By Stefan M. Kløvning

Washington, Politics – As Trump’s presidency approaches one and a half years of age, a new poll by Reuters reveals a noticeable reduction in support for the Democratic Party among millennials. Over 16,000 voters across the States aged 18-34 were asked in the poll, and it was revealed that 46% of them supported the Democrats, a 9% reduction since the prior polling of 55% in 2016! What’s more surprising is that two-thirds of them say they don’t like Donald Trump and how he’s doing in office.

Why would they then give more support for Republicans? The support for Republicans have only increased 1% in comparison with the reduction of the Democrats’ support, which indicate some uncertainty (8% increase) among millennials to choose which side of the ‘duopoly’ they’d rather have, but this ‘only’ increase is still a phenomenon well worth investigating. In the report of the findings they say one of the reasons is that they believe their policies are better for the economy, but how so?

Reduction of taxes is one thing the Republicans are championing, which is observable by the everyday American. Are millennials again saying laissez fairre!, and wishing the state to be less involved in the market process? We shouldn’t be so hasty in our conclusions here, as most American millennials seem to seek to avoid being labeled either a Capitalist or a Socialist, though 33% of them claims supports Socialism and 42%, Capitalism. Social Democrat Bernie Sanders, for instance, proved to be an extraordinarily popular independent candidate among millennials in the primaries. The trend may go either way, for the better or worse, but the answer to why more of them now think the Republicans are better for the economy is likely rooted in this issue of market independence.

Other reasons mentioned for the support of Republicans are gun-rights, opposition to abortion and distrust in social welfare programs.

‘They’re not as wedded to one party,’ political science professor at Columbia University Donald Greene suggested to be the reason millennials were changing parties, ‘They’re easier to convince than, say, your 50- or 60-year-olds who don’t really change their minds very often.’

Perhaps a better endeavor is found through questioning why the Democrats lost so many supporters. There may be many reasons here, but a particular one which stands out is whereto their time and energy are directed. Since the election of Trump, the Democrats have kept running the story of the alleged Trump-Russia collusion constantly in the media, putting the focus on Trump’s unfitness for office when they could instead have been promoting their own policies. And this is up until now when the DNC attempted to sue the Trump campaign, the Russian Federation and Wikileaks for this alleged collusion. Of course, if it was true, it would be big, but nothing seemed to ever be accomplished through their continual ranting on it. It was rather perceived more and more as shifting the blame for losing the election. Perhaps if they had just sat down, contemplated their loss, reconsidered their plan, and strategized for the mid-terms, they would have been more productive the last one and a half years, but they didn’t, and loss of support became the outcome. There is, however, half a year left. Let’s see how they decide to use it.

The mid-terms are approaching, and that means both parties having to do what is required to gain the support they need to secure as many seats as they can in Congress. For the Democrats to do that, they will likely try to regain the support of the millennials, as it is a ‘core constituency’ for the party, according to Reuters. The Republicans will likely continue championing issues like tax-cuts, strict immigration, gun rights, etc., but will also have to work to earn their seats as there’s still a huge amount of voters unsure about which party to vote on.