Harvard Poll: Millennials Get Wise and Start Souring on Obama, Political Parties

There’s a new poll out from the Institute of Politics at
Harvard. They’ve been tracking Millennials (18 to 29 year olds) for
a while and the latest results show that the kids today are hip to
the fact that President Barack Obama isn’t what he was cracked up
to be.

Since being re-elected last November, Obama’s numbers have
tanked thus:

A similar trend covers both parties in Congress. Can you believe
it? The president and both major parties spend huge amounts of
money, rake in record levels of taxes, and younger Americans still
can’t stand them? These kids just might be all right.

Man, and that’s just the beginning of the bad news for the
establishment. What is it that Bob Dylan used to sing? Something
about the times, they are a-changin’? Indeed, even Millennial views
on the president’s signature legislative achievement (no, not
massively prolonged levels of unemployment – the other one) are
pretty sour too.

They don’t like or trust Obamacare to make health care cheaper
or better, either:

There’s little enthusiasm – certainly no growth – for either
major party, and (not pictured) about as much enthusiasm for the
midterms elections as there is for a bowl of cold spinach soup.

The pollsters at Harvard conclude something that
will be familiar to regular Reason readers. The two-party
duopoly is as played out among younger Americans as it is among
older ones. And with dissatisfaction comes the possibility of
change:

Millennials have come of age in an era of openness, whether
that’s in their online identities or in the way they engage in the
public square.  They have been telling us for some time that
they have disapproved of the way Washington has been operating and
the status quo is not acceptable.  If we listen carefully,
they are now beginning to tell us about their economic priorities
for the future as well.  Both parties and branches of
government are ignoring them at their own peril.

Read the whole poll here.

There’s a clear
sense that Americans in general are trending libertarian. That is,
they generally think the government has too much and is trying to
do too many things better left to individuals and businessess. They
are increasingly tolerant of a wide array of lifestyles and things
such as pot legalization. They want a government that spends less
and does less (but does what it does effectively). All of those
general impulses are stronger still among younger voters. While
there’s not a perfect overlap with a libertarian worldview, there’s
clearly movement in the direction of “Free Minds and Free
Markets.”

Which is, dare I say it, a great reason to make a tax-deductible
donation to Reason Foundation, the nonprofit that publishes
this website, during our annual webathon. Nobody is doing more than
us to elucidate the peril of the status quo to younger Americans
than Reason (we’ve even called for “Generational
Warfare,” for heaven’s sake). And nobody is doing more to limn
the possibilities of a
libertarian world in which individuals and groups are more free
than ever to live their lives as a work of art, to innovate,
experiment, and build what Robert Nozick called a “utopia of
utopias.”

So please, give what you
can!

Dare I say it? It’s for the children!