Millennial Mish-Mash

The latest Pew Research study on Millennial voters finds a number of facts:  They are political independents (50% are), more likely to not have a religious affiliation than older Americans (29% do not), far less likely to be married (26% are), very cynical when it comes to trusting most people (19% do), much more likely to have a four-year college degree (33% of those 26-33 do) and support gay rights (51% do).

But there's a big gap in the political views of Millennials based on race, and it's larger than any other generation.

 

The political views of Millennials differ significantly across racial and ethnic lines. About half of white Millennials (51%) say they are political independents. The remainder divide between the Republican (24%) and Democratic (19%) parties. Among non-white Millennials, about as many (47%) say they are independent. But nearly twice as many (37%) identify as Democrats while just 9% identify as Republicans.

These partisan patterns are closely linked to views of Obama. While Millennials as a group are somewhat more approving of Obama than Gen Xers, Boomers or Silents, these differences are driven more by race and ethnicity than by age. White Millennials’ views of Obama are not substantially different from those of older whites. Some 34% of white Millennials approve of the job Obama is doing as president, compared with 33% of Gen Xers, 37% of Boomers and 28% of Silents. By contrast 67% of non-white Millennials give Obama high marks for the job he’s doing as president.

So two huge things here:  first of all, age doesn't make any real difference among whites when it comes to Obama's job approval.  Younger whites have essentially the same low approval of President Obama as their Gen X parents, Boomer grandparents, and Silent great-grandparents do.

Second, the gap is actually largest between white and non-white Gen X'ers when it comes to the role of government in our lives. 

White and non-white Millennials have different views on the role of government as well. On balance, white Millennials say they would prefer a smaller government that provides fewer services (52%), rather than a bigger government that provides more services (39%). Non-white Millennials lean heavily toward a bigger government: 71% say they would prefer a bigger government that provides more services, while only 21% say they would prefer a smaller government. The racial gaps are about as wide among Gen Xers and Boomers. 

Majorities of white Millennials what smaller government and don't think healthcare is the government's business, but actually the racial gap here is much larger among my fellow Gen X'ers.  Two-thirds of whites in my generation want smaller government, 71% of non-whites want more. 61% say it's not the government's business to provide healthcare, 64% of non-whites find the opposite true.

In both cases, I would have easily guessed the gap would have been largest among the Boomers.