A Harvard study has concluded that 54% of millennials – now the largest voting bloc in the US – believes that America is not heading in the right direction.
According to the study by Harvard’s Institute of Politics at Harvard Kennedy School, roughly two-thirds of the young Americans are fearful of the country’s future, with almost 82% of Democrat millennials expressing fear compared to 58% of the Republicans. The study also found out that 18 to 29-year-olds are twice as likely to be Democrats.
John Della Volpe, the director of polling at the IOP, was asked if the study imply that young Americans’ dislike of President Trump will result in a political change.
“President Trump’s approval rating is at 25% — fewer than those that believe he cares about ‘people like them’,” Volpe said in an email.
“This is certainly a key ingredient to political change,” Volpe said. “The Virginia election turnout and Democratic margin was significant compared to recent elections and Hillary Clinton’s performance — we will continue to track.”
Volpe went on to write, “the sample was 2,038 interviews with the 18-29-year-old population. This was a representative sample of all the young Americans — which includes people at every level of education from high school to community college, colleges, grad schools, never attended, etc.”
The margin of error was nearly 3%, Volpe said.
The study further goes on to claim that the “two-thirds of youth fearful about America’s future, prefer Democratic control of Congress.”
Many of the misgivings center on race relations only. According to the study, a huge 79% of young Americans “register concern about the state of race relations in the country today.” Fifteen% of these young whites who were surveyed said that their race is constantly “under attack,” compared to the 68% of young blacks and 46% of young Hispanics.
When asked “Do you support or oppose race-based affirmative action programs designed to increase the number of African American and Hispanic students on college campuses?” almost 46% answered that they do support it, 28% went on to oppose, and 24% were not sure.
Of those who were surveyed, 55% were white, 22% were of Hispanic origin, 14% were black, 7% were others and 2% were classified as the “2+ Races, Non-Hispanic.” A majority, almost 55%, were between the ages of 18 and 24 years old.
The study also noted an uptick in young Americans, 64%, who believed that “global warming is man-made and mostly caused by emissions.” Although, when asked to choose which issue is the one that most concerns them from a list of 50 issues — including terrorism, health care and taxes — global warming ranked among the lowest.
About which national issues concern them the most, respondents ranked the foreign affairs, 22%, and the economy, 15%, as more important than what the survey termed “President Trump/Ineffective leadership,” 10%.
A majority of those who were surveyed, almost 62%, were from the states in northern U.S. or Pacific Coast.
Sixty-one% of these respondents expressed their concerns for much stricter gun laws, which is up 12 points from a 2013 study. A mere 1% of respondents, however, considered gun control and second amendment rights as the most concerning issue the nation is currently facing.
Of the millennials who were surveyed, 53% said that they “approve of some professional athletes’ decision to kneel during the National Anthem.” The report concluded that, based on these numbers, “the majority of 18- to 29-year-olds approve,” but still neglected to mention that 45% of respondents disapprove. The issue has varied dramatically in accordance with respondents’ political affiliation: 80% of the Democrats approve, whereas 17% of Republicans disapprove.