The following article by Caroline Orr was posted on the ShareBlue.com website March 30, 2018:
A brutal new poll shows young Americans are not impressed by the tweeter-in-chief.
A majority of young Americans think Trump is racist, dishonest, and “mentally unfit” to serve as president, according to a brutal new poll of the youngest generation of voters and soon-to-be voters.
The poll, conducted by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research and MTV, found that Trump’s approval rating among Americans aged 15 to 34 is an abysmal 33 percent — a full nine points lower than all adults combined.
When asked about specific character attributes, 60 percent of young people described Trump as “mentally unfit” for the office of the presidency, 62 percent called him “generally dishonest,” and 63 percent said he “is a racist.”
Young people are also unimpressed by Trump’s use of social media. Asked what advice they would give Trump regarding his Twitter habit, 49 percent of respondents said they’d tell him to “delete your account.”
Overall, more than 7 in 10 young Americans said Trump “doesn’t reflect my personal values.”
“Trump doesn’t care about us,” Nicole Martin, a 27 year-old African-American graduate student, told The Associated Press. “I’m not going to say he’s unfit like he has schizophrenia. I do kind of think he’s twisted in the head. He just comes off as disgusting to me.”
The survey respondents, all of whom will be old enough to vote in the next presidential election, would make up the largest share of the electorate in 2018 and 2020 if they vote at the same rate as older Americans.
Traditionally, younger people have had lower voter turnout, especially in midterm elections. In 2014, only 20 percent of 18-29 year olds cast ballots.
However, the poll results suggest that young Americans are becoming more actively engaged in politics. Nearly half of respondents (47 percent) said they’re paying closer attention to politics since Trump’s election.
There are also signs that the activism sparked by the Parkland teensmay be having an impact on young people more broadly. The poll found that young Americans are more focused on guns than any other issue, with 21 percent of respondents saying gun laws are their top concern.
Trump’s poll numbers are historically low across most groups of Americans, but he fares the worst among the nation’s youngest voters. And that intense discontent may be the very thing that motivates young people to get to the polls this fall.
View the post here.