Trump and the Republicans are passing policies that will undoubtedly activate a base that is sometimes not reliable., the youth It is as if they have a death wish. But do they have an ally in the media to attenuate the expected anger?
John Young wrote a prescient article titled “The youth vote: from apathetic to angry” where he pointed out that Trump owes his victory to youth apathy or a general malaise regarding ballot choices.
“Things have changed,” Young writes. “Observe the surge of young voters turning out for Democrats in Virginia, New Jersey, and Washington State Nov. 7. Trump and the Republicans are digging a hole among those voters that could leave them on the outs for a generation.”
Young enumerates a short if an incomplete list of policies that hurt young people directly and almost immediately.
Consider the tax bill that will award the wealthiest richly and raise taxes for up to 30 percent of middle-class taxpayers. Young voters are straining hard just to project themselves into that middle class. They don’t see these tax cuts helping them whatsoever. Consider how these tax cuts will harm college students. For instance, the House-passed bill would treat tuition waivers for graduate students as income.
Meanwhile, the Republicans would repeal the Lifetime Learning Credit and the Hope Scholarship Credit, both of which allow students to deduct some educational expenses from taxes, while ending deductions for interest on student loans. While the Republicans pose and preen for big donors, the 1 percent, and big business, they are making young voters furious.
Maybe the biggest issue that has stirred young voters across the board is net neutrality. It’s something that’s mostly off the radar for most of the over-50 set. Most assuredly that’s not the case with those in the 30-and-under set, who see an attempt to control this public resource, the internet, as an attack on their neighborhood.
There is one caveat that I addressed this morning in my article titled “Pocahontas, NFL & other tweets a part of Trump’s scam and we’re falling for it” that should give everyone pause. I pointed out the following.
Every day there is a new infantile act by president Trump for which the media’s hyperventilation goes into high gear. Their inability to understand that the president is playing them like a fiddle is not only depressing but dangerous. And you all, the average American citizens, are about to pay dearly for it lest you all wake up irrespective of the media’s dereliction.
The threat that Trump represents to America must not be taken lightly. There are serious stories Americans need to know about that take a backseat to an infantile tweet.
We do not just need activist youth or those that are more informed. We need the youth en masse. That will only happen if the young people are informed truthfully about the damage Donald Trump and the Republicans are doing to their generation (and to most others as well). We must use the power of social media, independent media, and other resources that are more detached from the corporate distribution of news.
So folks, until the temporary destruction of Net Neutrality works its way through the machinations of the corporate boardrooms, Facebook, Instagram, Tumblr, SnapChat, Twitter, Periscope, YouTube, and others are your friends. Use your social media sphere of influence to talk to everyone ensuring you add a bit of news to the conversation. Let them know without being overbearing the specific destructive policies of these tyrants and how it will affect your particular friends.