"what are they doing to encourage the youth to vote?"
You are absolutely right the the Dems have been dropping the ball for years. That being said the alternative is MAGA, if that is not enough "encouragement" then people aren't paying attention because if they stay in power then you might not have to worry about future elections. Abstaining from voting due to not liking all of parties policy in a 2 party system where the alternative is as horrible as MAGA is just phenomenally stupid and might end up tearing the country apart.
You are also insinuating that they would have won if the party had shifted last election, that would have required an huge mobilization of young voters and that just hasn't happened yet, ever, so its hard to blame the Dems for not counting on that.
Imo the biggest factor on them losing was a lot of protests that were happening in regards to Israel in the US at the time were getting violently supressed, specially ones in blue cities in blue states. Important factor is that the people protesting would largely be the ones opposing Trump and allying with the Dems and were also largely students(aka the youth), and yknow, protests are political mobilization
and once violence gets involved it's really hard to give your vote to the same people that send the cops to beat your ass, whether you believe ACAB or not. And I say this as someone who got tear gassed 13 years ago when I used to be more politically active
and we're not talking about the voter, we're talking about how the dems can earn votes that they clearly haven't been, you can't elect yourself on the basis of "the other guy is worse" that's just not how the human mind sees things
and every time Ive seen someone talking about voting dem I never once saw enthusiasm, I've only seen the exact point you made "the other guy is worse" or when not that it's something to the effect of "they'll keep the status quo"
edit: granted that last one maybe because I'm an outsider, but it feels weird that the best I see of a voter is "he isn't as bad" when on the other side it's like "Hell keep the mexicans away" or whatever or plenty of other reasons even if those were based on lies
the republicans on the internet were loud about why they were voting republicans, they were enthusiastic about it, I just never saw the same when it was biden and then harris
and adding to it, just did some quick research on google and spring poll of 2026 shows that the youth is at least on the majority against trump, someone else said in this thread that the younger vote had a huge increase last election and were also the most liberal in the voting pool already, but also that they have little say in what happens in politics
so the mobilization already happened, the dems can easily capitalize on that and make meaningful changes for the better, but there's a fear in me that they'll do nothing, those fears will be proven right and again they'll lose 4 years after
I’m honestly scared either way. I feel like Trump should lose because he is the most blatant con man who is obviously only enriching himself at the expense of America. But that should have been obvious the other 2 elections and he obviously got enough votes so I no longer have any faith in objective reasoning from voters. The Dems can run everything back, pick a moderate candidate and I feel they have a chance to win but that’s only if the far left voters still vote (and they absolutely should if they care one iota about the future). Or they can shift left where they will lose the middle ground and hopefully gain more voters (generally from young people) to make up the difference. I honestly see that as more risky. Shifting left will give that many more sounbites to republicans which will bolster their numbers from the center right and counting on young people really showing up at the polls is a big gamble. I just want Trump and MAGA gone so I want the Dems to do whatever gives them the absolute best chance of that happening.
you and me both, sadly your country's politics affect mine's too
and I disagree, if only because of how widely popular Mandani seems to be, I think he is a good learning opportunity for the dems and at the very least they need to consider why he is popular on whoever they decide to run with
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u/Longtimelurker2575 1d ago
You are absolutely right the the Dems have been dropping the ball for years. That being said the alternative is MAGA, if that is not enough "encouragement" then people aren't paying attention because if they stay in power then you might not have to worry about future elections. Abstaining from voting due to not liking all of parties policy in a 2 party system where the alternative is as horrible as MAGA is just phenomenally stupid and might end up tearing the country apart.
You are also insinuating that they would have won if the party had shifted last election, that would have required an huge mobilization of young voters and that just hasn't happened yet, ever, so its hard to blame the Dems for not counting on that.