April 24, 2024
Opinion Columnist
Last fall I argued that Joe Biden was the Democratic Party’s strongest 2024 presidential nominee. I believed that for two reasons: He has been an effective president, and he is the Democrat most likely to appeal to working-class voters.
I still believe Biden is the party’s strongest candidate, but I’m getting more pessimistic about his chances of winning.
The first reason is not political rocket science: Voters prefer the Republicans on key issues like inflation and immigration. Most Donald Trump supporters I know aren’t swept up in his cult of personality; they vote for him because they are conservative types who like G.O.P. policies and think Trump is a more effective executive than Biden.
The second reason I’ve become more pessimistic is because of what’s happening to the youth vote. NBC News released an interesting poll last weekend finding that interest in this election is lower than in any other presidential election in nearly 20 years. Only 64 percent of Americans said they have a high degree of interest in the election, compared to, say, 77 percent who had high interest in 2020.
But what really leaps out is the numbers for voters ages 18 to 34. Only 36 percent of those voters said they are highly interested.
I imagine that’s partly because it’s difficult to get enthusiastic about candidates who are a half-century older than you. But part of it is also about Biden’s approach to the Israel-Hamas war. Young people are much more critical of Israel than other groups, and there are no candidates representing that point of view.
InconvenientNews.Net 