Where does uneasiness in 2024 election leave young voters?
STARKVILLE, Miss. (WCBI) – Across the political scale, there is concern.
Some voters are concerned about the age and policies of one candidate, and others are concerned about the legal and ethical issues of the other.
This is just the tip of the iceberg for voters across the country.
So, what does this mean for young voters?
Dr. Brian Shoup is a Political Science professional, and he says this is a contemporary moment where there seems to be a lot of dissatisfaction with the two candidates.
“This was something that initially emerged in 2016 which was really the first presidential election in most modern people’s lifetimes where both candidates were remarkably unpopular with neither one having over 50% image by the electorate,” Shoup said.
Shoup says this is what political scientists refer to as “negative partisanship.”
“There are a lot of people who don’t necessarily vote for a specific candidate,” Shoup said. “They might not cast their vote because they support former president Trump or because they support president Biden, but rather, they cast their ballot because they so dislike the other candidate.”
Shoup says he doesn’t think this is something our founding fathers intended for Americans to experience when we pick our leaders.
Not knowing which “side” to stand on may be a good thing and he doesn’t see that as dangerous. But he says not having a good sense of your philosophical values is dangerous.
“I would encourage any young person who doesn’t know how they want to vote to reflect on a couple of things,” Shoup said. “The first is what does our constitution say? what are the basic underlying principles that our founders and people throughout our country’s history have attempted to advance as the civic part of our bonds that are so important?
Shoup says it’s important to read the news from multiple balanced, trusted sources.
Along with being informed, it’s important to reflect on virtues and integrity.
“One of the problems of our contemporary moment, in fact, it may be one of the biggest problems that we have is that everyone kind of wants to be a celebrity,” Shoup said. “We kind of live in an influencer society where everyone believes their god-given freedom of speech implies there is also a requirement for other people to listen to them. The spread of social media kind of feeds into this felt need that a lot of us have, that our voice is the most important one. And maybe instead of yelling a lot, we should listen and sit quietly and reflect. and to understand that our fellow citizen isn’t our enemy. We often treat people who disagree with us as broken or wrong, and that is not necessarily the best way to approach things. ”
Shoup says taking the time to learn about important issues will help young voters make an informed decision at the ballot box.
