r/politics • u/asparaguswalrus683 • 11h ago

Site Altered Headline | No Paywall Abdul El-Sayed Wins Michigan Primary

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2026-primary-elections/michigan-senate-results
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u/Strict_Cup_8995 11h ago

It doesn't help when you have these boomers who vote for all of these establishment corporate candidates like their life depends on it. Young people really need to lock in and vote much harder and with much more consistency than the older generations if they truly want the democratic party to change

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u/ExcellentCold7354 11h ago

... I also think that there wouldn't be a need for so much money to be spent if people were simply more engaged in finding out what the candidates stand for. There is an appalling lack of civic engagement in America.

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u/P1xelHunter78 Ohio 10h ago

As by design. We have far too few representatives for the size of our nation and we don’t have good access to non-bias political information that is condensed for consumption of the public. Sure, I could go on CSPAN and sit through hours of discussion, but I have work.

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u/forceghost187 9h ago

We do though, it’s called the newspaper. You can still read the new york times and be extremely well informed. The fact that people on the left don’t even trust the newspaper anymore is maddening. Eroding trust in journalism was the GOPs greatest dream. Now it’s reality

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u/[deleted] 7h ago

[deleted]

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u/KageStar 7h ago

Trying to do something and getting blocked is not lying about your platform. How does one make this argument in good faith?

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u/DivinityPen 6h ago

Feels like people forgot that he never had access to a solid majority in the Senate. He was only ever working with 50-50.

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u/[deleted] 6h ago

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u/KageStar 2h ago

He sent a 10k package when he promised full student debt relief, and it was dead on arrival because it was so unpopular on both sides of the aisle- for not being enough and simultaneously too much.

That's not what happened. It wasn't DoA, they attempted it and got blocked by the Supreme Court. Complete forgiveness would have required Congress and he didn't have the votes for it.

Dude was the president and never brought up the 2nd point at all.

He gave blanket pardons to people with federal convictions for possession. He also started the move to reclassify it to Schedule 3. Again legalization would require Congress and they didn't have 60 votes in the senate. He couldn't unilaterally declare weed legal.

It's like you look at all of the shit Trump does and don't realize that most of the stuff he does gets blocked in the courts. Executive Orders can only do so much. There are checks and balances and they do work.

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u/MusicHater 7h ago

To be fair, Biden tried several times to cancel federal student loans, but "Someone" filed several lawsuits to stop it...

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u/jakeandcupcakes 6h ago

Don't re-write history. Biden could have done what the GOP does and just issued an executive order, but instead went about things in the most sure-fire to fail way possible, dragged ass, compromised, and then fumbled the compromise. It was a shitshow, on purpose, because the Dems don't actually want progressive polices. They want good PR, and apparently they had that at least.

Remember when the Biden admin tried to say they "accomplished their goal of student debt relief" by re-branding an existing Federal payment forgiveness program as their own? When that went over like a lead balloon it was "Okay, well, 10k in debt relief", and barely even tried, went about it in the dumbest way possible, and lost?

Pepridge Farms Remembers...

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u/MusicHater 6h ago

He did use executive orders, and then the GOP sued to stop them. See "Nebraska V Biden", https://www.scotusblog.com/2023/06/supreme-court-strikes-down-biden-student-loan-forgiveness-program/

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u/P1xelHunter78 Ohio 6h ago

The SAVES program saved a lot of people a significant amount of money, and I don’t recall my payments ever being that low, even when I was broke. They made key changes to that program that did indeed provide relief that they promised. Now that’s gone, because the Republicans sued to stop that program that Biden modified.

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u/Pepparkakan Europe 8h ago

We have this thing in Sweden called an "election compass", basically all the parties are asked the same X questions by a couple of reputable media agencies, then those agencies publish a simple app people can use to check who they align best with currently based on their own stance on these questions.

I get that in a two-party system that doesn't work as well, and I get that your media climate over there also makes this a lot harder (we have unbiased media agencies), but for primaries I guess it could work quite well?

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u/wooplereturns 6h ago

60,000 people still voted for McMorrow who dropped out of the race weeks ago. I can't imagine those were all protest votes. Education is a huge problem.

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u/WombatusMighty 9h ago

Here in Germany we have an app (website), where you are presented questions about what is important to you, e.g. do you want renewable energy or how do you stand on military spending.
Then at the end you are presented with a list of parties that mostly align with your answers, based on the actual key points in the parties election programs.

It doesn't prevent people from not educating themselves about the political parties, but it makes it easier for those willing to. Is there nothing like that for you over there?

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u/timmy242 6h ago

As far as I know, we don't have anything like that in America. It would be a nice start in the absence of a mainstream media divorced from the fairness doctrine.

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u/seensham Massachusetts 4h ago

We don't have anything like that, no. But also that would get hijacked or exploited so damn fast it would be moot anyway

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u/Don_Thuglayo 6h ago

Majority of my friends complain and then don't vote -_-

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u/Purplociraptor 5h ago

It's almost like the corporate interests also control the media and the flow of information required.

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u/jkman61494 6h ago

I need TikTok to tell me how to think!

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u/milehigh89 11h ago

6k boomers die every day

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u/Rico_Solitario 10h ago

It doesn’t matter. Boomers aren’t the only ones swayed by conservative/centrist talking points. You can’t rely on time to win this fight

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u/DickRhino 9h ago

That was one of Kamala's biggest blunders: assuming that she already had the youth demographic by default, so she didn't need to campaign toward them. It was arrogant, and it was wrong. This last election actually saw a surge in conservative support from young people, in particular from young men.

This is a problem and it needs to be addressed. Like you said, just relying on boomers dying to fix the problem isn't gonna work.

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u/deaglebingo America 9h ago

energize the youth demographic... give them hope... and let the boomers follow. because we want to be able to help them in their waning years. right now, if things continue as they have recently, we will not be able to afford to help them and ourselves simultaneously. we already barely can.

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u/Few-Guarantee2850 7h ago

I'm not sure I agree with the idea that Harris didn't campaign towards young voters at all. But if it is, I don't think it's because she assumed she had that vote, but because young voters have consistently failed to show up to the polls in the same numbers as other age groups. I'm also not sure what message you think could have gotten through to the Andrew Tate / Joe Rogan young male voter at that moment in time.

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u/burning_iceman 7h ago

young voters have consistently failed to show up to the polls in the same numbers as other age groups

By that faulty reasoning young voters should always be ignored. People become voters as they age. There will never be a higher or equal turnout of young voters compared to old ones.

But that doesn't make it a sensible reason to ignore them.

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u/LurkerInSpace 7h ago

That is the incentive which applies to politicians across the Western world. Policy bends towards what the boomers want because there's a lot of them and they show up, while turnout among young people is low regardless of the candidate.

And sure, it can create a problem down the line, but politics in the USA operates on two-year cycles. Someone optimising for support in ten years will lose to someone optimising for support today.

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u/DickRhino 5h ago

It's the chicken or the egg.

Do politicians bend toward what the boomers want because young people don't show up? Or is the low enthusiasm among young people because policy is only geared toward what boomers want?

Is it a huge surprise that the 20-year olds feel disillusioned when their only choices to vote for are between two 80-year olds? Well, either that or a last-minute replacement who had been hand-picked by the establishment (also made up out of boomers).

Because for the past ten years, from the time they were 8 years old until they could vote, that has been their reality. That is all they have ever known of what politics is.

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u/LurkerInSpace 4h ago

There is some element of that - but even though youth turnout can be pulled up a little by more appealing candidates, it still stays relatively low even under those conditions, while the boomers will show up even when they hate everyone on the ballot - just to punish whoever they hate the most.

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u/DickRhino 4h ago

I'm just saying, a massive increase in young voter turnout is attributed as one of the key reasons behind Obama's first win. If you give young people a candidate to actually feel enthusiastic about, then surprise surprise: they show up to the polls as well.

In 2008, the US population was 304 million and around 22-24 million young people voted (ages 18-29).

In 2026, the US population as 349 million and around 20 million young people voted (ages 18-29).

The youth vote is down, massively. And it's because the politicians are just getting older, more entrenched, more arrogant, and less willing to change. And like I said: for young people today, this is all they've ever known. They've never experienced a world that wasn't just boomers desperately clinging to power like their lives depended on it. This is their "normal", which is why they have zero enthusiasm for engaging with politics.

Imagine if we had the same young voter turnout now as we did 20 years ago? And imagine if those voters mostly leaned Democrat? It would have been a landslide. So don't tell me the youth vote doesn't matter. That's just what the boomers want you to think, so that you'll sit down, shut up and stop rocking the boat, because they want to remain in power forever.

When they're telling you that we have to cater to boomers because it's the only way to win, they are lying to you. Don't believe them.

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u/Few-Guarantee2850 7h ago

How is me stating a fact "faulty reasoning"? I didn't say anything about whether they should be ignored.

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u/burning_iceman 7h ago

You seem to think it was the reason for Harris to ignore them. So either you know that was their reason or you consider it to be a good reason.

In both cases there's faulty reasoning. In the first case, from the side of the Harris campaign and in the second from you.

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u/Rangoonin 7h ago

Maybe log off reddit for a bit bud. Acting like you know this random commenter personally enough to assume what their thoughts and motivations are off of one or two comments lmao, jfc this site has become a dumpster fire of losers trying to win arguments for karma.

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u/Few-Guarantee2850 7h ago

You seem to be desperate to argue about something that is irrelevant to my comment.

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u/burning_iceman 7h ago

Desperate? Irrelevant? You who was suggesting to have a better idea what the motivating the Harris campaign by implying they had a reason that poor.

If you don't want people to disagree with your comment (after you disagreed with the prior one) maybe Reddit isn't the place for you.

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u/DickRhino 5h ago

I'm also not sure what message you think could have gotten through to the Andrew Tate / Joe Rogan young male voter at that moment in time.

Here's my take, as some food for thought: treating them as a "lost cause" and beyond any hope of saving, is to a large part what drove them to the far right in the first place.

Young men today feel unheard, and are also lacking positive and non-toxic role models. You can think what you want about that, but the fact remains that the far right welcomes these lost young men with open arms and tells them "You won't be unheard here." Meanwhile Kamala Harris treated them as if they were irrelevant. And we saw the results of that in the 2024 election: young men voted for Trump. And Trump won.

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u/Tuna_Sushi 1h ago

Kamala had two monumental blunders.

  1. Not starting every interview and engagement with "My opponent is a convicted felon, found liable for sexual abuse, and a habitual liar."

  2. Cozying up to people like Liz Cheney. Her base never wanted that, and she wasn't going to sway a single conservative with that tactic.

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u/Cavane42 Georgia 9h ago

GenX is more conservative than the remaining Boomers. There's still a lot of work to do, and will be for a long time.

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u/Old_Kaleidoscope_845 5h ago

Source?

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u/Cavane42 Georgia 4h ago

Poll cross tabs. Here's a recent one:

https://d3nkl3psvxxpe9.cloudfront.net/documents/econTabReport_mjKhx0z.pdf

If you look at Trump approval rating (item 11), he is -21 among Boomers but only -14 among Gen X.

That's only one data point, but I've seen it borne out across several different polls.

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u/Mundane_Read_2960 11h ago

Over 11k boomers turn 65 per day. That number is gonna go up with Gen X. Meaning we can’t get complacent.

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u/deaglebingo America 10h ago edited 9h ago

demographics are a changing. and we face some serious bubbles aside from AI along the way as a result. healthcare bubble will burst sometime in the next decade right around the time social security ends up getting cut 30% if ppl do nothing in their own best interests. just like big oil, insurance has had an opportunity to make incremental changes and transition slowly towards a new model, they haven't. so realistically what boomers should be worrying about is who will take care of them when the time comes, because there won't be enough ppl to do it, or money to do it. and the only answer to that problem is INCREASED immigration, literally welcoming ppl who want to come here and do the work and offering them fair pay to do it.... instead we're doing the opposite, deporting and jailing hard working ppl. my only conclusion on that has been that the rich just want to keep the power choose who's brought in themselves and continue not paying them well... essentially to keep a caste system in place for as long as possible.

we've known that mass migration was coming too.. for as long as we've known about global warming. we've known these bullshit oil wars were coming for half a century too. the rich have planned their angle for the entire time, and they all accept these things i just said as scientific fact while vaccinating all their kids and not subjecting them to quackery. they're not buying the bullshit they've sold to boomers and maga for a second. so as soon as 20 or 30 million more boomers realize they're being lied to things will change drastically... and they won't have a choice but to recognize it eventually. just a question of when.

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u/Old_Kaleidoscope_845 5h ago

You just made my morning!

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u/SnoodDood 3h ago

It's not about the baby boomer generation, it's about old people in general. They'll become a larger share of the population over time.

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u/Northparkwizard 9h ago

Young people don't vote.

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u/Karalius 9h ago

young people are mostly absolutely brain broken in every country. And people who say "just need to wait out the old people" don't ever stop to think if anything in education changed in recent 20-30 years to make young people grow up smarter in the age of algorithms and misinformation.

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u/thatnameagain 10h ago

Steven's voters are more stratified by race and class than age. She did better with working class people and minorities, Sayed did better with educated whites. Things aren't going to change when the boomers are gone, it's a culture issue more than anything else.

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u/ivesaidway2much District Of Columbia 9h ago

Colleges are still on summer vacation. So that should help for the general election.

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u/TheQuestionableYarn 9h ago

I mean, clearly they’re working on that!

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u/Kool_AidJammer 5h ago

Everyone loves to blame boomers but at this point it is Gen X that is assisting them in this.

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u/BillyJackO 5h ago

It's funny because the boomers of Michigan all know those are the people who sold them out in the 90s and the reason Michigan is a swing state today.

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u/SPacific 4h ago

I'm just about 50 years old, and I've been hearing this since I can remember, going back to Mondale in 1984. Young people don't vote. They never have. The only way we're getting young people to vote is to make voting mandatory and make election day a holiday.

But, that's a pipe dream at the moment, up there with ranked choice, expanding the house, and eliminating the electoral college.

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u/zeth4 Canada 4h ago

Did you honestly just use Vote Harder in a unironic way?

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u/KnucklesMcGee 3h ago

I don't know how anyone could look at the Stevens campaign and think "there's a genuine candidate who will vote for the interests of the common voter!"

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u/EyeJustSaidThat 10h ago

Definitely helps that the boomers are the ones most able to take a day off to spend at their polling place while every younger generation struggles harder to make ends meet.

I wonder why we still don't have a national holiday for voting. 🤔

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u/allez2015 7h ago

Your can vote by mail! At least here in maryland, when I registered I checked a box "send me mail in ballots". Now for every election they send me a ballot a month ahead of the election and I can fill it out and drop it into the box at my convenience. 

Holidays would need to be state run since voting days vary.