With the sixth Republican debate looming, politics is a big part of daily conversation on campus.
Speaking with some of my colleagues in student media, the top issues they wanted addressed were as follows: student debt, national debt, the economy, criminal justice reform, foreign policy and climate change. Yet among the GOP primary candidates, these issues remain largely unaddressed. The millennial generation is set to turn out more voters than ever before, yet the Republicans continue to ignore them. Why?
Sometimes candidates go beyond simply ignoring college students. For example, Marco Rubio completely dismissed liberal arts education at the last debate by saying, “We need more welders and less philosophers.” I don’t necessarily disagree with his assessment of the utility of some liberal arts degrees, but he fails to recognize their merit. Liberal arts degrees produce smarter citizens, better equipped to think logically and holistically. Rubio, on the other hand, seems to prefer a generation of thoughtless working machines.
Rand Paul, the candidate with the most extensive college campaign structure, has largely failed to address millennial issues. Beyond ignoring student debt, Paul is a climate change denier — which alienates him from many young educated voters. While he routinely addresses criminal justice reform and data privacy, he has yet to break out of single-digit polling numbers. If Paul is the best candidate the GOP can offer college students, it needs to do better.
If you’re a conservative college student, who exactly are you supposed to vote for? Why do the Republicans seem content to ignore an entire generation — a generation that voted President Obama into office? Is the Republican National Committee content to allow this voter base to work against them in the general election? At this point, it seems that way.
Just about the only comments Jeb Bush makes about education refer to his success in Florida using the common core. But who cares? He has yet to make a tie between those successes and why young people should believe in him. Perhaps if this were the only voter base Bush failed to connect with, he’d be okay. But is it any wonder that the GOP establishment candidate has fallen flat on his face?
My friend and colleague, Ben Turner, is heading to the Republican debate tonight to get a first-hand look at the event. Maybe tonight in South Carolina a Republican candidate will make some sort of appeal to our generation. But I doubt it. Donald Trump will likely rant and rave about his personal success and the evils of immigrants or ISIS. Ted Cruz and Chris Christie will join in on the fear-mongering. Ben Carson will drone on with some fundamentalist nonsense and John Kasich will probably say something intelligent and get completely ignored. Rand Paul won’t even be there.
As for myself, I’ll turn on the debate. I’ll try to watch as long as I can, but I don’t like being ignored. I don’t like watching the television set and seeing potential leaders speak only to the outgoing generation, rather than the incoming generation. Who is fighting for my American dream? Is my generation supposed to sit quietly while waiting to pick up the mess our parents make today? Is the grass greener on the other side of the aisle? Not really. And that scares me most of all.