Political Attitudes of the Snapchat Generation

While on Super Tuesday primaries are held in 12 States and American Samoa a poll suggests the Grand Old Party might have reason to worry about the first- and second-time voters. Even though the GOP sports the two youngest candidates (Ted Cruz, 45, and Marco Rubio, 44) the voters between the ages of 18 and 26 prefer the Democratic camp, and in fact lean towards the oldes candidate: Bernie Sanders, 74 years. They prefer him (45 percent) over Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton (19 percent).

It then doesn’t come as a surprise that according to the poll by political consultant and commentator Frank Luntz, who himself favors the GOP camp, the young even flirt with political beliefs that so far had a hard time in America. In response to the question, “Which type of political system do you think is the most compassionate?”, 58 percent said socialism and 9 percent even went for communism. 33 percent chose capitalism. “By a 2-1 margin, young voters see compassion in collectivism, not capitalism,” Luntz gathers.

The report also suggests that the young are less nationalist. At least the young don’t seem to be as proud of their country compared to their parental generation. While 65 percent still primarily see themselves as “Citizens of America”, 35 percent would rather describe themselves as “Citizens of the World”. To top things off, more than half (58 percent) of the participants in the survey agree to the statement “America isn’t any better or worse than most other countries”.

And the young are a force to be reckoned with: 87 percent of the surveyed 1,000 18- to 26-year-olds said they would be going to vote in the Nov. 8 elections. “Politicians, ignore young voters at your own peril. Because they sure as hell aren’t ignoring you,” Luntz warns.