Following the State of the Union address last week, Republicans need to utilize these next two years as critical preparation for the 2016 presidential election. Specifically, the GOP needs to win the millennial vote — our vote. However, this will only happen with considerable repair to the party’s platform and image.
In 2012, our generation cast the votes that re-elected President Obama for a second term. Despite an abysmal economy, with skyrocketing unemployment and student-loan debt, 60 percent of the 18-29 year old demographic cast its vote for Obama over Romney. Our generation decided the outcome.
Prior to President Obama, President Ronald Reagan held the record for the highest proportion of young voters at 59 percent in 1984. Unfortunately, the millennial generation wasn’t around yet to see that conservatism could flourish in this nation. Since Reagan left office, the Republican Party has failed to establish a unanimous agreement on its party’s platform. Obviously, when a party cannot agree on its policy, it cannot clearly communicate its values and beliefs to voters. This must change.
As a republican, the biggest elephant in the room for my party is social policies. Issues such as abortion rights, marriage equality, and immigration are departure points for the majority of young people. We have lost the last two presidential elections because we have been unwilling to break from traditional customs that are irrelevant in today’s modern America.
For example, the most blatant issue where the GOP loses its potential young voters is same-sex marriage. In a 2012 Harvard Institute of Politics poll, only 25 percent of millennials felt that homosexuality was wrong. However, only 11 percent of the respondents said that making same-sex marriage legal was a high-priority issue. According to the poll, jobs and the economy far outweigh same-sex marriage when it comes to priority of issues.
However, we need to realize that politics is divided into two buckets, and if an issue exists that you just cannot agree with, everything else in that bucket becomes irrelevant. In a College Republican National Committee poll, over half of the millennial generation said they would “probably or definitely not vote for a candidate with whom they disagreed on the issue of same-sex marriage, even if they were in agreement on taxes, defense, immigration, and spending.”
These facts should NOT signal the GOP to change its platform, but rather, to clearly define its platform. Unfortunately for the Republican Party, we have been characterized by both Democrats and by obstructive voices in our own ranks as holding the most extreme positions. To overcome this tainted image, the GOP needs to speak out and accept the diversity of viewpoints within our party.
One extraordinarily important area the Republicans need to focus on in the next two years is the economy. In last week’s State of the Union, Obama declared victory on the economy. However, this is obviously premature. Median household income is still about 4.5 percent lower than it was before the recession, and the cost of college has risen over 5.2 percent each year under Obama’s administration — three times the current inflation rate. These are just two of numerous indicators that prove Obama has been anything but victorious with the economy.
But according to recent polls conducted by the CFCR, the majority of Americans believe the Republicans could not do any better. This is because the Republicans, once again, have failed to define a concrete plan of attack to help the economy, close tax loopholes, and stimulate innovation in this country.
As the GOP moves forward into this year and next, it needs to address the policy deficiencies in its platform, and very clearly convey viewpoints that not only remain true to conservative roots, but appeal to the vastly crucial voting block of millennials.
It is time for the GOP elephant to rise from its slumber, reform the face of the Republican Party, and take America back to greatness.
