Day 123: Florida Freedom Summer of 2024: Georgia and Young Voters on My Mind
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Until U.S. Rep.-elect Maxwell Frost (D-FL), the first GenZ member in Congress gelled, I was writing these posts from a Cassandra “watch out for the bad omens” frame of mind, in light of the polls predicting a Red Wave. Frost made me realize that the tide actually is coming in with more young voters, as old-timers like me fade away.
So it was with a smile and pleasure that I began to write today’s post as I listened to MSNBC-TV talking heads discussing the phenomenon of the young voter turnout perhaps having resolved the election toward the Democrats, and admitting that they were considering the idea seriously for the first time.
That was followed either on that channel or CNN-TV with an interview with Michael Moore who has understood this nation better than most since he and I were in Michigan observing the rise of a Youth Liberation movement in the early 1970a.
The interviewer questioned him with awe about his assurances before the election that the polls would be in error because they still fail to take into account the simple numbers of young people voting, this time in light of both the loony anti-abortion ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court, and the historic inept adult response to the climate change warnings.
So with my newfound Pollyanna optimism, I humbly suggest that the Republican voter suppression laws will work against them, rather than in their favor, because such draconian poll tax and kindred restrictions will incense youth antagonism toward that party, to an extent which will make them the largest Democratic voting bloc for the next decade.
For the moment, GOP restrictions will have an explicit effect in the race in Georgia on December 6th for the U.S. Senate between the Democrats’ Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., heir, and the Republicans’ Clarence Thomas throwback, i.e., Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock and Republican Herschel Walker.
See attached. Recently passed legislation effectively prevents the candidate campaigns from getting new voters registered in time to vote, and shortening the run-off period, to limit reaching out to remind the public to go to the polls.
Note that Chase Oliver, the Libertarian Party U.S. Senate Georgia spoiler, is only 37 years old. He is not supporting either Warnock or Walker, but it should be noted here that the Party originally was a split off from the Republicans in the 1970s, and tends to have members with more college degrees than either of the two major parties. That factor should result in a vote for Warnock rather than Walker on Dec. 6th. Also, those members whose 2% forced the run-off, are likely to vote rather than abstain. If most Libertarians go for Warnock….
In the long run, nationally, Democrats quietly have taken over state legislatures they have not controlled in the recent past. They may begin to make voter enhancement laws, to increase rather than limit the voter pools in their states. (See references attached to both proposed federal legislation and constitutional amendments billed as “youth” acts, and model expansions for voter registration, applicable at the state as well as federal levels.)
Also it would appear that the Democrats have a better than 50-50 chance of prevailing in Nevada or Arizona or both in the undecided U.S. Senate races there, and, with strength showing in California, may show a gap of only 5 votes in the U.S. House and perhaps….no. The Pollyanna spirit has its limits.
Gabriel Hillel, for Florida Freedom Summer of 2024