Thursday’s Morning Joe on MSNBC devolved into open panic and misery over new polling data and headlines that showed Americans weren’t buying the network’s vilification of recent SCOTUS decisions and that young voters were abandoning the Democratic Party in droves.
Co-host Willie Geist and New York Times editorial board member Mara Gay joined Director of Polling at Harvard’s Kennedy School Institute of Politics’s John Della Volpe to unpack the disastrous polling data for Democrats.
Geist quoted the polls, which found that “63 percent of Americans were against considering race in college admissions. Only 36 percent agree with that idea” and that “60 percent of American adults said they were in favor of a business refusing to provide service in situations where it could suggest support for LGBTQ issues for which they have a religious objection.”
This news was like a punch in the gut to MSNBC, which had fiercely raged against the decisions. Della Volpe discussed the even more worrisome trend for them, that young people are less likely to follow the news, identify as Democrats, and vote. Della Volpe’s remedy to the situation, however, was to lean in further to left-wing positions on issues like abortion and LGBTQ matters.
Leave it to narcissists to double down on their ideology and force it down people’s throats when they reject it. If these media talking heads had a shred of logic, they would consider the possibility that they were actually just wrong, that things like affirmative action and forcing religious people to bow down to the almighty whims of the LGBTQ community really weren’t popular or healthy for America. But no, instead they demanded that Democrats just try harder to ram through their agenda, and that they “need those voters back in the system.”
Gay chimed in that “The Democratic Party should be looking at this data and should be concerned”, and that “what it says about our politics is pretty depressing.” She transitioned, though, from depression to fearmongering, stating that the shift was “now the collapse of the Democratic coalition, it seems, or the risk of it, with the rise of fascism.”
How else could she justify her party’s total failure but by maligning the other side as fascists? Nothing screams totalitarianism to her like offering an alternative to vote for besides the party in power.
MSNBC was actually completely justified, however, in being scared by this news. The fact that young people were less attached to monopolistic corporate news networks meant MSNBC’s political and social power was waning, and hopefully might vanish completely.
However, the pity party didn’t change a thing. They still remained an out-of-touch elitist institution that has now fallen so deep into their own self-affirming bubble that they couldn’t hold onto their own voters.
MSNBC’s pity party was sponsored by Nutrisystem and Life Alert. Their contact information is linked.
The transcript is below, click "expand" to read:
MSNBC’s Morning Joe
07/06/23
7:18 AM ET
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WILLIE GEIST: Well, we have more news on the Supreme Court rulings handed down last week. One of them on affirmative action, another on student loan forgiveness, and a case that allows businesses to refuse service to LGBTQ Americans if they have a religious objection. Conservatives in Congress and across the country applauded those decisions. Democrats on Capitol Hill united against them. Polling, perhaps thought, is less cut and dry.
The Washington Post poll late last year showed 63 percent of Americans were against considering race in college admissions. Only 36 percent agree with that idea. For the ruling on refusing LGBTQ people services, results vary widely based on how the poll's question is asked. In a Pew poll from a few months back, 60 percent of American adults said they were in favor of a business refusing to provide service in situations where it could suggest support for LGBTQ issues for which they have a religious objection.
In a recent NBC news poll that asked if voters supported president loans- student loan forgiveness plan, it showed 44 percent say it was a bad idea, versus 43 percent in favor.
Let's bring in director of polling at the Institute of Politics at Harvard University, John Della Volpe, he’s an MSNBC contributor and author of the book titled Fight, How Gen Z is Channeling Their Fear and Passion to Save America. That's now out in paperback. Um John, Good morning. So you’ve got some new polling for us today. What are some of your takeaways about how young people are feeling about what's happening at the Supreme Court and beyond?
JOHN DELLA VOLPE: Thanks, Willie, for having me. Yes, this is a review of a couple of decades of polling that we've been conducting at the Harvard Institute of Politics. And essentially, when I look at younger voters, 18 to 29-year-olds, mostly gen-z, keep in mind that this cohort, 18 to 29-year-olds with their older millennial brothers and sisters will be about 40% of the electorate.
And when I look at this cohort today compared to this place in the 2020 cycle, I find that younger people are less likely to vote, they're less likely to identify as Democrat, they are less likely to follow the news, and they are less likely, importantly, to believe the politics can make a tangible difference in the country and in their lives individually.
GEIST: And that's just a frustration with the system that they have watched since they were born fail them again and again in so many different ways. So, what is your sense of the way the Supreme Court decisions, John, may impact the energy to go out and vote, the energy to become active in the process?
VOLPE: I think Willie, I think the combination of the Supreme Court and the Republican Congress, we talk about baseball, it's like a hanging curveball over the plate for Democrats. But Democrats need to identify that and to take advantage of that. This is just the second year in a row where younger people continue to feel under attack. A year ago, of course, we know it's a third of women losing -- a third of women in individual states losing control over their reproductive health. And today, we see kind of attacks on members of the LGBTQ community.
We see it more difficult for working class and people of color to attend college, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. It's one attack after another. And that’s just by the Supreme Court. You know, earlier, you talked about what's happening in Florida and other places like that, as well, in terms of this generation really responding, I think, hopefully, to kind of stand up and get the backs of those who are more vulnerable, even more than themselves.
GEIST: And Mara, last year, we saw a seismic shift after the Dobbs decision, completely energizing women, in particular, young women, to go out and vote in the midterm elections and changing the face of our politics.
MARA GAY: Yeah. I mean I think one of the questions I have looking at that data is whether there's anything that can actually bring some of those voters back. I mean, you saw much higher turnout for example in states like Michigan, where abortion was a direct ballot issue. So, is that something that not only Democrats but those who support women's right to choose, for example, need to look at? The Democratic party should be looking at this data and should be concerned.
I mean, it also really puts that question to the White House. What can this president really do about the loan forgiveness failure at SCOTUS? Because there are a lot of Americans who are extremely demoralized by that decision. That's exactly the kind of group that you want to show up at the polls. Remember, that there’s a close alignment between college voters and Democrats at this point. Excuse me, college -- people with a college degree and Democrats. So I think that, you know, there's a lot of data to parse here. I don't know that these voters are moving over to the Republican party, they're just becoming inactive.
The larger question of what it says about our politics is pretty depressing, as we've been saying this morning. Some depressing news to parse through. Because it suggests that there's not much trust in the system, and this is a generation of kids, of people, young people, who have been failed, as you said, you know by the failure of gun control, climate change, and now the collapse of the Democratic coalition, it seems, or the risk of it, with the rise of fascism. So it’s suppressing times. I think we need those voters back in this system. We need a competitive system. You can't just lose an entire generation of voters.
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