A majority of 18-to-24-year-olds now say they would recall Obama as president if they could. It is finally happening; young people who overwhelmingly supported Obama are now turning away from him in droves. The hope and change he promised never materialized, instead replaced with deteriorating conditions.
A new poll from Harvard University’s Institute of Politics found that Millennial approval of Obama has dipped to the lowest ever, at 41 percent. Their dissatisfaction with Obama now mirrors the rest of the country. Similarly, 56 percent of Americans aged 18 to 29 disapprove of Obamacare, compared to only 39 percent who support it. The younger Millennials are becoming increasingly less Democratic. Of those age 18 to 24, 31 percent identify as Democrats and 25 percent as Republicans.
This is occurring in part because the entry level jobs they are qualified for are drying up and turning into free internships. Paid internships are becoming a rarity. Millennials are realizing the Occupy Wall Street movement’s demands only succeeded in making things worse for them. Fast food workers striking for higher wages is hurting, not helping them. Instead of having a good shot at what used to be plentiful fast-food jobs, young people are finding themselves replaced by fast-food ordering kiosks.
Retail jobs aren’t faring much better. Instead of a fairly set, dependable schedule, young people are discovering they need to compete for hours each week in a bidding system online. There are fewer customer service jobs available than there were 20 years ago, because so many corporations have outsourced those positions to countries like India in order to avoid punishing labor laws forced upon them within the U.S. by unions. Jobs with 40 hours a week and benefits are becoming harder to find, as employers increasingly rely upon part-time workers in order to avoid providing health insurance with its onerous, unaffordable requirements under Obamacare.
The cost of higher education continues to escalate, with no end in sight. College students are graduating with over $100,000 in student loans, yet are lucky if they can find a full-time minimum wage job upon graduating.
Finally, the reality of Obamacare is setting in. Young people thought they would have free health insurance. In reality, the true cost of healthcare through the Obamacare exchanges is coming out and it is much more than what they would pay for in the private sector. Instead of paying $4/mth for birth control at Walmart through the private sector, Sandra Fluke has ensured that government intervention in the area of birth control will escalate everyone’s overall healthcare premiums and costs.
Obamacare is designed so that young, healthy people pay more for healthcare in order to subsidize older, less healthy people. The fewer young people who enroll, the higher the costs of Obamacare. Obamacare needs 40 percent of those who sign up to be under 35, but only 29 percent of uninsured 18-to-29-year-olds say they intend to enroll.
The older generations are better suited to buy into Obama’s false promises of hope and change, because there is still a little money left to be borrowed to pass along to them through Social Security, and they have seniority at their existing union jobs. Millennials aren’t benefiting from any of this. The best they get from this administration is staying on their parents’ health insurance a few extra years - embarrassing at best.
As young people continue to struggle five years into Obama’s presidency, they are becoming resentful of his endless pricey jaunts around the world with his wife and daughters, visiting the most exotic locations and meeting celebrities galore. While Michelle Obama wears the finest designer clothing, Millennials are still living in their parents’ basements well into their 20’s, lucky to even own a used car.
Another factor contributing to Millennial dissatisfaction is the vast domestic surveillance state imposed by this administration. What was once considered a Republican area - national security - has now been taken to new lengths by the left under Obama. Millennials are wired more than previous generations, so spying on their wireless phones, email and social media activity disproportionately affects them. It is no coincidence that the individual who leaked information about the NSA’s domestic surveillance program, Edward Snowden, Is only 30.
In 2008, 66 percent of young people voted for Obama, which decreased to 60 percent in 2012. Without the youth vote, Obama would not have won reelection. This bodes well for Republicans in 2016. The Democrats have no money left to promise young people.
What has Obama done for young people? Government-controlled birth control which increased their healthcare costs, and some tinkering with student loans, which has had no more effect on rising education debt than throwing a thimbleful of water on a fire. Millennials are stuck paying for broke entitlement programs the Democrats promised to older generations in order to buy the latter’s vote. The party is over, and young people are tired of picking up the tab.