Tag: political parties
Why The Next Generation Won’t Turn To The Right

Why The Next Generation Won’t Turn To The Right

In a Tuesday article for The New York Times’ Upshot blog, David Leonhardt suggests that the next generation could grow up conservative — even though today’s young voters are overwhelmingly liberal and diverse, and the GOP is the party of older white voters.

Leonhardt argues that ideology is generational. The hippies of the 1960s who fought against Vietnam and supported gender and racial equality were replaced by the generation that voted for Reagan and social conservatism.

He writes that the current crop of young voters grew up with the Iraq War and George W. Bush’s failed policies. They’re the generation of “hope and change.” But the next generation is growing up under a struggling Obama administration. President Obama appears powerless in a government where little is accomplished, and this group doesn’t really remember the Bush administration.

If the GOP were still the moderate party it was during the 1970s, then Leonhardt’s argument could make a lot of sense. Political attitudes shift, which is why control of the nation frequently switches between the Democratic and Republican parties. In the 1970s, President Nixon created the Environmental Protection Agency, which many of today’s Republicans would like to see abolished, and pushed for a very progressive welfare plan.

But today’s GOP has moved so far to the right that it’s hard to imagine young people supporting a party that really doesn’t represent them. For example, the modern Republican Party denies global warming and attacks welfare programs.

Of voters aged 18-39, 72 percent think that global warming is a serious problem facing the country, while only 49 percent of Republicans do, according to a June ABC News/Washington Post poll.

Similarly, the latest NBC News/Wall Street Journalpoll shows that 45 percent of 18- to 34-year-olds think that the poor aren’t doing enough, compared to 61 percent of Republicans.

Leonhardt admits to a few holes in his argument. For one, Obama’s administration is largely struggling because the Republican Party does whatever it can to block all his initiatives.

He also acknowledges that the GOP has a large diversity problem. The latest Census Bureau data shows that the country is becoming more and more diverse. Non-Hispanic single whites under the age of 18 only make up 52.4 percent of the population, and that will continue to decline. Leonhardt points out that 45 percent of American teens are either Hispanic or a minority, compared to 29 percent of citizens older than 20.

In the 2012 election, although young voters favored him less than they did in 2008, they were still President Obama’s largest base of support (60 percent voted for him). While whites were the only race of which a majority voted for Romney, Obama won 93 percent of the black vote, 73 percent of Asians, and 71 percent of Hispanics. The Republican Party has a problem with minority voters, and it’s not going to go away unless the GOP reforms its platform and becomes more inclusive.

Leonhardt is correct that today’s teens will remember the Obama administration when they cast their first votes. His legacy isn’t looking so great at the moment — a poll did just name him the worst president since World War II. But what Leonhardt fails to mention is that some young voters might be disillusioned with Obama because he’s not progressive enough. These voters are certainly not going to run to the Republican Party, a party that definitely won’t close the prison at Guantánamo or reform Wall Street.

No one in the 1960s would have predicted that the next generation would become Reagan Democrats, so it’s true that anything can happen over the next few years. But it’s very unlikely that the next generation will take a sharp right turn.

Photo: Chill Mimi via Flickr

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Charlotte, Tampa Mishandled Grant Money For Political Conventions, IG Says

Charlotte, Tampa Mishandled Grant Money For Political Conventions, IG Says

By Franco Ordonez, McClatchy Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON — The city of Charlotte, NC, misused more than $132,000 in federal money that city officials received to beef up security during the 2012 Democratic National Convention, according to a new federal investigation.

The city has agreed to pay back more than half that, saying $79,000 was wrongfully spent because of “clerical issues.” But city officials say the remaining funds were not misused, and they plan to contest attempts to recover the money.

In a 27-page report, the U.S. Department of Justice inspector general found that federal dollars had been used to give a deputy police chief a $12,200 lump payment and a retired police captain nearly $8,000 in retirement payments. The grant money also was used to pay more than $16,000 in salaries and overtime for 39 Charlotte Fire Department employees.

More than $53,000 was improperly used to pay for two SUVs that were supposed to be modified with running boards and grab bars so officers could be transported to convention events, according to the report. The modifications were never made, however, so the vehicles could have been rented for less money, the inspector general estimated.

“If Congress chooses to continue providing funds for presidential nominating convention security, future grant recipients need to place a greater emphasis on pursuing low cost alternatives to procuring grant-funded property whenever those options are available,” the report said.

The findings are part of a federal review of $100 million in security grants that the cities of Charlotte and Tampa, FL, received for the Democratic and Republican presidential conventions. The inspector general found $25,192 in questionable costs by the city of Tampa, including the mayor’s use of a grant-funded SUV for non-security purposes.

The conclusions may bolster criticism that taxpayers shouldn’t be paying for conventions that have evolved into largely scripted commercials for each political party. Host cites have also been accused of using the money to stock up on equipment and resources that are unnecessary for the events.

The city of Charlotte admitted it shouldn’t have used the money to offset the personnel costs. Charlotte-Mecklenburg police Major Mike Adams, one of the department’s chief planners for the convention, called it a clerical error that occurred as officials processed thousands of lines of data the department used to determine which work was reimbursed by the federal government. He said the amount represented a fraction of the money the city received.

In April, President Barack Obama signed a law that ended $18.2 million in public funding each for the Democratic and Republican conventions. But that money is separate from the $100 million that Charlotte and Tampa received to defray security costs.

Photo: Barack Obama via Flickr