Social Issues, Not Economics, Largely Define Political Labels for Millennials

Reason-Rupe has a new survey and report out on
millennials—find the report
here.

Compared to Americans over 30, millennials are half as likely to
identify as politically conservative (14% to 34%), and nearly twice
as likely to say they’re liberal (25% to 14%). The latest
Reason-Rupe study of millennials finds their political
ideologies may largely be an expression of their social and
cultural values more than their economic policy preferences. In
fact their social values are what draws them closer to President
Obama, more than their economic policy preferences.

Overall, 30 percent of millennials say they are moderate, 25
percent liberal, 14 percent conservative, 7 percent libertarian, 7
percent progressive, and 17 percent say they are “something
else.”

Does Liberal Mean “Liberal”?

The fact that millennials are so much more comfortable using the
liberal label and less willing to use the conservative one raises
several questions. Does the word “liberal” mean something different
to millennials than older cohorts? Does it convey liberal policy
preferences across both social and economic issues?

It appears that liberal millennials do distinguish between
social and economic liberalism: 67 percent indicate they are strong
social liberals while only 49 percent say they are strong economic
liberals. In fact, when
liberal millennials used their own words to explain why they are
liberal, only 32 percent mentioned both economic and
social issues. Fully a third (33%) only described their liberal
label based on social tolerance, inclusivity, and personal
freedom.

Ideology in Their Own Words

To better understand what these political labels mean to
millennials, they were asked
to use their own words to explain why they describe
themselves as a liberal, moderate, conservative, libertarian, or
progressive. The results indicate that social issues largely define
these terms, particularly for liberal millennials.

Coding millennials’ responses reveals that for most liberal and
progressive millennials, their ideological label primarily reflects
social liberalism, not necessarily economic liberalism. Overall, 68
percent of self-identified liberals’ explanations mentioned
elements of social tolerance and personal freedom, while only 35
percent mentioned economics. Progressives were similar on social
issues (64%), but more mentioned economics (47%).

Conservative millennials are considerably less likely than
liberals to rely on social matters to define their label. Instead,
conservatives’ affiliation equally conveys their views on both
economics (41%) and social issues (41%). For libertarians, economic
conservatism (67%) as well as social liberalism (48%) define
libertarians’ label. Among all millennials, 37 percent mentioned
something about social issues and 27 percent mentioned economics.
(More found here).

To read a selection of millennials actual responses, click
through the following slideshow: