Political analyst: Hope-based storytelling needed to boost conservatives' youth engagement

Gabe Guidarini explains in American Greatness that the Right as a whole isn't attracting young folks—because its narratives are too-often jaundiced by cynicism and impending danger, leaving opportunity and excitement on the back burner.

The GOP’s current message amounts to vague, wildly incoherent (though not unwarranted) negativity... Going on the attack, however, can only do so much for a Republican Party that happens to be even more unpopular than the Democrats among younger voters, scoring a 73 percent unfavorable rating among Americans aged 18 to 34....

This strategy of ignoring young voters and their interests has done the GOP no favors. Last year’s midterm elections, largely anticipated to result in major gains for the GOP, yielded very little outside of California, Florida, and New York. In many areas of the country—especially the Midwest which has been at the forefront of Republican expansion in the Trump era—Republicans failed to produce any wave whatsoever.

The reality is that young people actually do have goals in life, and plenty have concerns about the direction the country is headed and how it will affect their livelihoods.... To an extent, the GOP has begun talking about these issues in recent years.... A strong example of this mindset comes from J. D. Vance, the recently elected U.S. senator from Ohio, who campaigned on (and is currently legislating for) a pro-family, pro-worker agenda that is forward-thinking and aims to hold true to the label of “conservatism” by seeking to actually conserve the American way of life. Vance recently talked about making childbirth free in America, a proposal that is not typical of the Republican Party’s historical inclination towards rugged individualism. A proposal like this, however, is not only an objectively strong solution for America’s family crisis but gives Republicans a lane to appeal to young people and women without having to back away from their convictions on issues like abortion.

Vance campaigned on this positive, forward-thinking message and ended up winning his Senate race by over six percentage points while at a massive financial disadvantage against a Tim Ryan campaign widely heralded by pundits as the gold standard for Democratic campaigns. Other Republican elected officials who have joined Vance in embracing this doctrine are Senator Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), and Representatives Matt Rosendale (R-Mont.) and Dan Bishop (R-N.C.). Republican governors such as Glenn Youngkin, currently holding a very positive approval rating in the blue state of Virginia, and Ron DeSantis, re-elected last year in the second largest landslide for the governor’s office in Florida history, have been rewarded for using their positions to achieve actual policy victories, including on controversial social issues, rather than by adhering to the typical restraint-driven GOP doctrine.

This article originally appeared in American Greatness. Read the whole thing here.

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