Winning the Millennials

 

By John Feehery 

Andrew Kohut of the Pew Charitable Trust released an interesting snapshot of America’s youngest voters. 

 Calling it “A Portrait of the Millennial as a Young Adult”, Kohut says that voters from ages 18 to 29 are “confident, self-expressive, liberal, upbeat and open to change. They are more ethnically and racially diverse than older adults. They’re less religious, less likely to have served in the military, and are on track to become the most educated generation in American history.  Their entry into careers and first jobs has been badly set back by the Great Recession, but they are more upbeat than their elders about their own economic futures as well as about the overall state of the nation.”

 

They are also the most connected generation.  They are likely to sleep with their cell phones, and they pretty much all are on Facebook.  They loved Obama when he ran for President, but they don’t love him as much right now.  While they are liberal in their orientation, they also are more respectful of their parents and their number one goal in life, according to Kohut, is to get married and have a family. 

 

For Republicans, this poll is a roadmap for their political future.  They can write the millennials off (and hope that they don’t turn up in the next twenty elections) or they can adjust their rhetoric and rethink their strategic goals in order to come up with an agenda that can inspire younger Americans to vote for positive change.

 

Younger voters are the first truly on-demand generation.  They were the first to embrace the Iphone world.  Their television viewing habits have destroyed the old paradigms of media communication.  They don’t read newspapers anymore.  They are much more used to diversity in the workforce, diversity in school, and with splintered media world, this more diverse world has more power to decide how it wants to be informed and entertained. 

 

This on-demand generation expects the political world to respond to its on-demand demands.  And if the politicians fail to deliver, the millennials will move on.

 

The millennials are used to change.  In fact, they embrace it.  They have collective attention deficit disorder.  They are also are confident about the future.  Unlike so many baby-boomers who are going through a massive mid-life crisis, the youngsters generally think the future will be bright for them.

 

Millenials are also creative and probably the most educated generation in American history.  That is why they are the most confident about the future, because they know that we are moving from the information age to the creativity age. 

 

Because we now have so much power at our fingertips to learn, to create, to share, and to inform, creativity will soon be king (if that isn’t already the case).  The millennials are way ahead of every other generation when it comes to embracing all of the aspects of the Creative Revolution.

 

We really saw the first glimpses of the Creative Revolution during the Obama campaign.  You had the Obama Girl videos, the short code revolution, the mass mobilization parties done through Twitter and Facebook. 

 

Conservatives turned this revolution on its head with the Tea Party movement.  It should have been no surprise that Ron Paul won the straw poll at the CPAC, because more than any other Republican politician, he has embraced the tenets of the Creative Revolution.  His libertarian principles play well with an on-demand generation that simply want the government to stay out of their bedrooms and out of their private lives. 

 

The Republicans should have a slight edge over Democrats in winning over the millennials.  While Democrats tend to stress their love of the creative class, in actuality, they favor older government structures and work-rules that are out-of-date with modern times.  Their view of the on-demand world is that the government demands how businesses and employees collaborate. 

 

While Republicans may seem out-of-step with millennials, especially because their social conservatives have such hostility to gay rights and insist so ardently for traditional values, the free-market principles of the party, which stress a light touch on regulation and more freedom to allow a rapidly changing market place evolve on its own, should work well with younger voters who see all of the opportunities that come from the Creative Revolution. 

 

The challenge for Republicans is to come up with a compelling issue matrix aimed at unleashing the Creative Revolution.  That will give all Americans the best tools to cope and thrive a rapidly evolving society, and perhaps give milliennials a better reason for vote for the GOP in the next election.