Tuesday, July 22, 2014

Can Politicians Trust the Millennials?

Two new polls conducted by the Reason Foundation (a libertarian think-tank) and the Pew Research Center (a nonpartisan polling firm) have political scientists and politicians scrambling to make sense of the findings. What does this new poll center on you ask? The answer is, well, you...and me.

What I mean by this is that the poll centers on millennials. "Millennials" is name given to the generation of Americans born roughly between 1980 and 2004, which means all of you (and me too! HA! See I'm not THAT old!...don't say anything). The naming of new generations of Americans is not a new trend, in fact it has been going on for at least a century. Below is a chart of post WWII generations:

Click here for a larger version
The Millennial generation has become the most talked about generation since the baby boom generation among politicians because of their size (22% of the population) and their age (early 30s). These two stats mean that the Millennials have the political power to shape the path of our country for the next 50 years. Millennials first flexed their political muscle in 2008, when they voted in large numbers for President Obama. Since that election, political scientists have been falling all over themselves to figure out just how the Millennial generation wants their government to behave, and what types of candidates they want to vote for. This means conducting polls in order to figure out the political beliefs of the Millennial generation.

The new polls released gives us some answers...sort of. The results, which you can read about in the articles below, paint a picture of a generation at war with itself. Here are some examples:
  • Millennials hate the political parties more than everyone else, but they have the highest opinion of Congress.
  • Young people are the most likely to be single parents and the least likely to approve of single parenthood.
  • Young people voted overwhelmingly for Obama when he promised universal health care, but they oppose his universal health care law as much as the rest of the country ... even though they still pledge high support for universal health care.
Articles:
Millenials Political Views Don't Make Any Sense
Millennials, Government, and Mistrust
Reason Foundation Poll: Millennials, the Politically Unclaimed Generation
Pew Research Center Poll: Beyond Red vs. Blue

Questions for Discussion:
As Millenials yourselves, do agree with the findings of the poll?
Should we trust the results from this poll? Could there be any bias?
How should current politicians, and presidential hopefuls like Hillary Clinton, take from these poll results?
How could politicians use the results to win an election?
Based on the polling results, how do Millenials seem to want the government to behave?
What characteristics would make up an "ideal" Millennial candidate?

23 comments:

  1. As a Millenial myself, I do agree with a few of the findings from the poll. Most Millenials seem to like having more power and independence so they can do what they want, but they still like everything to be easy, and all their problems fixed. I have not found that most Millenials hate all political parties, and when they don't, they lean toward the Republican party, as indicated in the articles. From what I see, most young people are very strong democrats. (President Obama has been elected twice, and he is a democrat.) However, this poll could be very biased. I believe more Millenials should have been polled, and these results could have been different. Also, every age of Millenials should have been polled so as many different opinions as possible could be taken into consideration. Current politicians may benefit by starting programs for health care (like President Obama did) but keeping them optional so Millenials can have choices and still be in charge of their decisions. People may like this better because based on the results, people want their government to have plenty of choices and solutions, while still holding the freedom to do whatever they like and be in charge of themselves. Millenials want to have optional solutions to their problems, which is not always realistic, but if politicians can get as close to that wish as possible while still being realistic, they will have a better chance to win an election. For politicians to most easily please Millenials, an ideal Millenial would like having their own choices and decisions to make, be open to new opportunities, clearly decide on one political party, and understand if they have to just go along with a few things they don't like as part of the government, and hope it changes soon. As Millenials get older, might some of their viewpoints change? Maybe the poll results were the way they were because Millenials are still young, and may want different things from their government as they get older.

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  3. I do agree with the results of the polls. The Millenials today feel a sense of independence in everything they do; including being an active part of the government. Their need to make decisions for themselves explains why Millenials answered the poll questions the way they did. The polls found that one-third of Millenials identify as democratic, 16% say they are republican and 52% are politically independent. These results are logical considering that the majority of Millenials elected President Obama twice and he was a part of the Democratic Party. Though the findings from the poll seem to make sense, there is a possibility that there could be some bias. The Millenials are still very young and could easily be influenced by their parents’ political views. Many of the Millenials may not even bother to educate themselves on the government and they simply agree with everything their parents say. So, these poll results may not be completely accurate if some of the Millenials polled do not have their own opinion but instead relay the information they have heard from their older parents. Current politicians should take from these findings that many Millenials want the power to make decisions, but they don’t want to put in effort or money to improve the current state of our government and country. Millenials say that they want the government to provide a quality standard of living for people who cannot provide one for themselves. Yet, as soon as the Millenials are required to contribute to helping the cause, they change their minds about the situation. Politicians can use these results to their advantage by providing options for Millenials to choose from and base their final decisions off of. Since many Millenials are not entirely educated about the government, but they want to have the power to influence the decisions made in the government, it would be wise for politicians to lay their plans out in a way that is easy to understand and make them seem appealing to the Millenials. Then let the Millenials choose which way they like best. What the Millenials want is for the government to help out those in need without taking away from what they have. They want to make decisions pertaining to the government, but they also want the government to be in charge of most things (Most Millenials answered that they think a socialism economy is more effective). An ideal Millenial candidate would be someone who gives Millenials the opportunity to make decisions that helps them feel like they are controlling their own futures. This candidate should also provide for the lower class while making sure that the changes the Millenials will face won’t be too drastic. Millenials may not know everything there is to know about the government, but considering their large population, they have a great deal of influence on the government and it would be smart of any future candidate to try their best to appeal to the Millenials.

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  4. As a young Millennial, I did not have the knowledge or experience to have an opinion on the political feelings of our generation. However, after reading the articles and poll data I agree with the findings of the polls. The Reason Foundation Poll, which is a partisan poll, and the Pew Research Center poll, which is a non-partisan poll, both came up with basically the same results on the Millennial generations political views. Since one poll was conducted by a partisan organization and the other poll was conducted by a non-partisan organization and the results were similar, I feel we can trust the poll results. There could be bias in the partisan Reason Foundation Poll, but again since the results matched the non-partisan Pew poll, there appears not to be any bias. Based on the poll results, a political candidate will find an issue the Millennials support and then make that issue something they will address if they are elected. A candidate will promise more government support for single parents which will directly aid the Millennial generation as a way to get their vote. The poll results show that the Millennials want their government to be involved with social issues as long as it doesn't cost them money, and for economic issues they want less government involvement which results in a more free market economy. The ideal Millennial candidate would be someone who is liberal on social issues, but more conservative on economic issues.

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  5. As a Millennial myself, I do agree with the polls. The majority of young adults are now taking a more liberal view on social issues, such as gay marriage and immigration. This generation has deemed it unacceptable to treat someone differently, due to their race or sexual preference, because of our belief in independence and freedom. The polls reveal Millennials as being more "left-leaning" than previous generations and that is true. We support change and are breaking tradition, as the times have changed. This generation has witnessed many traumatic events, such as 9/11, and the Newtown shooting, and the way the government has handled such issues has caused young adults to lose trust in their government and may not be certain that their privacy is respected. I do trust these poll results because every day, I personally see how this generation is more liberal, and less trusting of our leaders. In the articles, it seemed that the authors felt this change in statistics isn't good. The bias was that young adults should remain conservative and stick to traditional beliefs, rather than acclimating. The Millennials are the target audience for politicians, and they should use these poll results to their advantage and begin campaigns supporting popular beliefs. As a democrat, Hilary Clinton must feel more confident than someone like Chris Christie, because this generation supports more liberal views. Millennials seem to want a big government but one that doesn't make too many decisions. They would like to aid the poor and educate everyone, but without spending their own money. Millenials want to get what they want, without dealing with consequences or setbacks, and realistically, that mentality won't solve any problems. An ideal Millennial candidate would be someone who supports liberalism in a social matter, and gives Millennials the feeling of independence and freedom they strive for. This candidate should, however, spend less money and should be using limited amount of power, unlike Obama.

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  6. As a Millennial, I do agree with some of the polls. Some of the political ideologies are confusing at first, however in the long run they make a lot of sense. I would have to say that the poll is trustworthy. However, there is some bias. The poll should have interviewed more Millennials in different age groups in order to get more accurate results. This poll will now change how Politicians run their campaigns. Politicians will have to assume that, although most Millennials are politically independent but would rather choose to be a Democrat, that many Millennials like bipartisan approaches to campaigns. Presidential hopefuls like Hilary Clinton will have to campaign with more bipartisan approaches to the public to appeal to Millennials so that they can win campaigns. Based on the poll, Millennials want a socially liberal and economically conservative government that is not too big or too small so that they don't have too much power but just enough power so that they can tackle big issues. The Ideal Millennial candidate would have to meet these standards. They can't be as liberal as Obama however at the same time they can't be as conservative as Christi. They also should be bipartisan on many issues. They should also vote for less spending while being more liberal toward the social issues. However, the ideal politician should at the same time lean toward being liberal.

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  7. The Millennial generation is probably the most interesting, confusing, and almost hypocritical generation of Americans to date. I agree with most of the comments before me in trusting the poll considering it came from a non-partisan source. I also agree in the fact that the Millennials would vote for a more liberal candidate for office over a conservative one, as that is the logical conclusion from the poll and generally younger people are more liberal than more elderly people. I would suggest that the self-contradictory nature of the Milliennials stems from the desire to have more moderate politicians and common sense solutions to issues. Hopefully with the growing political power of the new generation there will be less polarization in Washington. That would be the expected outcome as politicians, some of whom will be Milliennials themselves, will want to appeal to the youngest generation most of which appear to be mostly moderate or slightly left of center

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  8. I do agree with the findings of the poll. Many Millennials focus on the biggest issues at hand such as same sex marriage and the involvement of the government in everyday life, which is expected because that is what is mentioned a majority of the time on TV shows and on the radio. Most younger people want to feel independent since they are finally old enough to make important life decisions on their own, so they prefer the government to give them the independence to make those decisions on their own. The Millennials want the government to listen to their ideas on issues. 67% of Millennials want to legalize same sex marriage and a slight majority of 57% want to legalize marijuana and 58% want to legalize online gambling. They also believe that the taxes businesses are charging are fair but just a little bit high and would like to see them lowered a small amount. Also more than 75% of Millennials say that the National debt is too high and the country should focus on managing it and trying to lower it in the next couple of years. The Millennials are a big part of the population and should be listened to since one day they will be running the country. Current politicians trying to take office should listen to the ideas and go through and try to find some they agree with. If they can incorporate some of the beliefs into their campaigns they will attract the attention of the Millennials and easily gain more votes. The results from the polls should be trusted because they are the views of the Millennials; however, there may be a little bias since most of the authors of the polls are not Millennials. An ideal candidate for the Millennials would be a person who gives the country a feeling of independence they want in their daily lives, but still works hard to maintain a strong central government. The candidate should take liberal views on most social issues but be conservative on economic issues in order so save money the economy is currently lacking.

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  9. I do agree with most of the findings of this poll, such as America’s youth are trying to be entrepreneurs and are always looking to make a “quick buck” from anything they can. I also agree with the polls saying that the Millennials have strong views about the environment, same-sex marriage, and abortion, just from talking with people I know, and also from what other Millennials on say on TV and on the internet. I think we should believe the poll to a certain extent because they have compiled a lot of data, but a few of them seem a little skewed. For example, I think more than ten percent of the Millennials are bystanders about politics. About twenty percent would seem right because from my own personal experiences more than one out of every ten people I know do not care about politics. This poll could be biased because they could have polled people who share their interests. It is not clear if this is a reliable source. If these polls are accurate, as a Democrat, Hillary Clinton should be happy about these results, considering the popular vote in the 2012 presidential elections: Obama beat Romney by 4% in the popular vote, which is not really close. Based on the poll’s estimates, Hillary would have an estimated 65% of people behind her, especially with her support of environmental concerns, same-sex marriage, and abortion rights. Politicians can gear their platforms towards the topics that the Millennials care, about because the Millennials represent close to 40% of the people voting in the elections. Millennials want to have people in the government who help them do business and have them have a generally better life for themselves. Millennials are frustrated with the poor economy, and want limited government, but more liberal policies. An “ideal” Millennial candidate would be someone who cares about improving the economy and creating more jobs, and also cares about the environment and social justice. Maybe as the Millennials get older and more mature, they will see things differently and go another way with their views?

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  10. As a millennial, I agree with most of these polls. I believe a high majority of these polls are very accurate. While some statistics may be bias or lean towards some favored opinion, politicians can still use these findings to their benefit. The millennial generation has grown up with social media and the most advanced technology at their hands. Technology, that is just a few clicks away, separates our generation in a strange way. From all of this technology, we have grown independence and stronger opinions of the world around us. We have adapted to the new ways and have learned more about society than we may think. As we cling to the subjects that we can easily relate too, it becomes simply clearer of how much our generation can really bring about change. We seem to have an advantage at a young age by being open to social media websites like twitter. A website like this can cause just one idea to go viral in just a few minutes. As more and more teens become more comfortable with technology, this generation truly has the power to change and control our government for 50 years ahead. Politicians should notice age patterns by the polls they take from the millennial generation. They can easily use the polls to win votes by just taking on a different method of promoting themselves. Today politicians need to change their focus onto older teens and young adults because they soon will be the ones who want change and will have the power to create it. By promising more in topics that relate most to them, elections will attract more teens and young adults. The government should also be trying their best to involve our generation so as time goes on a stronger understanding of how our country should be ran will be inside of ever American teenager. The millennial generation has a lot of potential to make change in our country that politicians should factor in so we can become a stronger nation someday.

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  11. I agree with the results of the polls. I think because both polls essentially had the same results, even though one has a political affiliation and the other does not, they demonstrate reliability and I am confident that the results attained shed some light onto the reality of the situation and are bias-free. I find it extremely intriguing, but not exactly surprising, that the millennials are so divided on their thoughts regarding politics. I think a key component that is lacking is a comprehensive political education for many of our young people. Many of the results attained supported this theory, with the article Millenials' Political Views Don't Make Any Sense by Derek Thompson stating, "Overall, Millennials offer the murky impression of a generation that doesn't really understand basic economics." What current politicians and presidential hopefuls should take from these results is that they should focus more on publicizing their own personal convictions rather than aligning themselves with one single political party and consequentially rejecting another's ideologies. Basically, I think that many of the issues the younger generation has regarding our government right now lie in the fact that there is so much hatred between the parties, and there is simply no bipartisanship, especially when it comes to sorting out one's own political convictions (i.e. "Well, that's a democratic idea, so it's probably not something I should accept as right"). What comes as an effect of that is the fact that politicians often don't appeal to both political parties, which is something that would certainly gain a millenial's vote. I say this because according to the Reason Foundation, "53% [of millenials] would vote for a fiscally conservative,socially liberal candidate." Not uncommonly, politicians are either both fiscally and socially liberal or both fiscally and socially conservative. To gain a millenial's vote, they should present themselves according to these multi-party standards and be unafraid to stray from the confines of their declared political party's ideologies. They would appear to be open to more ideas, and this would help them to win an election. I think many millenials want the government to have multitudes of social programs and be more open to ideas such as gay marriage, marijuana legalization, and abortion, correlating to their liberal views. On the flip side, millenials also generally want less government intervention regarding finances, which is the republican part of them - around and a little over half of subjects in the majority of income brackets in the Reason Foundation's study said they opposed closing the gaps between people's incomes. Most likely, the ideal millenial candidate would be someone who shared in both conventional democrat and republican ideas and was, like stated before, fiscally conservative yet socially liberal. I agree with Gil when he says an ideal candidate would be somewhere in between the two political parties. The Pew Research Center gave an interesting take on political groups - and having these new groups certainly gives light to why their might be such diversity in the results, since many groups had both democrat and republican ideas. Ultimately, the results of both surveys, while ambiguous, lead me to think that if politicians began to present themselves in a way that showed they accepted both democrat and republican ideas, more millenials would vote for them.
    This article was really interesting and basically sums up all of the information in Mr. Balanda's attached articles:
    http://www.deseretnews.com/article/765657221/The-complicated-political-views-of-Millennials-infographic.html

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  12. As a Millenial myself, I agree with the polls along with the opinions of the comments before me. I do believe that these results are reliable and mostly free of bias. Millenials do, in fact, seem a bit hypocritical and do tend to contradict themselves. I think that politicians like Hillary Clinton should try and focus on pleasing the younger generation. Millenials seem to want one thing, but once they get it, they change their mind. They also seem to want a government that cares, but likes to know that they can be self-sufficient and can handle themselves when it comes to their money. The "ideal" Millenial would be someone who wants to handle themselves in any situation, but also wants to know that they can trust the government to help with issues that need to be handled. All in all, i feel that Millenials are a very interesting generation that are definitely going to shape the future in a huge way.

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  13. While looking at the findings from the polls, I have reached the conclusion that I do greatly agree with the results. Millenials like the idea of independence and power, however they want the government to make a lot of decisions for them. They like to handle their own money when they have a lot of it, but when they are suffering they wish for aid and programs from the government. Millenials have ever-changing views and ideas, and feel that different solutions should be used for different situations. Your views should be able to change, and they don't have to be set-in-stone. I believe that these results are biased. Unless they polled the entire Millenial population, it will be forever biased. Everyone has different views on things, and maybe the results would vary if you picked more people from different areas of the country to join in the poll. Instead of trying to make change and impose her ideas and values, politicians like Hillary Clinton, should try and satisfy the likes of the younger generation. Politicians can use the information from these polls to win elections very easily. They just have to create campaign ideas that appeal to the Millenial views based off of the results form the the polls. Politicians have to figure out a way to balance the amount of power they have and the amount of power they give to the people to create a system that the Millenials feel is just. Millenials wish the government to behave in such a way that we know they're there, but they aren't invading our privacy or taking too much power away from us. Millenials want a say in the government however they don't want to burden themselves with too big of decisions. They want a mutual feeling of trust with the government. Millenials want to feel secure about their money, lives, and welfare. An ideal Millenial being would be someone who could make clear and concise decisions, decide on one political party, and wish to improve our country's economy. They would want to make decisions for themselves, as well as make decisions as a country. Millenials rely on a sense of trust with the government, because without that bond of trust they will question ever choice our government makes.

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  14. As a Millenial, I do agree with some results of the polls. The Millenials are known to be very liberal and independent which would explain the results. Like said in the first article, the Millenials care a lot about social issues, making us a very liberal generation. Most of the generation is non-white, young, and poor, making them historically more liberal and open towards social issues. I strongly agree with this part of the poll. When it comes to how "Millenials don't know what they're talking about when it comes to economics", I'm not sure whether to agree or disagree. I would agree, personally, because I don't know much about economics but I don't know about the generation as a whole. There could be quite a lot of bias with these polls. The results on certain topics could be bias because a majority of Millenials are young and not educated in specific aspects of government yet. Politicians should take this into consideration in the future. With such liberal voters, right wing politicains are going to have a difficult time in the next presidential election. Hillary Clinton, therefore, will have more support in 2016 than she has in the past because of this new wave of liberal voters. The Millenials will have a large influence on the future of the government. An "ideal" Millenial canidate is a liberal and cares about social issues and let about political parties.

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  15. After reading these articles, I have found that I do agree with the findings of the polls and have a better understanding of us Millennials and our some-what incoherent look at our government. Most of the Millennials polled proved to be very liberal and have a democratic view on government and topics like same sex marriage, immigration, and marijuana use. But, maybe not for the right reasons. One thing I have learned from the poll is that most Millennials are obviously young, usually poor and non-white. These traits make for a more liberal generation, as most tend to lean more left with popular social issues. However, I do agree with Derek Thompson, author of the first article "Millennial's Political Views Don't Make Any Sense". I think that our generation is utterly uneducated about government, as are most Americans (but mostly just us Millennials). As young people, we are already in a very vulnerable time in our lives where persuasion by others has the power to pull is in many different directions. Throw in popular social media topics and opinions of others, and our own ideas can be shaped into other's very easily. So, considering this, and adding the fact that we hardly know any real facts about government, our views basically flow in the same direction as popular belief. Also, I think some of us are just plain lazy. It's easier to just go along with the crowd's political beliefs, and adapt them into your own, rather than taking the time to really figure out what your true opinion on politics would be. Plus, lots of liberal and conservative proposals sound nice, so people just go along with them. For example, either reducing the overall tax burden for all, or raising taxes on the wealthy. The ideas may sound nice, but if read into, actually have loop holes and things still needed to figure out. I feel like people just pick a side and go with it, without getting down to nitty-gritty and finding out the true meaning of each proposal. Therefore, I do agree with Thompson's point of view on the fact that most of us are just confused and quite incoherent on the ideas in today's politics. The information from the polls could quite possibly be biased. As Kayla said, many Millennials go along with the crowd, or what their parents believe to be correct. This just goes to show that the information collected is very biased and points to what other people, and not the actual Millennials, believe in because we just take other's opinions which sound nice to us and make them into our own. Meaning that, the real beliefs of the young people were not polled, and possibly aren't even known to the Millennials themselves because they just go along with the beliefs of others and don't really have a strong grasp on government either. Future politicians would be smart to shape their campaigns around the beliefs of young people, leaning towards the liberal sides of things. However, in a perfect world, a politician who has a true sense of self would ideally stick to their beliefs and not sink to level of us Millennials whom just conform to what other think about government. But, then they probably wouldn't get voted for if their beliefs were different from those of the Millennials.

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  16. (Continued) So, I suppose the moral of the story is that us Millennials need to gain a proper judgement on politics that is not biased and true to ourselves and our virtues. This way, a more diverse generation on Millennials with non-biased opinions would be created. And if we can do this, then the politicians wouldn't need to conform to our liberal ways (ultimately changing their views on government just to please others) in order to get some votes because we wouldn't be mostly Democratic society. Overall, I think it would be very beneficial if Millennials got more education on government and politics so that they can either confirm or change their beliefs to something they truly stand behind, instead of confirming to popular beliefs, social media or parental points of view. To me, this would be the most beneficial thing for us Millennials right now! I'm glad I'm taking this course so I can further improve my knowledge about government and possibly change some of my political beliefs to what I truly believe in!

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  17. By reading the information from this poll, I can safely say that I agree with every piece it provides me with especially since I myself am a Millenial. I feel that this poll can be trusted because of the fact that it is almost completely free of bias but, it can still be considered bias in some ways. Current politicians and presidential hopefuls should keep in mind most of the information provided in this poll because as it stated that the Millenial population is the largest to this date and if they want a chance to run for office or any other political position hey must listen to what the people want. What most of Millenials seem to want more than anything is their independence and their ability to voice to the government what they strive for. Unlike some peoples beliefs on how bias this pole is, I believe they do need to be somewhat bias because there will always be a majority of people who believe in one thing and the other minority that are opposed to what the majority say. However, especially in politics and the government, both sides cant be pleased. Politicians can use the information in this pole for their campaign promises considering that the Millenials are considered the most important group of people in our society. So based on the results of this pole Millenials would typically want the government and politicians to be more liberal and for them to be democratic.

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  18. As a millennial I do agree with most of the results I read. The findings say that millennials are very independent and that would explain the majority of the results. I think that it is great our generation cares so much about social issues and that us millennials are so liberal. As you know the majority of millennials are young and live tough lives which only makes their fight to make a difference more powerful and it shows people why we are so interested in social issues. When people say that millennials don't know anything about economics I disagree slightly. Personally I know a good amount about economics for someone my age but I cannot speak for all millenials. However, if the majority of us are fighing for social issues and are trying to voice our opinions they must know something. The only aspect about millenials that may cause the polls to be bias is the age of most of them. The younger they are the more they stick with others and follow but seeing as I am one of the youngest millenials and knowing my own views and how well informed I am I don't know how much of a bias decision this could be. In the future elections millenials will have a large influence and the winner will most likely be someone liberal and independent rather than a strong supporter of a political party.

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  19. Being a millennial myself I agree with the findings of the poll because it's evident that this generation is somewhat lost as far as our opinion on our government goes. This can be seen in the first article in the piece where it discusses millennial's views on economics and how basically the views of the majority of millennials can be seen as either liberal or conservative depending on what question is asked. Like what other students said, we as a generation tend to take the most popular belief and make it our own instead of developing an opinion for ourselves. I can relate to this directly on this blog where I'll read other students' comments to get ideas for my own and I'm sure a lot of the class can relate to this as well. I can see this where a lot of comments on here are almost identical or share mostly all the same "opinions." Of course the popular opinion being written could be the same belief as someone writing their own comment and there's nothing wrong with that, but I'd say it's safe to assume that not everyone's opinion is coming from purely themselves, especially considering these poll results. This is especially evident in politics where the majority of the population is democratic, and millennials tend to be more democrat. This is good news for possible future president, and democrat, Hillary Clinton. Of course not all millennials are just taking the views from other people; there's reasoning for why young and generally poor people would want to be liberal. Millennials were asked if the government should reduce the income gap, and to no surprise, those with low income said yes, and those with higher income said no (generally speaking). Millennials, or maybe just the population as a whole, tend to think for themselves when it comes to money, and not what's best for our government in the long run. Perhaps people and millennials specifically should take this into consideration when deciding what's best for our country.

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  20. From what I can tell form the polls is that we are a judgmental and indecisive (and a little uneducated) bunch. I totally agree. There is an image on our heads of how things should be done whether its the people around us or the government that guides us and we are not shy in voicing our opinions when that image isn't satisfied (judgmental). The image we have is foggy though. It's like we know what we want for an end result but we cannot fathom a logical path that will lead us there and when someone does construct a path no one wants to follow them because it doesn't feel/sound/look right (indecisive). Furthermore, not many people understand the obstacles that first have to be over come before you can get to an end point. Most see a straight line as the quickest way to reach a destination but they are completely ignorant to the giant brick wall that is blocking their path (uneducated). I have to say that I fall beneath every single one of those categories. Some days I kind of just wish that the political parties that govern our nation would disperse so that actual decisions could be made and the problems that plague our society could be fixed but that isn't rational at all. The stubbornness of our predecessors also irks me because if some people would stop being so political minded and get off their soap box legistaltion that could actual help the country and its people could be put into place but noooooooo that's too easy. Long story short hopefuls should start by getting the most followers on twitter and making their face the better known one because no matter how hard they try they really won't be able to satisfy the people of our generation because while we want change in our lives we don't want it to get in the way of our lives. While we want this image in our heads to be a reality we can't decide on how to achieve it and its different for everyone. Compromise is key and being able to take the heat for your decisions.

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  21. The Millennial generation is one that spins people's heads. As a Millennial myself I can say that many of these claims about Millennials are in fact true. I feel that Millennials make the decisions they do because of peer influences, parental influences, and the rapid spread of social media. As this generation gets older, they may have a more " true to themselves " opinion over time. To win over Millennials, I believe you have to give them what they want but also choices to what they want so after the fact they will be satisfied. Also, I think the polls are reliable. The only con about this poll I feel are that more Millennials should have been recognized in this poll. What if half of Millennials that weren't recognized/given the opportunity to take the poll had different opinions that varied completely from the other Millennials? The latest generation also has been recognized as being very independent but also very uncertain in what they think and want. More than half of Millennials identified as politically independent. The other half was more democratic than republican so democrats, You're in! (Insert thumbs up emoji here). Any sort of future candidate trying to run for a big part in the government should really study up on Millennials. Having the Millennials on their side could help or bring them down in their ballot counts!

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  22. Being a millennial myself i am inclined to agree with the findings of the polls, which both state millennial political viewpoints are mixed and “Don’t make any sense” because reading the articles I realized I shared many if not all my opinions with the millennials opinions and mine are all over the map as well. However the results of these polls could just as easily be biased in regards to the types of questions asked and the wording. For example asking “should we lower taxes?” vs “Should we cut programs and budgets to lower taxes?” will get you a different response although both are essentially asking the same thing. Politicians should take that they need to start appealing much more to the “on-the-fence” crowd considering millennials viewpoints seem to be a combination of conservative and liberal values. Politicians can use the results of these polls to decipher what 22 percent of the population wants and how to word their speeches and policies in a way millennials will support. Millennials want the government to implement more social liberties, while cutting wasteful spending eg. Wars, military, drug enforcement. An ideal candidate for the millennials would be socially liberal and fiscally conservative. So did any you find out you agree with millennial Political Views that Don't Make Any Sense?

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  23. Coming from the millennial generation myself, I would agree with most of the results from the poll. The Millennial generation tends to lean more toward liberal views including same sex marriage, pot, and immigration. Derek Thompson says it's because of the majority of millennials are young, and poor and generally the young and poor "lean towards the left". Also with the finding of the poll, I agree with the articles saying that youths are confused. This beings based off of tax spending, government involvement in our lives , and government size. Economics is a confusing topic for some people to grasp and as a result, millennials' views prove to be "utterly incomprehensible". I do believe this to be a reliable source. However, I would have liked for there to be more people involved in the survey. Young teens opinions or views might differ from the views of older millennials. As for the poll being bias, I would have to say that it could be. This is because millennials are young and can be influenced by others beliefs for political views. Current politicians and presidential hopefuls should take from this poll that millennials are somewhat scattered in there views. An example is environmental topics. Politicians should not be too sharp with there views; they should be more toward the middle of the scale, rather than more liberal or conservative...well with that topic. As for other issues such as same sex marriage, pot, and immigration, they should be more liberal, if they hope to collect the votes of millennials. I do not completely agree with some of those view points but the majority of millennials would. Millennials as a whole would like to get the best of things without any consequences or back lush that would affect them. An ideal millennial candidate would be a liberal. However millennials only looking out for what will best help them, could in the long run hurt the government. So a liberal candidate might not be best for the country, it might only be good for someone looking out for themselves. Proof positive, millennials overwhelmingly voted for President Obama off of the belief he would provide health care for our nation. But as a result his health care law has resulted in a series of problems among many other issues that have been created. (Immigration, Gaza, and the probable return of the Cold War with Russia) President Obama unfortunately has become what the political polls determine to be the most ineffective president in our nations history. In conclusion, because millennials are so scattered with there views, a liberal president may not be what our a nation needs.

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