First, some background...
I’ve pointed out repeatedly that the public at large is no longer interested in race.
With 80+% of the public ignoring issues like the Washington Redskin’s name, all but a few thousand people ignoring race-baiting rallies like those in Ferguson, and with only around 20% of Americans thinking that whites and Hispanics are racist, it is safe to say that the public no longer cares about race issues. Indeed, this has become an issue relegated to the fringes.
That is a major win for actual conservatism, as compared to paranoid, race-obsessed “genuine” conservatism or the identity-politics-obsessed left. Indeed, while the left needs everyone to see themselves through their race and hate and fear people of other races and genuine conservatism needs to believe that the darkies are conspiring to destroy white, Christian America, actual conservatism wants a color-blind society. In other words, actual conservatism wants a society in which race isn’t an issue. The public ignoring race is exactly what actual conservatism is about.
So how do Millennials fit into this? Well...
Politico just put out an interesting article in which they try to warn the left that Millennials are not as tolerant as the left wants to believe. This is interesting on several levels. First, it confirms something else I’ve pointed out, which is that while the left has claimed kinship with Millennials, Millennials are showing much more conservatism than the left imagined... so much, in fact, that they are likely to become a conservative-dominant generation.
The reason no one has noticed this until recently is that the left plays the game of “if you keep saying it, it will one day be true,” and the right falls for this. Strengthening this idea, Millennials are very tolerant of gay marriage, which has caused the genuine conservatives to treat them as the enemy. The end result is that everyone has wrongly assumed that Millennials are all leftists, even as the evidence is mounting that they are conservative fiscally and on most social issues, with the exception of gay marriage and drug legalization. (As an aside, they are actually more conservative on many issues like divorce.)
Now we add the issue of race to the puzzle.
This Politico article noted, to the author’s horror, that while it is widely believed that Millennials are “tolerant” of racial issues, the rotten truth is that “the data suggests that millennials aren’t racially tolerant, they’re racially apathetic: They simply ignore structural racism rather than try to fix it.” Oh no!!
What does this mean? It means that Millennials don’t buy into the idea of identity politics. Instead, they simply choose to ignore the issue of race and claims of racism. That means they have adopted the actual conservative position on race!
Victory for us!!
How strong is our victory, you ask? It’s overwhelming actually:
● Only 39% of Millennials believe that “white people have more opportunities today than racial minority groups.” In other words, only 39% believe racial discrimination exists in our economy.That means that approximately 60% of Millennials are taking the conservative position on race relations by denying and/or ignoring the issue. And with around 80% of the public denying that the public is racist at all, this is one heck of a conservative victory. It is also an opportunity to point out again to conservatives and Millennials that they believe the same things.
● 70% of Millennials oppose affirmative action or other legislative help for minorities: “it is never fair to give preferential treatment to one race over another, regardless of historical inequalities.”
● 62% of Millennials agreed that Obama’s election “demonstrates that racial minority groups have the same opportunities as white people.”
● 58% of Millennials believe that discrimination affects whites as much as minorities. This is an heretical position on the left.
Thoughts?
33 comments:
:-)
Kit, I take it you like the article?
Yep.
Glad to hear it.
Excellent post, Andrew!
That's good news. Another conservative position that millenials have taken is in regart to video games, as the gamergate fiasco has proven.
Millennials ain't falling for the uberfeminist propaganda that gaming is inherently sexist, or that most young women are terrified of gaming.
Even a lot of liberal gamers see through this, since they obviously play video games and know that most gamers aren't racist or sexist.
Indeed, every year, more women play video games and the latest statistics show that 48% of gamers are now women.
Millenials will not accept the "social justice warrior" propaganda about race or sexism, instead, opting for the truth that this has become less of a problem with each passing year.
And indeed, among most Americans this is no problem at all, despite what the Sharptons and anti-gamer feminists say.
While I would like to see millenials better educated about US History, civics and economics, I see this as a good sign, overall.
NO! THEY'RE A BUNCH OF COMMUNIST BUMS! ALL COMMUNIST BUMS! THAT'S WHY WE CAN'T WIN THEM OVER!
Andrew,
How they vote also reflects their conservatism. Do they vote Dem or Rep?
Bob
Has anyone in recent decades seriously advanced the argument that a majority of whites were in favor of government intervention to solve social inequality post-Civil Rights Act? In that younger whites seem to be in line with older whites.
My sense is that the younger generation is libertarian on social issues and conservative on fiscal issues (something broadly true of the rest of the country).
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When people are asked, for example, “How much needs to be done in order to achieve Martin Luther King’s dream of racial equality?” the gap between white millennials and millennials of color (all those who don’t identify as white) are wide. And once again, millennials are shown to be no more progressive than older generations: Among millennials, 42 percent of whites answer that “a lot” must be done to achieve racial equality, compared to 41 percent of white Gen Xers and 44 percent of white boomers.
Read more: http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2015/03/millenials-race-115909.html#ixzz3U4q7i7Yp
My 3 boys range in age from 31 to 21. The oldest one is a relatively conservative, practicing Roman Catholic, but he rarely gets livid over things. The two younger ones are very conservative on spending, guns, and some other issues, but could care less about gay marriage, etc. Interestingly all of them have friends of various races and these friends are the same way they are.
Thanks Ben! I'm seeing a lot of evidence on many fronts that Millennials are essentially conservative (though with a libertarian bent) in nature. I think the left is catching on to this and they're pretty upset because they had been counting on Millennials being leftists.
I don't know much about Gamegate, but I understand the left really overplayed their hand and turned off a lot of people.
Thank you, Mr. Limbaugh, er, Kit. LOL!
Anthony, I think that's right. Millennials are basically mirroring the prior generations politically and the result is fiscally conservative, socially libertarian. That said, Millennials do have stronger, conservative morality than the Boomers... not on the hot button issues of gays and drugs, but on other issues. In particular, they've shown themselves to really despise divorce and they seem to reject moral relativism.
The end result is that Millennials do appear to be the future of conservatism once the current generation is gone. The current crop (fringe right) seem to turn Millennials off a lot.
Bob, In 2008, they voted for Obama. In 2012, they abandoned him and didn't vote. Basically, like all prior generations of young people, they aren't voting yet.
Critch, I genuinely see that as becoming the American attitude -- conservative fiscal policy, mostly libertarian social policy, strongly in favor of certain freedoms like gun rights and freedom "of the internet." Very opposed to affirmative action/racial preferences. Slight anti-corporate bent.
I think this generation more than any other was raised on a steady stream of color-blindness and that people are people, not races or genders or sexuality etc. We are all just one beautiful mosaic. Which by the way, is true. But that is also why the grievance lobby is panicking and now insists that everyone be hyphenated or die. I guess it's a "divide and conquer" thing...
Bev,
The grievance lobby is in full crazy mode.
"I genuinely see that as becoming the American attitude -- conservative fiscal policy, mostly libertarian social policy, strongly in favor of certain freedoms like gun rights and freedom "of the internet." Very opposed to affirmative action/racial preferences. Slight anti-corporate bent."
Which is why we need to go back Reel American attitude of THE GREATS! THE MEN AND WOMEN WHO VOTED IN SUCHS PARAGONS OF SMALL GOVERNMENT AS FDR, TRUMAN, EISENHOWER (whose policies created National Review), KENNEDY, LYNDON ("Affirmative Action") JOHNSON, RICHARD ("We're all Keynesians now") NIXON, AND CARTER! WHO REFUSED TO VOTE FOR SMALL GOVERNMENT UNTIL 4 YEARS OF CARTER!
MILLENNIALS ARE COMMUNIST BUMS!
(Note: I'm not attacking the Greats. Just pointing out that there "era" of rule was not as rosy as Conservatives like to believe.)
I may have mentioned it before in passing but I had a conversation with a friend once about this and it's like, we're both pro-gay marriage, neither of us give a shit about race, we're both anti-affirmative action, we'd prefer to keep more of our money, and we think things like soda bans are stupid.
On the other hand, the fringe on the right scare us a bit more than their counterparts on the left. And even though this generation is more pro-life (relatively-speaking), they'd still prefer some protections (rape, incest, etc.), despite what the hardcore folks think.
And then there's the environment... one party is seen as just a tad more friendly in that area. Same with big business, even though both parties are really horrible in that regard.
This is just my observation. I have friends who lean left, and some who lean right... the view from my perch in the middle is quite comfortable. :-)
Without looking to polls and just considering the amount of ink and pixels that left-leaning outlets devote to assuring themselves that Millennials are in their camp, it would appear that the question is very much in doubt.
More of my thoughts as they gel.
I am very offended about being called white or you using the term white. My milk is white, my t-shirts are white and I don't look anything like them. I prefer the term melanin challenged.
My brother and his friends fit into this group and the poll results reflect what I see. I think they would love to vote against democrats but the GOP keeps putting stupid on the ballots (Santorum). These candidates scare the crap out of them. The millennials may be against abortion but they sure aren't getting married very fast either.
Kosh -
I think they would love to vote against democrats but the GOP keeps putting stupid on the ballots (Santorum). These candidates scare the crap out of them.
Sounds about right. :-)
SCOTT,
YOU ARE ALL A BUNCH OF LAZY COMMUNIST PINKO BUMS WHO JUST WANT MOMMY AND DADDY TO SUBSIDIZE YOUR OCCUPY WALL STREET PROTESTS!
;-)
Bev, That's the problem for the left. They made a huge deal of not being racist, and the Millennials took them at their word. Whoops.
Actually, I think the real problem is that the grievance lobby so overstepped the bounds that Millennials, like everyone else, just decided that the race lobby wasn't being reasonable and decided to move on.
Kit, The definitely are. Everywhere I look, the grievance lobby is floating somewhere between true despair and blinding rage. They see it all slipping away and they have no idea how to save it.
Kit, The era of the Greats was actually really bad -- very socialist, consolidation of power in Washington, etc.
Scott, That's the sense I get from most Millennials. They have generally conservative/libertarian views and are largely indifferent to politics. Moreover, they fear the fringe right but basically ignore the fringe left.
tryanmax, True. The left has become shrill about Millennials, with most articles about them seeming to take the position that those dirty Millennials betrayed the left.
Koshcat, That fits with what I hear from them too. They don't like the democrats and don't want them, but the GOP keeps getting in the way.
" The left has become shrill about Millennials, with most articles about them seeming to take the position that those dirty Millennials betrayed the left."
THAT IS JUST A LIBERAL HIPPIE COMMUNIST LIE TO MAKE REEL CONSERVATIVES SACRIFICE THEIR PRINCIPLES!
"The era of the Greats was actually really bad -- very socialist, consolidation of power in Washington, etc."
Conservatives, especially hawkish ones, tend to forget that.
Heavy taxation, peacetime draft, the closest we ever came to government-run healthcare, the height of union power, trade protectionism, etc.
There is a reason National Review was founded in 1955 and it was not because the 50s were a high-water mark of American Conservatism. Just read William F. Buckley's "Our Mission Statement".
LINK
Andrew,
"Everywhere I look, the grievance lobby is floating somewhere between true despair and blinding rage. They see it all slipping away and they have no idea how to save it."
I agree, whether it is claiming that blue toys for boys and pink ones for girls are "gender apartheid".
On the other hand, their grip on the entertainment industry in the past couple years seems to have become even stronger with the help of legions of twitterers who can barrage any person who fails to follow the current tolerance line with a slew of denunciations.
It is quite chilling how successful they often are in forcing people to back down.
Kit, I actually don't see that. What I see is that the entertainment industry has slipped away from them and the only people left who are toeing the line are doctrinaire leftists in the first place, who say something the left hates.
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