American gen Z voters share how they feel about Kamala Harrisās presidential bid, why they like or dislike her as a candidate and whether they think she could beat Donald Trump, as the vice-presidentĀ races towards winning the Democratic nominationĀ for Novemberās election.
āI think sheās just what we needā
āI think [Kamala Harris] is the only one that makes sense. She will get the votes Biden couldnāt. She could get the Black, Asian, Latino, womenās, LGBTQ+ and youth votes. She stands more for progress and equality than an old white dude and if she wins it will be historic. The Democrats need a bold move and I think sheās just what we need.
āI hope theĀ DemocratsĀ realize what an opportunity this is for them.āĀ Will, 22,Ā construction worker from Portland, Oregon
ā¦
Turnout has varied enormously over the last twenty years. Conservatives are riding the same waves as the rest of us. A lot of that is built into home ownership. Weāre seeing a more migrant population that needs to constantly re-register and re-engage with the local political establishment after every change of address. Republicans are no longer the home-owning majority, now that the college demographic has shifted over to the liberal side of the spectrum. And Democrats are no longer the freshly migrant urbanites of the post Jim Crow era, fleeing the brutality of the Dixiecrat states.
Dems have eclipsed Republicans on voter registration, they consistently out-compete on turnout, and theyāve had a number of wave elections in off-years precisely because theyāre more consistent at voting than their Republican peers.
No. Gerrymandering, vote caging, and strategic disenfranchisement at the county and state level are why small minorities are able to run roughshod over the interests of the majority. States like Ohio, North Carolina, Florida, and Texas have absolutely batshit insane maps, with a handful of districts packed to the gills full of liberal voters while conservatives are spread thinly across the remainder. Wisconsin just broke the GOP gerrymander thatās kept the state legislature locked firmly red with barely 40% of the popular vote.
Thatās been a clever stopgap against popular governance in the short term, but its also a dangerous game when a suburban cohort shifts or defects on razor thin margins.
When Dem wave years happen, you can see thousands of seats flip overnight. But without that supermajority of voters, youāll see those same seats collapse red again. That was the story of 2008 -> 2010 and 2016 -> 2018 -> 2020. Suddenly influxes of Democrats would appear for a cycle only to get obliterated in time for Republicans to recement their gerrymanders.
Consequently, the Republican strategy has been to run out the clock on incoming Dem administrations, confident that theyāll be back in control as soon as the wave passes. Democrat strategy has been toā¦ fuck around for the two years they have a significant majority and then bitch at voters when the moment passes.