Joe Biden's older voters are showing up. Bernie Sanders' young voters aren't

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

Super Tuesday was not so super for Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders. He lost most of the states up for grabs, and it's quite possible that he'll end up with fewer delegates on the evening than chief rival former Vice President Joe Biden.

Sanders' struggles reflect an inability to connect with older voters, while at the same time failing to generate large youth turnout.

We saw a very familiar age gap across the Super Tuesday states. Sanders crushed it with younger voters. Looking across all the contests with an exit poll, Sanders won an astounding 61% to Biden's 17% among voters under 30 years old. He even beat Biden by 20 points (43% to 23%) among those between 30 years old and 44 years old.

Sanders, however, struggled mightily with older voters. Biden won by 22 points (42% to 20%) with voters 45 years old to 64 years old. With senior citizens (those 65 years and older), Sanders managed to come in third with 15% (behind Biden's 48% and former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg's 19%).

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/elections-2020/joe-biden-s-older-voters-are-showing-up-bernie-sanders-young-voters-aren-t/ar-BB10JSo7?ocid=msn360

While I think it's good to encourage younger people of voting age to participate in the process they're not a dependable demographic.

[Thekaspervote]

1. Only 13% of voters age 18-29 showed up.. sad!

[George II]

2. We don't know for sure that he even has those younger voters.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

3. That's the way it's been for decades.

If Bernie is counting on the youth vote to get him the nomination (or the presidency), he's delusional. Almost without fail, young voters turn out at about 50% or less than the rate of older (55+ voters). That's been true for as long as I can remember, and it's especially true for primary elections. And it's not because of roadblocks in the way of voting - in my state college IDs are accepted for voter registration, which can be done at the polls on election day. It's one of the easiest states in which to register and vote, and that has made no difference in the youth vote. They just don't do it in numbers comparable to older voters.

[JennyMominFL]

4. 13 %

No, its not that only 13% of voters aged 18-29 showed up, its that 13% of the total voters were aged 19-29

[Beartracks]

5. Hey, kids: social media Likes aren't votes. There's only one poll that counts...

... and that's the one on each Election Day, and (for now) you can't do it over the phone.

I cannot believe Bernie had that much support and enthusiasm from young folks and then... they didn't bother voting for him for realz.

Reality bites.

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[onetexan]

6. The young pack rally venues but not many actually vote. The reliable older voters pack the polls

where it really counts. I mentioned this a couple days ago on another thread.

[stopbush]

7. Looks like Sanders' youngish crowd likes going to rallies.

Actually voting? Not so much.

[Warpy]

8. Sorry, it's not that simple.

Sanders appeals to people across all ages because he's the one who's talking about how the business as usual Democrats have done almost as much damage to most of us as the radical reactionary Republicans.

He just doesn't have as much support this time because there is a maniac in the White House and the first priority in this country is getting him out, and that means a nominee who is palatable to conservatives as well as people who have been paying attention to what has been done to working people in this country over the last 50 years.

It's not just "electability," something that usually means someone with star quality. Most folks realize we're going to need a technocrat, a workaholic, and someone who understands how government is supposed to work in order to start getting us out of this godawful mess. Biden was very hands-on during the Obama presidency and that's why so many more people are supporting him than support Sanders.

Sanders has done an amazing thing now and in 2016, he has nudged the party slightly left of where the Koch funded small "c" conservatives dragged it. It is just a terrible mistake to think his support comes from people under 35. It doesn't. It is not going to blow over when the young grow up. If the party is dragged back to the right it will lose again.

I'm an old Boston lefty and I think this country needs a bigger dose of Socialism than even Sanders proposes because unregulated capitalism is the cruelest economic system on the planet. However, I will vote for Biden, gaffes and hoarseness and occasionally rumpled suit and all because right now, he is the best person for the job.