3 Reasons Romney Showed Us He Does Not Care About Millennials
As Mitt Romney approached the podium to officially accept the Republican nomination for president, we all wondered, with 30 million American viewers, what would he say? Would he explain the Romney-Ryan budget plan? Would he lay out specific paths to job creation? Would he show a “constitutional” way to reform our health care system? Would he make proposals to reinvigorate our floundering schools?
So, what is Mitt Romney’s vision for America, particularly its youth? Still blurry.
Romney told us all about his father, George, and Ann’s “heroism” in the home, but he did not speak to one particular policy proposal for longer than a sentence (although admittedly candidates typically don’t.) Particularly neglected in Romney’s mismatched tales of American greatness were the millennials. That’s a mistake.
In the 2008 election, Obama won 66% of the votes from those under age 30 according to the Pew Research Center. One may chalk this up to the stereotype that young voters are more liberal; however, in 2000, the party affiliation of millennials was split. So what is Romney doing to woo young voters? Precious little.
Romney did, however, attempt to reach disheartened Obama-supporters in general. He spoke to non-partisanship and Americans coming together after elections, but ended up sounding like a father saying, “Its okay, we all make mistakes.”
Despite this, a few differences can be deciphered for millennials under a Romney administration.
1) Employment, gun-in-hand
Buck up, boys. Romney “will preserve a military that is so strong, no nation would ever dare to test it.” And, although Romney reams Obama for thinking that government is an agent of job creation, he criticized him for eliminating jobs by cutting back the military. Romney is missing one small detail though: military jobs are government jobs.
2) You’re going to build it!
For all of those unemployed college graduates, create your own job. Romney championed small businesses, pledging to simplify regulations and reduce taxes on businesses. If one message rings true of the entire RNC, it’s that listen ‘Bama, we did build that! And, we get it.
3) Choose success
Romney doesn’t want Americans to be afraid of success, and our schools shouldn’t be either. He championed parental choice in primary and secondary schools and his campaign website demands that “college must be available and affordable.” Still no word on how Romney plans to do that. Instead of a botched ode to Neil Armstrong and an account of how we hugged our kids a little longer in the recession, Romney should have used his airtime explaining the success Massachusetts schools experienced while he was governor.
From Clint Eastwood’s blathering to Romney’s grandchildren playing with balloons, I still wonder, what was the point? Romney referenced “the America won for us by the greatest generation.” Clearly, that’s the generation he cares about.
