According to a new Harvard Youth poll, faith in the American government has sunk to a new low of just 15 percent among young Americans aged 18-29. A slim 13 percent think the country is on the right track, however only 33 percent say they trust the upcoming midterm elections will be fair.
On Friday, Director of Polling at the Harvard Kennedy School's Institute of Politics, John Della Volpe, joined MSNOW to discuss the survey’s findings, saying he hasn’t seen anything like it in America over his 25 years as a pollster.
According to Della Volpe, young voters are concerned about “a stack of issues.”
“It's inflation, cost of living, housing, health care, paying more, getting less,” he explained. “The day-to-day concerns financially and otherwise related to the war. These are all adding up to a generation that is highly anxious, incredibly stressed out by this, and talk about not even living day-to-day, but surviving day-to-day.”
And, says Della Volpe, young Americans have heard a lot of talk from President Donald Trump, but the “rhetoric” doesn’t align with what they’re experiencing.
Instead of addressing voter concerns, agreed host Alex Wagner, the administration is “doing nothing about the rising cost of health care, literally letting Obamacare subsidies expire and raising the cost of health care on 23 million Americans, many of whom are young.” Trump is also “not addressing the future of joblessness, which is artificial intelligence taking over many of these jobs that these young people would have once had… This president has not shown that to be a priority.” Then there is the environment: “Who's going to inherit a heated-up, broken earth but young people? They have every reason to feel incredibly bummed out about the direction.”
As Wagner notes, many of these young voters have now spent a decade having Trump tell them they can’t trust elections.
“This administration has done more to erode confidence in the levers of our democracy than any other presidency,” she asserted. “Telling them that their votes don't count, telling them the elections are fraudulent, telling them that there's an unseen enemy pouring across the border to change the fabric of this country.”
Della Volpe points out that much of the electoral disillusionment is among Republican and independent voters, explaining, “Younger folks who identify as Democrats…are significantly more likely to say they will vote in November than young Republicans and independent or indifferent voters…So still you see that advantage for Democrats.”