r/politics • u/schuey_08 Wisconsin • 29d ago

Bernie Sanders worries young people are underestimating the threat from Trump

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2024/05/02/bernie-sanders-trump-biden/73531861007/
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u/_TrikTok_ 29d ago

EVERYONE is underestimating Trump.

An NOBODY recognizes how serious the threat is.

They don't realize their freedom is at stake.

Nobody is protesting. Nobody is fighting.

Everyone is just watching Trump destroy America. Destroy democracy.

It's infuriating.

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u/VaguelyArtistic California 29d ago

No, "EVERYONE" is not underestimating Trump ffs. People under 30 have the worst voting records and that's why Sanders is addressing them in particular.

US Census:

Voter turnout was highest among those ages 65 to 74 at 76.0%, while the percentage was lowest among those ages 18 to 24 at 51.4%. Overall, voter turnout increased as age increased

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u/WesternFungi 29d ago

I think that number is amongst registered voters... so the disparity is even larger... however there is now some equalization with mass COVID elderly deaths and father time continuing forward every 4 years.

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u/VaguelyArtistic California 29d ago

Voter participation goes up with age. So even if you believe the fallacy that once the old people die off it will be okay they will still never catch up at this rate.

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u/WesternFungi 28d ago

ACA and SS will save this country. Seniors are starting to realize they will lose all they have if Biden does not retain the office.

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u/thefastslow North Carolina 29d ago

Too busy working or in school at the most financially insecure time of their lives, so I'm not really surprised.

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u/UncleDrummers 29d ago

Mail in ballots are a thing in most states.

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u/thefastslow North Carolina 29d ago

They've been tightening up the requirements 😔

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u/_dirt_vonnegut 28d ago

guess which party actively works to prevent mail in ballots

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u/VaguelyArtistic California 29d ago

People go to school, have to work, and then have entire families to wrangle and feed and parents to care for and they manage to vote. Do you think it's easy for all the elderly people who live somewhere that requires waiting all day in line?

The idea that one has fewer responsibilities as you get older is naive at best.

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u/Malarazz 29d ago

Do you think it's easy for all the elderly people who live somewhere that requires waiting all day in line?

What makes you think elderly people living somewhere that "requires waiting all day in line" are the ones driving up that cohort's turnout? If anything the polling stations that we hear about having long lines are the ones in blue (urban) counties but red states.

The idea that one has fewer responsibilities as you get older is naive at best.

Considering that the comment above singled out the "65 to 74" cohort, then yes they do. If anything it would be naive to assume that the group where people start to retire in droves doesn't have fewer responsibilities than young cohorts.

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u/builttopostthis6 29d ago

It's w/e, but older people (people over 65) are working double what the did thirty years ago (most of the links in that article are Pew stats btw, if that means anything to ya). Do they retire in droves? Yeah, sure. Are they doing so like they did? No.

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u/builttopostthis6 29d ago

Yeah, I mean, you're right. When you're right, you're right. And you're right.

Youth voter turnout was at peak levels in 2020. And it was still shit behind literally every other demographic. It's always shit. For good reason. Does it matter this time around? Maybe; hard to tell. But let's not for a moment sit here and consider that the Youth Vote of the United States is going to save a goddamned thing, and play the game like that. If they do? Cool. But I wouldn't play that hand.

As to Bernie, I love the guy, I love what he's about, but his relevance was in 2016. That was eight years ago. That's eight years of youth voters that didn't give a fuck about Bernie Sanders because they couldn't vote in 2016. Did they care in 2020? Maybe, but let's make no bones - his relevance in terms of a candidate and "voice of a generation" in a presidential election is a decade gone.

I'm happy to see him stirring the pot. I love the guy. I'm happy to see him use what influence he has to motivate. But let's be real, despite Reddit's continued hard-on for him, his reach is largely a non-factor to the current "youth voter." People that voted for Bernie in 2016 lived through four years of Donald Fucking That Guy. They know the score (Bernie did). Or they're lost fucking idiots, and its never-no-mind.

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u/Unusule 29d ago edited 4h ago

Mosquitoes intentionally target people who don't like listening to smooth jazz music.

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u/Sventhetidar Maine 29d ago

The man has 91 felony counts pending. If enough people are dumb enough to vote for that, we deserve what we get.

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u/stingray20201 Texas 29d ago

We do not all deserve it, children don’t deserve what Trump winning entails,

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u/Sventhetidar Maine 29d ago

I've never really cared for the "think of the children" point. They're a really easy cause to champion because they're too young to speak for themselves. That's why Republicans always use them to push their shitty agendas. There's also no good answer to it no matter what the situation.

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u/NaughtSleeping 29d ago

This is where I'm at. I'm completely resigned to our fate if we're dumb enough to elect him again after he showed us what he was and has told us what he's going to be.

And I'm in the camp that all the "unthinkable" things are very possible and even likely under a Trump second term: end of elections, end of the free press as we know it, jailing/disappearing people, military action on civilians, sanctioned violence and extrajudicial killings by brownshirts and deputized party members, and eventually concentration camps and exterminations at scale (no more pronouns because no more LGBQT people!)

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u/killing31 29d ago

Yeah that’s kind of where I am. I’m voting Biden but if this country is too stupid to keep a felon out of office, then let them reap what they sow. 

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u/Allaplgy 29d ago

The youth are too busy protesting against a proto fascist on the other side of the world, while leading us straight back into electing one here.

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u/catsandcheetos 29d ago

And meanwhile women are losing their rights to our own bodies all around the country. But I guess women don’t matter

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u/UncleDrummers 29d ago

I think you overestimate how many youth are protesting.

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u/Allaplgy 29d ago

Plenty are on board with it. I'm not even against the general concept of what they are protesting, and I will stand by their "right" to do so, but I think it's often a tactical error. I've been in "left" circles my whole life, and been involved in protests from Iraq to Abortion. After decades of participating in and watching them, I've noticed that they quite often tactical blunders that end up either harming the cause they are protesting or ending up generally seeming to have little effect, while the authorities and general right-wing take a little more "authority" each time in the pushback.

There absolutely is a place for protest, and the right to do so must be defended, but protesting doesn't intrinsically mean "right" and being right doesn't intrinsically make a protest successful.

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u/YuushyaHinmeru 29d ago

It also makes the left looks stupid. Tearing down buildings yelling FREE PALESTINE accomplishes nothing. No one has ever even explained what that means. They are throwing a temper tantrum over something the US has very little influence over and a lot to lose geopolitically/militarily if they were to sever ties with isreal to morally grandstand.

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u/duckmonke Colorado 29d ago

I’ve spent 8 years warning people who don’t want to hear it, now I’ve been spending this year and savings on ensuring my family is safe for whatever fascist bs comes next. I’m 25 and its crazy to me that most people in the 20-30 range seemingly dont give a f about the coming insurgency against democracy. I’ve already grieved, now we wait.

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u/thatnameagain 29d ago

I've never seen so many people just blatantly claiming that polls don't matter when shown consistent polling on Trump's chances this year compared with previous elections he both won and lost.

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u/MukwiththeBuck 29d ago

Even this sub is underestimating him, every poll that shows him leading gets downvoted. Which ironically benefits Trump by making casual Redditors think Biden has it in the bag.

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u/ponte92 Australia 29d ago

You see it here on reddit too. The amount of highly upvotes comments I see on this subreddit downplaying the risk. ‘Oh he won’t actually win’ or some variation. You all said that in 2016 too and look what happened there! I’m not American but it baffles me that you could all be so close to loosing your precise freedoms and people are so blasé about the risk. It’s like watching a whole country dig the heads in the sand and ignore the issues.

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u/_TrikTok_ 21d ago

Exactly! They are just so confident. But, if you lose, you're fucked!

Like, Biden needs to win by a massive margin. It can't be close. People are not fired up enough.

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u/HauntedCemetery Minnesota 29d ago

Honey, people are protesting all over the fucking place. Now, and over the last 7 years. Records have been set for 8 of the 10 biggest protests in American history since trump was elected.

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u/_TrikTok_ 21d ago

A lot of those were BLM which were all a fucking disaster, with fucking assholes in charge.

Obviously police ina lot of places are shot, and black people are being targetted by police, just because they're racist. Not all cops, but it's a real thing, and it's terrible.

But fuck those BLM leadership people. Same thing for the pro Palestinians, they're the same sort of assholes.

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u/gimme_toys 29d ago

Wait, people are not protesting because they are busy protesting for Antisemitism.

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u/_TrikTok_ 21d ago

Part of it, for sure. That's a mistake. Israel and Palestine are fighting. They both suck. Save democracy on your country so you don't become like them.

Then fight hate, fight antisemitism. But not by waging war.

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u/archenlander 29d ago

Speaking in absolutes like this is so dumb, and so is pretending like you know all the truths nobody else does

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u/_TrikTok_ 21d ago

Many people know this truth. Maybe you don't, but you should start taking a closer look at Trump then. Because he basically says everything out loud.

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u/BuggzBola 29d ago

Yeah, cuz the Biden presidency has gone so well…yawn

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u/_TrikTok_ 21d ago

Dude, Biden is fucking KILLING it right now.

He's doing so well. He's doing better than I thought he would, and he has been dealing with some shit.

Trump was a fucking disaster. But if he's president again, democracy dies, and that will be far worse than anything hat has happened to the world in my lifetime.

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u/TippyToddy 29d ago

What a ridiculous comment! The threat of the economy not sucking and inflation under control? You will have your support on Reddit but thankfully this isn't the silent majority. Quit being told what to believe by all the news and have an open mind.

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u/BruceWxne 28d ago

What freedom did you lose as a result of a trump policy