Trump unpopular with youth

Young people in the US will vote for issues rather than according to loyalties and they feel strongly about climate change, healthcare, the economy and immigration.

President Donald Trump is proving unpopular with the youth because of his negative campaign around these matters, particularly Covid-19, but his economic policy is described as impressive. They would prefer former vice-president Joe Biden to become the next president.

Healthcare and the need for social change attracted them to Biden, while Trump’s stance on Covid-19, women and minority rights turned them off. This does not mean Biden will win, but polls often indicate the preferred candidate, rather than who will win. In the US electoral system, it’s been proven that the winner of popular vote can lose the presidential race.

In group interviews among a sample of eight mainly senior students from the three campuses of the University of South Florida (USF), based at Tampa in the US, roughly a quarter of the students wanted Trump. Similar small sentiments were expressed in a separate group of four students.

From the sample, the majority of the students who participated in the 49.7 million mail-in ballots cast said they voted for Biden because he would bring hope to the country. However, such a survey may not represent an accurate reflection of the final outcome due to its unscientific nature.

Since the 2016 presidential election, a debate has raged about the accuracy of polling in the US after errors were found. Pew Research Center cautioned about inaccuracies emanating from polling methods but maintained, along with other experts, that if conducted properly, polls still produced good results.

“The 2018 midterms brought further evidence that polling still works well when done carefully… national polls can be accurate in identifying Americans’ preferred candidate.”

It cited the fact that in 2016 Trump and Hillary Clinton had poor favourable ratings which signalled Americans were unsure who to support, or whether to vote at all. Although Clinton won the popular vote, she lost the presidency to Trump, who obtained the mandatory 270 college votes for victory.

Student Sierra Divalerio said: “Biden will do great on climate change to protect us. He is on the side of equal treatment for all.”

Senior student Kacie Crown voted for Biden merely to stop Trump becoming the president again. Crown, who has tested positive to Covid-19, said Trump’s stance on the pandemic was a disappointment.

“My vote was a vote against Trump, I don’t want him to be president again. I disagree with most of his social views. I feel people must be treated equally, he should have respect for women. That’s why I prefer Biden,” she said.

Lanie Mullins, a Hispanic, preferred Biden because he nominated Kamala Harris, a woman of colour, as his running mate.

“I like Kamala because she represents women’s rights and people of colour. I don’t agree with the way that Trump treats women. “I can’t vote for someone who is against females. He doesn’t have care for minorities,” Mullins said.

A senior medical student at USF, Abdullah Hamid, who claimed to be a moderate but leaning towards Republican Party values, voted for the Democratic party because he did not want Trump. Hamid opposed Trump’s stance on Covid-19, immigration, climate change and foreign policy and was put off by the “ignorance he spewed”.

However, he liked his inward looking economic policy. Hamid said under Trump the “disconnect” between whites and the minorities had grown and that Trump himself was disconnected from the real issues. He hoped Biden would win because of his right-thinking promises and enticing views on public healthcare.

“I want to see healthcare becoming more accessible and affordable. I want to see a significant change in the organisation of healthcare,” he said.

From this sample, Sally Van Raemdonck, was the only student to express strong views in Trump’s favour while the other two who voted for him were reticent. She said she would vote for him although she did not agree with his social policies.

“I think he has been judged harshly, I think he has not done worst,” she said.

The majority of the students spoke against the caging of children, with at least five unable to locate their parents due to the US policy of separating families in detention for violation of immigration laws.

“Caging children and separating people is awful. It should not happen, it’s against international conventions,” Mullins said.

But Raemdonck defended Trump on this, saying it was part of border control. Trump inherited the problem from the Obama administration and therefore should not be blamed.

“It started during the previous administration, but Trump should have stopped it,” she said.

When asked what their reaction would be if Trump was reelected, the students said they would be disappointed. One, Samantha White, suggested such an outcome would cause an outbreak of riots nationally.

“It would be very upsetting for me. Trump doesn’t care about people, he cares only for his people,” Alexandria Wallman said.

Hamid said no matter who won there would be some dissatisfaction because “you can’t please everyone”. Shannon McLaughlin said: “You have to go with who becomes the president, he will be your leader.”

On foreign policy, the students thought Trump was too harsh on China. For those like Van Raemdonck, who had voted already, Trump’s foreign policy was not on her mind when she went to the voting station.

“We should strive for the best relations with other countries, I think Trump has not done a good job on foreign policy,” Raemdonck said.

“I don’t think there is a need [for Trump] to be so aggressive towards China,” added Mullins.

Political journalist Eric Naki.

Eric Naki is The Citizen’s political editor and our man currently covering the 2020 US presidential election as part of a seminar organised by the East-West Centre, based in Honolulu, Hawaii, US. He is the only South African in a cohort of 12 foreign journalists attending the seminar virtually.

– ericn@citizen.co.za

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