draw out enough conservatives to the polls in key states by running a bigtime anti-gay marriage campaign against a relatively weak John Kerry.  That was the last time I voted Republican at the presidential level (I'm 30 now).  The 2000 version of George Bush wasn't that unattractive to younger voters, although Gore did well with them (largely as I said, due to Clinton's presidency), but 2004 and Bush's second terms did a lot of damage with the youth vote.

I agree completely with what you said.  

Note that in Long Island, it's definitely true.  I guarantee you that young, relatively affluent rich white males in places like Houston, Indianapolis, OKC, Charlotte, Cincinatti,Tulsa, Kansas City, Louisville, Jacksonville, Dallas, etc.  are almost certainly lean GOP.  

But Clinton/Bush definitely has a big impact on the millenials who are under 22/23 right now.  On the other hand, people who will turn 18 in the future will not be very liberal in my opinion.  The exit polls show that young millenials are not keen on Obama, and I think this will intensify as the younger ones have little memory of Bush.  Basically, I'm saying that millenials shouldn't all be grouped together anymore given that the younger ones appear to be a new breed.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

In fact, many Millennials would consider themselves "spiritual but not religious,"

You're aware that politically and to an extent sociologically this largely functions the same as being completely irreligious, right?

[sg0508]

While we weren't old enough to vote (at least most of us) back in 2000, John McCain's 2000 run was seen as heroic to many moderate republicans (as I was) and could have altered the political landscape for the Millennials had somehow, he won the primary. 

[Mister Mets]

There may be a few policy agreements on economic issues and affirmative action. The main thing would be to offer new ideas, at least as far as younger voters are concerned. First/ second-time voters will have only known Clinton, George W Bush and Obama as presidents, so it's relatively easy for a Republican candidate to have an alternative to that.

[Non Swing Voter]

They have nothing to offer the vast majority of millenials.  Even people born after 1980 I know who make well over 200K a year don't vote Republican because of the social issues.

If the social issues were removed they'd probably still lose millenials but I could see them getting as much as 45% of them.

I guess there are some millenials that oppose abortion, so they have that going for them I guess.

They need to just shut their bigoted mouths about gay marriage though or they'll never get even a respectable share of voters born after 1980.

[Heimdal]

What have the Democrats to offer? Other than unemployment and the so called "social issues"?

[International Brotherhood of Bernard]

What have the Democrats to offer? Other than unemployment and the so called "social issues"?

Not hating the poor, minorities, and gays, not wanting to go to war at every provocation, and generally not acting nearly as dickish as the other side.

[DC Al Fine]

What have the Democrats to offer? Other than unemployment and the so called "social issues"?

Not hating the poor, minorities, and gays, not wanting to go to war at every provocation, and generally not acting nearly as dickish as the other side.

I dispute that.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

I'd rather not say something like "They can't and they better just hope the next generation is more conservative" as it's so similar to all the "This state is GONE FOREVER!" stuff the insufferable hacks on this area post, but honestly it's probably true. Previous generations are shown to be shaped by the first party they voted for and there's no indication this is going to be an exception. The biggest problem is that the follow up to Bush was the Tea Party crazies, who I think also probably INCREASED support for say single-payer health care amongst millennials, ten years from now if some Democratic President tries to pass it it won't be seen as some scary thing and the "OMG SOCIALISM" opposition will be associated with crazies.

[The Mikado]

Maybe the demographic born between, say, 1980 and 1992 is exceptionally hostile to the GOP, but Democrats shouldn't gloat too much considering that a new generation who knew not George W. Bush shall arise eventually.

[Rockefeller GOP]

What have the Democrats to offer? Other than unemployment and the so called "social issues"?

Not hating the poor, minorities, and gays, not wanting to go to war at every provocation, and generally not acting nearly as dickish as the other side.

I dispute that.

I STRONGLY dispute that ... Have we really sunk so low into bitter partisanship that we're trying to politicize foreign policy views??  Both far back and recent history has proven time and time again that there's no tangible difference between the two parties on foreign policy.  Party in power likes war, party not in power criticizes war.

[Never]

What have the Democrats to offer? Other than unemployment and the so called "social issues"?

Not hating the poor, minorities, and gays, not wanting to go to war at every provocation, and generally not acting nearly as dickish as the other side.

I dispute that.

I STRONGLY dispute that ... Have we really sunk so low into bitter partisanship that we're trying to politicize foreign policy views??  Both far back and recent history has proven time and time again that there's no tangible difference between the two parties on foreign policy.  Party in power likes war, party not in power criticizes war.

This is laughably absurd.  If Gore was President we wouldn't have invaded Iraq.

That's only part of the story. If Gore were President, we still would have invaded Afghanistan... and one way or another, The War on Terror would have happened.

Fundamentally, it seems that parties in power have fewer qualms about war than the opposition.

Now, back to the originial question. I do think that the GOP could offer Millennials fiscal responsibility, but to be honest, I don't view this particular generation as valuing thriftiness, so I doubt that Republicans will be able to make inroads in this regard.

On social issues, it seems like the Millennials will just latch on whatever seems popular without really analyzing the deeper significance of any issue. Since Republicans don't generally pander to groups or causes on a whim, it doesn't seem like the party is all that suited to the Millennial way of thinking on social issues.

Even though Republicans might not have much to offer to the eariler Millennial voters, it's entirely possible that this won't matter in the long run, considering that Romney actually won voters between the ages of 18 and 20. Since this is a relatively small group, it is unclear whether this resurgence in support for Republicans means that these new voters are a new generation or the later part of the Millenials, but it is still something to think about.

[IceSpear]

Since Republicans don't generally pander to groups or causes on a whim

HAHAHAHAHAHA

[Never]

Since Republicans don't generally pander to groups or causes on a whim

HAHAHAHAHAHA

For one, the so-called "War on Women" narrative is never something that Republicans would use.