Wednesday, May 24, 2017

While the GOP misses with millennials, the Federalist message is right on target

It’s no surprise that the Federalist Party is getting a ton of new members who feel the GOP has left them. What may be surprising is that a good number of the ones we’re seeing make the switch are millennials.

When we first started down the road of forming a new party, the majority of early adopters were over 35-years-old. Our message of reining in DC, defending freedoms, and protecting life were once associated with the Republican Party, but over the last few years it’s become more apparent that the party only invoked these ideas when they were campaigning. We knew we needed to craft a strong message to appeal to the younger generation. What we didn’t anticipate is that the message that resonated with long-time Republicans would also hit the mark with younger voters.

Today, nearly half of our new members are millennials.

According to Kristen Soltis Anderson, this isn’t the same old shift away from the GOP:

It’s been reported often and for many years that Republicans are losing younger people, but what is most shocking about the Pew study is the narrow window in which this wave of defections occurred. In the relatively short time frame of December 2015 to March 2017, nearly half of all young Republicans left their party at some point, with roughly a quarter bidding the GOP adieu for good.

No other group, by age or party, wavered so much or defected in such substantial numbers.

The Federalist Party represents a promise that the GOP has always made. The difference is that Republican leaders in recent years have debunked themselves by failing to keep these promises. They say things in opposition to Democrats during campaign season, then embrace big government ideas when they’re given control. Young (and old) people who want laser-focus on shrinking government are joining the Federalist Party en masse.

To understand why this is the case, we have to put aside certain stereotypes. Media is quick to point out when college students protest conservative speakers, but they hide the fact that there’s a strong counter-insurgency of small-government-minded students. They might not riot. They may have more respect for free speech than their left-wing counterparts, but their numbers are strong and their passions are often stronger. Moreover, the angst that many millennials are feeling stems from an emerging understanding that the federal government causes many of the problems they claim to fix. The internet and social media have allowed failures and political debacles to take on lives of their own. The realization that we need less government is why people like Ron Paul, Ted Cruz, and Ben Sasse have been so appealing to millennials.

Most Americans, when presented with the facts, can come to the conclusion that less interference from the federal government yields much better results. It’s nearly universal; returning power to the states, communities, and individuals solves problems much better than relying on overarching mandates, cumbersome regulations, and offensive laws decreed by DC. The rise of the Federalist Party is coming at the exact right moment in history.



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