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Oct. 8, 2024 - Dennis Prager Show
04:44
Why Do The Young Vote Left?
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There was this article in the Wall Street Journal yesterday morning, and it's called, Why Do the Young Vote Left?
Now, I could write a dissertation on this subject, but I regret to say that the author, who I respect, he's a great columnist for the journal, his name is Andy Kessler.
I don't think that Mr. Kessler hit the nail on the head on this one.
In fact, I think the reasons that he provided are actually not the reasons why people my age vote left.
But reading here, he says 57% of 18 to 34 year olds prefer Kamala Harris to Donald Trump, whereas only 26% of those in my age group, 18 to 34, support Donald Trump.
That's according to the Pell Center.
And he says, why is this?
Is it that the youth...
Like the sloganeering, like the new way forward or the opportunity economy?
Are they gravitating towards progressive idealism in the nanny state?
And he says, no.
The reason our youth gravitate towards the left, Andy Kessler contends, is the gifts.
Quote, the progressive vibe is that big government will take care of you.
It knows what's best for you.
To aggressive progressives, government is simply a magic money tree.
And yeah, there's no disputing that.
I mean, I would say that that assertion falls under the category of self-evident truths among people my age.
We don't think at all in terms of fiscal responsibility.
Of course we think that the government is an endless money tree.
And by the way, I think our government has given us reason to believe that with the overprinting of money, with our irresponsible spending, our debt is now over $36 trillion.
But that's not the reason, in my view, that people vote left.
We just saw yesterday at Columbia another outburst of rage protests 365 days after October 7th proves that that's not so much the reason.
It doesn't have anything to do with viewing the government as a money tree.
The real reason the people my age vote left is because we have a crisis of meaning.
That is it.
It's not all of it, but I would contend that it's 90% of the reason.
Think about it.
And Dennis and I talk about this on our show all the time.
How many people my age believe in God?
I couldn't even tell you who Cain was or Abel was before I encountered Dennis Prager.
I was so lucky when I was a sophomore at Harvard to find Dennis's work.
I think literally by the grace of God, even though at the time I was secular, I looked up what do conservatives think about police and encountered PragerU.
I had no idea who Abraham was.
I knew he was a figure in the Bible.
Let me tell you something even worse.
If you went up to me and you said, Julie, what is the difference between the Old Testament and the New Testament?
I swear I would have had no idea.
If you said, Can you name the group that followed Jesus' ministry?
I couldn't tell you that it was the apostles.
I couldn't even name one apostle.
I couldn't even say the term apostle.
By the way, when it comes to America, I was also profoundly illiterate and ignorant.
I didn't know the term e pluribus unum, which is our national credo, which I love, by the way.
I think it so captures America.
It means out of many one, out of many people, many religions, many nationalities, many viewpoints, we are one American people.
I had never heard that term prior to encountering Dennis Prager and reading his book.
And so when we see hordes of youth who are coming out and they are so adamant about defending reproductive rights or they're so adamant about immigration, they're so adamant about protesting the alleged genocide that's going on in Gaza, protesting the apartheid state of Israel, I am telling you it is a substitute for something.
It is a spiritual kind of sucker that they get because they don't have any other resource for it.
We don't have God.
We don't have country.
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