Democratic Problems Are More Than Millennial Turnout

The Millennial generation is far to the left of our parents. There's a lot of truth to that, truth that is playing out with Bernie Sanders right now. The younger generation is far more liberal on economic matters, anti-war, and pro-LGBT rights than their parents. Given that this is the largest and most diverse generation in American history, there is a feeling that this should be tilting our politics. The problem though, to some, is that millennials don't turn out to vote enough. I think this is an over-simplification.

Even if we got Millennials to vote as much as old white people do, we'd have the same problem with them that we do with every other Democratic leaning group- geography. Many of the more left-leaning Millennials live in urban centers, and are too concentrated where we are going to win anyway. This is part of the ideals for some, as a more sustainable, "Earth-friendly" lifestyle is easier to achieve there. More of the things that seem to interest most Millennials are in the cities, and so they have clustered.

The Democratic Party is going to be able to win elections for the next generation nationally, if it stays the way it is. Those victories are not going to translate into legislative victories and legislation, if there is no added outreach to suburbanites. Perhaps 40 years from now, the population as a whole will be more urban and we'll marginally win more seats in legislatures because more will be drawn urban, but that's going to take a lot of time. It's going to take a lot more than getting Millennials to vote, in order to change the political order in this country. Once we figure that out, we'll be better off as a party.