Millennials Shifting to the Right

The so-called millennial generation, those in the 18-29 year-old age bracket, helped keep President Obama into the White House. “If only those over the age of 30 had voted, Romney would have won,” Emily Ekins, who directs polling for the Reason Foundation, said at the blogger’s briefing at the Heritage Foundation on August 26, 2014.

Nevertheless, surveys that try to track their mood swings border on the superficial. “Why do millennials like socialism?” Ekins asks.  “Because they don’t know what it is.”

Yet and still, what they have seen of big government, they increasingly do not like. Ekins notes that during the Obama years, the percentage of millennials who want a large government with more services has gone from seven out of ten to 54 percent.

Similarly, over that same time period, the percentage of millennials who think government is inefficient has gone from 42 percent to 66 percent.

Ekins found in a recent poll that, perhaps not too surprisingly, millennials have a better image of themselves than those over 30. For example, three-quarters of millennials think they have a good work ethic but only half of those surveyed over 30 agree. Nonetheless, Ekins wrote, “ Interestingly, Americans under 30 are as likely as those over 30 to say 18-29 year olds are selfish (71%).”

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