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June 03, 2013 01:03 PM UTC

"Smaller Government, Lower Taxes" Mantra Hurts GOP with Young Voters

  • 46 Comments
  • by: Colorado Pols

Politico reports on the findings from extensive polling and focus groups made public by the College Republican National Committee, which sought to understand how the GOP has lost "young voters." The full story, and the report, are worth reading because it brings to light new concerns with several longtime Republican talking points. For example, it's no surprise that Republicans are losing young voters because of their opposition to gay rights — but far more interesting is that the old "smaller government, lower taxes" approach is increasingly perceived as a negative as well:

Turning to a key talking point during the election, the report found that while Republicans during the 2012 cycle invoked jobs and the economy at every turn, the younger age group was put off by the way the GOP presented those issues.

“Policies that lower taxes and regulations on small businesses are quite popular. Yet our focus on taxation and business issues has left many young voters thinking they will only reap the benefits of Republican policies if they become wealthy or rise to the top of a big business,” the report says. “We’ve become the party that will pat you on your back when you make it but won’t offer you a hand to help you get there.” [Pols emphasis]

Younger voters — especially those in the Hispanic focus groups the CRNC conducted — are deeply familiar with the challenges posed by a less-than-robust economy, the report said, citing struggles with student loans and people who are delaying marriage because of financial issues. But the study said the party must explain how its policies translate into chances for economic advancement and should seek to do so in a more “caring” tone.

“If we don’t believe that Republicans are the ‘fend for yourself’ party, then it’s time for us to explain why — and to show our work,” the report said. “This will go a long way overall, but particularly with Latino voters, who tend to think the GOP couldn’t care less about them.”

The college Republicans warned that the party’s primary message of cutting taxes and reducing the size of government failed to resonate. In fact, one of the CRNC’s polls found that 54 percent of young voters said “taxes should go up on the wealthy” while only 3 percent said “taxes should be cut for the wealthy.” Bashing Big Government also didn’t play well and was even damaging, according to some of the focus groups, the study found. [Pols emphasis]

It's one thing to advocate for a smaller government and reduced spending when the economy is humming, but eventually people start wondering how roads and schools are going to get funded — particularly as the economy slows down. As it turns out, it doesn't take voters very long to figure out the disconnect.

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46 thoughts on ““Smaller Government, Lower Taxes” Mantra Hurts GOP with Young Voters”

    2. The question is, will the GOP consider changing what it is doing, or just try to spin this away? I think you will look at changing what the party should stand for. But I worry that for every one like you, there's 20 like ArapaGOP who will insist everything is fine and they just have to message LOUDER.

      1. Technically, I am not even in the GOP, though I do have a few people's ears.  My views/way of looking at things are/is…let's just say not yet fully adopted in GOP circles.  So to that extent you have a good point. 

    4. But that's the point. According to them, since you've expressed a viewpoint that "may or may not" differ from the official party line, you're not on their side. You're not even one of them.

    1. Magic ladyparts will shut the whole thing down. 

      What values are, or are not, being properly communicated? 

      And the problem is once you draw that limit ; it's kind of like marriage when you say it's not a man and a woman any more, then why not have three men and one woman, or four women and one man, or why not somebody has a love for an animal? 

      There is no clear place to draw the line once you eliminate the traditional marriage and it's the same once you start putting limits on what guns can be used, then it's just really easy to have laws that make them all illegal.

      Help Rep. Gooper communicate it better, then, you know linking a limit on magazine capacity with screwing chickens. 

    2. This is a matter of failing to evolve, or progress, or any of those other scary words that imply letting go of the 1950's mentality that the GOP's core demographic clings to so desperately, even as they're dying off.

    3. Agreed.  A bunch of us have supported civil unions legalized pot.  Although those were not originally popular, through persistance and education we were able to change that. 

      2. Then you're not agreeing with Moderatus, EF.

        He's core GOP; no legalized pot, "illegal immigrants" means illegal, small government means SMALL government.

        Anyone from the GOP saying it's messaging, not message that needs to change is not in line with this survey.

        1. Depends on what the "message" is.  If it involves drugs, immigration, civil unions, paranoia about sharia law, then the GOP's problem isn't just the messanger, its the message itself. 

          I have hope though that on size of government and taxation that the right can, in the future, win on a small gov't/low taxation/AND low spending message.

      3. What us are you referring to?  What change in whose pokcies? Certainly not anything close to a majority of self identified conservatives or Tea Party members.

    4. That's not what their research says. Young voters don't agree with the premise of "smaller government," and it doesn't matter if you change it to "lower government."

      1. I recognize that is what the survey today says.  I hold out hope though that it can be changed going forward just like attitudes towards civil unions and marijuana have changed. 

          1. Certain cliques on the right support it.  Others obviously oppose it.  If all you are doing is looking towards the Dudley Brown cliques of the GOP you'll get a warped sense of what the right wing is in Colorado. 

            1. We're looking at election results and what the GOP ran on last election cycle. The party is controlled by the Dudley Brown/Tom Tancredo/Doug Bruce/Bryan Fischer contingent right now.

              If you want to prove "your side" is gaining ground, I'd suggest finding the active resources to replace at least one county's GOP leadership with more moderate voices and then growing your base from there…

              1. Until those "certain cliques" feel safe enough to voice their support, all we can go on is what we see. And all we hear is one unified voice of DERP, where the only dissent heard is that the DERP voiced is not DERPy enough.

            2. Obviously.  let's look at the other 'clique' that opposes it, starting with the top three elected officials of the grand OLD-WHITE-MALE party…

              Minority Leader McConnel, House Speaker Boehner, Leader Cantor…should we looks at your last presidential candidates?  Committee leadership?  GOP governors?  GOP legislatures?  … or should we look at what Elliot says the party could be maybe one day?

    5. The failure of a policy that proposes cutting our way back to widespread prosperity has indeed been thoroughly discredited, Immoderatus.  Austerity, which is what it is, not small government as Rs support huge government for the benefit of the elite, is a failure. 

      Consumer economies need more consumers with more money to spend, not more lay offs, public and private, fewer good jobs for average people and wider spread lower and lower wages for race to the bottom "efficiency".  As for this bit of self awareness:

      “We’ve become the party that will pat you on your back when you make it but won’t offer you a hand to help you get there.” [Pols emphasis]

      Become? The GOP became that party a long time ago and shows no intention of changing. They just want to find a way to make their increasingly unpopular '"message" (that would be their explanation of their unpopular and failed policies) more appealing.   You don't get that no amount of lipstick on your stinking pig is going to accomplish that.

      When you say you need to do a better job with the message you must mean you have to find new ways to manipulate people to vote against their own interests because the old tried and true ways of getting enough of the 47% GOP defined losers to vote for your candidates by yelling "abortion" or "socialism" or  "secularism" or "gays" or "guns" or "America haters" aren't doing the job done anymore outside of your regional strongholds and even they are endangered by demographics.

  4. To the results of this survey: yep.

    Small government means bigger student loan interest rates, lower starting wages, lower wages for their parents trying to support them in college, and more runaway college costs because public schools aren't there with comparatively lower tuition rates.

    Small government means not caring what we do with the world these young adults will inherit. It means undercutting the National Weather Service which provides the raw data that everyone including private weather services use to predict our increasingly volatile weather. It means chopping out core science research and weakening our nation's position in STEM fields. It means cutting back on unemployment compensation, which young adults more often find themselves relying on during downturns.

    Everyone likes "small government" and "lower taxes" – until those two result in something going away that's important to them. There are a lot of government supports helping our young people climb on to the self-sustaining rungs of society's ladder and putting those rungs within reach.

    1. Yeah but if they just smile when they say it, don't use ethnic slurs,  and don't cvall 47% of their fellow citizens takers right out loud, they're sure to broaden their appeal, right?

  5. Yet despite this evidence, what do Democrats do?

    Continually triangulate to appease Republicans and the financial elite that OWN THEM BOTH.

    Case in point the whole bogus austerity debate and linking rollbacks to Social Security benefits to deficit reduction. 

    If you are a big business person things are going your way right now–the crazy right wing Repubs continually block all progressive iniatives while the "reasonable" Democratic Party proposes moderate Repub pro-business solutions.

    The issue not explored by this type of poll is how satisfied are young people with the Democrats to represent their best interests?

    Then for a thought experiment compare that to older demographics (say 30–40 year olds) who have witnessed the political process playing out for a while. 

     

    2. Case in point the whole bogus austerity debate and linking rollbacks to Social Security benefits to deficit reduction. 

      You got that right, RavenDawg. Bogus as hell.

  6. I read all 95 pages.

    1. It soft pedals the conclusions. I hope they wrote a stronger internal "for your eyes ony" report.

    2. This is amazing:

    "In the survey, we sought to test the extent to which opposition to same-
    sex marriage constituted a “deal breaker.” We did this by asking respondents
    how likely they would be to vote for a candidate who opposed same-sex
    marriage while also holding the same positions as the respondent on taxes,
    spending, immigration, and defense    . Because respondents had been asked
    earlier in the survey to provide their position on these issues, the online survey
    was able to customize this “ideal candidate” for each respondent based on his
    or her personal positions.
    …Among those respondents who said that same-sex marriage should be legal (a full 44% of young voters), half said that they would probably or definitely not vote for a candidate with whom they disagreed on same-sex marriage, even if they were in agreement on taxes, defense, immigration, and spending.

    Tim Gill is dancing in aisles over this.

    1. Yep – that is what I have been telling people – to many young independent voters saying you are against civil unions is like saying you believe the world is flat.  It doesn't matter what else you believe because on that basis alone you are deemed unworthy to hold office. 

      2. Which GOP contender won the CO caucuses in 2012 again?

        "You oppose civil unions, you want to reinstate 'don't ask, don't tell.' Do you think gays have any rights, should have any access to benefits as partners?" Wallace asked Santorum. 

         

         

  7. Colorado Pols conveniently neglected this from the same article,

     

    "The report said that on many questions tied to that subject, young people and the GOP are, in fact, on the same page: support for entrepreneurship and small businesses and slashing spending in many instances, for example. But that common ground often got lost for young voters."

    Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2013/06/gop-youth-vote-report-92119_Page3.html#ixzz2VFwmfJz8

    1. But, but, but…

      The Republican Party is not pro small-business. They are all about big business, large corporations and the super-wealthy. The Republicans decrease taxes on the wealthy and cut programs that support the middle class. They cut eduction opportunities that directly affects young people and college students.  The Republicans are cutting government spending in a recession which causes the economy to shrink. 

      Small business requires a growing economy and a healthy middle class, so policies that restrict recovery from the recession and cause an increase in the wealth distribution are by definition ANTI small business.

      1. And nothing hurts small businesses more  than losing paying customers due to public and private sector lay offs, loss of decent paying jobs, all killing the buying power of the people who used to come through their doors.

        Interesting factoid. CostCo's employees' average pay is around 45K . Walmart, Sams and Target together provide average pay of under 18K. Costco is the only one of the aforementioned to be showing healthy profit and it's still managing to provide customers with great prices and gift the  economy with employees with disposable income to spend as customers of all kinds of businesses.

        GOP economic theory is wrong. Austerity  sucks. Rs and the Dems who still think they need to prove they're just as responsible as Rs by joining the completely counter-productive cutting campaign are killing the economy.

        The Costco CEO also says says he thinks minimum wage ought to be much higher,  more folks with more income being a…. surprise, surprise…. good thing. That was the Ford company's (those commie bastards) theory back when it started. Pay your workers a good wage. Make an affordable product and your workers become customers for your company and lots of other businesses who can then afford to hire and pay well which brings you even more customers. It's called economic stimulus. With most companies doing the opposite, the government is the only employer large enough to provide that kind of stimulation.

        Of course if every large company decided to go the Costco route we wouldn't need the government to take up the slack but with most, supported by today's GOP, still  worshiping in the church of greed and draconian labor cost cutting, where else is stimulus going to come from?

        Austerity is just the government going over to the side of the consumer economy's worst enemies. Maybe Dems should be asking CostCo how to get a consumer economy back on its feet, not taking instruction in discredited bullshit from the right..

  8. I understand young people have many concerns, rightfully so, however these college Republicans are unclear as to who/what caused these problems and what are the solutions.  Many of their concerns originate from Republican policy. “I’ve abandoned free market principles to save the free market system.”  George Bush 43

    College Republicans also have a few misconceptions as to what the real problems are versus what problems are simply the way it is.  It seems these College Republicans may be heading down the slippery slope of utopia?

    Here is some helpful advice for ALL college Republicans.  Take a few minutes and visit 2 of the highest traffic political/economical websites.   Build a foundation, a foundation that will NOT be taught at your liberal college.  You will be surrounded by young college students who have the brightest minds and an unshakeable desire for Liberty!

    http://www.lewrockwell.com/

    http://mises.org/

     

    1. That'll turn the GOP Titantic around!  Good job Nockers, once those kids read some Lew Rockwell, that the GOP hates gays, Mexicans, women and government won't mean diddly! The youth vote will be conservative forever! 

    2. College Republicans. How ghastly. One can only imagine how painfully boring they will become when they grow out of their version of the experimental years. Won't be much juice left by 40 with so little to start with.

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