"Wanted: Young, feminist men. That’s who Hillary Clinton (and the rest of us) are desperate for."

[DemocratSinceBirth]

Clinton's low polling with young people is more about young men not being feminist enough, not young women
AMANDA MARCOTTE

Bernie Sanders is not Barack Obama and the 2016 Democratic primary is almost certainly not going to be a retread of 2008. But that hasn’t stopped some people from recycling the same narratives, including the supposed feminist gender gap narrative that dominated in 2008. Back then, young women who were supporting Obama instead of Hillary Clinton were routinely accused of abandoning feminism and only supporting Obama in order to placate boyfriends who claimed to be liberal but were terrified of female power. It wasn’t true — I supported Obama in 2008, and dare anyone to deny my feminism — but it was nonetheless an appealing narrative in a media environment that always loves a “cat fight” story.

“And now, even though the past 8 years have borne witness to an explosion of young women fighting for feminism, we’re being subjected to the same narrative: Older women are feminists, younger women are traitors, etc. Only just replace the word “Obama” with “Sanders” and you have the same story, as evidenced by a recent New York Times piece headlined “Moms and Daughters Debate Gender Factor in Hillary Clinton’s Bid.”

But, as John Sides at the Washington Post notes, the narrative isn’t right at all. The real divide is not between mothers and daughters but mothers and sons. While it’s nominally true that Sanders polls better with under-30 voters of both genders, men of that age group are far more likely to oppose Clinton than women are. That gender gap starts to shrink with older cohorts. Sides created a chart with YouGov data:

https://img.washingtonpost.com/wp-apps/imrs.php?src=




http://tinyurl.com/qaq5o9y

[djean111]

1. Really? The only reason young men do not vote for Hillary is because of gender?

Funny, my 20 YO grandson and his friends would have been just as happy to vote for Warren as they are for Bernie.
Just keep playing that gender card - it sounds like an excuse and deflection from the issues, as if Hillary is exactly the same as Bernie and O'Malley, except for gender. That is delusional.

[cali]

2. Or it could be that young people see Sanders as a more appealing

The author admits he polls better with young women than Hillary and still insists on her made up narrative.

[PowerToThePeople]

3. It is not about chromosomes

It is about the issues.

[JackInGreen]

4. I know several

And they're pretty uniformly for Bernie.

[Motown_Johnny]

5. Isn't this sexist?

That graph seems to indicate that the gender gap exists across different age groups. Maybe it is just that young people do not support her and in conjunction with the gender gap it makes it look as if young men are not feminist enough.

[DemocraticWing]

6. The majority of women under 30 are not supporting Clinton

The fact that a gender gap exists is not surprising, but the story here isn't that young men are especially anti-feminist. It's that young people prefer Sanders over Clinton, regardless of our gender.

The gender gap, as the graph in the article shows, exists across all age group. I'm sure there are misogynists refusing to back Hillary out there, but claiming that young men are special super-duper misogynists is a claim that has no merit.

[Juicy_Bellows]

7. ^THIS^

I can't add anything significant to your succinct post.

[Karma13612]

10. Best, well-constructed comment of my day surfing the political blogs, and it isn't even noon

yet here on the east coast.

thanks for this!

and my personal experience dovetails nicely with your assertions.

All ages and both sexes are supporting Bernie where I am, in a red-purple area of NY State

Its the message to which they are responding, not the gender.

[JonLeibowitz]

8. What an insulting lede

"Clinton's low polling with young people is more about young men not being feminist enough, not young women"

No, you (speaking to DSB and bloggers in general) don't get to decide how I make my decision. I make my decision based on the issues, not on candidate's gender. And Clinton is a manifestly poor candidate as compared to Sanders, on the issues. This OP/blog is lacking entirely of substance on policy issues, but has the gall to call young men not feminist enough? What a crock of caca de toro.

I'll even go further: the writer of this blog is sexist in her writing.

[LettuceSea]

9. I would predict outside of her base, stuff like this plays very poorly

Paints everyone in a bad light, and puts everyone into little demographic boxes.

[vi5]

11. I can think of many Democratic women who I would vote for....

Even over most men.

It's just that Hillary Clinton does not happen to be one of them.

[MattSh]

12. Seems like Hillary and her entourage are out to alienate everybody...

that they haven't yet alienated.

Keep it up Hillary. All true progressive will thank you for that.

[Warren DeMontague]

13. That math doesn't say what she thinks it does.

The glaring problem that jumps out from that graph is that HRC is doing a crap job of appealing to under 30 voters, not that "teh menz just don't like her".

Far be it for me to suggest that the candidate attempt to convince the voters to support her, rather than the candidate's backers insult various voting demographics for not getting on board.... but there are clearly some areas where HRC could speak to millennial concerns and she has flatly failed to do so.

[lumberjack_jeff]

19. Marcotte is the poster child for "insulting various demographics for not getting on board"

But yes, the gender divide between the candidates is overstated. It's largely an axe that Marcotte is grinding: i.e. "when Hillary wins it proves that democrats don't need men."

https://www.jacobinmag.com/2015/10/clinton-sanders-democratic-presidential-primary-caucuses/

[NCTraveler]

14. Enjoyed the perspective.

Thanks for sharing it.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

15. Merry Christmas/Happy Holidays, Friend/nt

[Jim Lane]

16. Meanwhile, Sanders is desperate for older people who aren't anti-Semitic

That would be an equally valid spin on the polling data.

Note to jurors: My subject line is not what I really believe. It's an absurd conclusion, offered only to show by analogy how absurd the linked article is.

[SwampG8r]

17. I find it amusing this is the narrative s h e would try to push

I am old.and i spend all my time around young people.at work
18-30
Cannot stand hillary but agree with bernie
The young men and women comi g of age today are wonderful. They are smart and they are inventive and they are better at being people than i and many others.
I am proud.to.be affiliated with them. They have beaten much racism and sexism just by being who they are and what remains they will teach their kids to beat.
I have grand children of that generation and they are the best.
If they dont like hillary her gender has little to nothing to do with it

[lumberjack_jeff]

18. Jesus, make up your mind Amanda. Do you want men to vote your way or not?

Last month you were shouting about the purity of your DNC cause because those icky, icky men were supporting Bernie.

"Let’s storm the Sanders’ he-man women-haters club"

These gender dynamics could have an unfortunate downside, however. Sanders went after Clinton hard in his speech Saturday night, and his supporters cheered every word while the Clinton supporters sat in silence. Sanders supporters are a diverse crowd, but as Suzy Khimm of the New Republic notes, a huge amount of his support comes from an Internet-savvy, cantankerous crowd of young men. It’s a crowd that’s already swapping conspiracy theories about a media plot against their candidate,
<snip>

If Clinton wins the primary, the perception that a bunch of women, particularly young women, “stole” the election from Sanders is probably not going to sit well with this crowd. Who will no doubt angrily tell you that sexism has nothing to do with their rage, no sirree.

It's good that Amanda did, belatedly, learn some math; we're not winning the general election without male voters.

[pnwmom]

20. Interesting. Thanks, Democratsincebirth! n/t

[m-lekktor]

21. Amanda Marcotte is Hillary's H.A Goodman.

[Bluenorthwest]

22. People under 30 grew up with Hillary as an opponent of marriage equality who spoke

as a friend to Rick Warren's congregation and voted for war in Iraq.