Democratic National Convention via AP
John Legend performs on the second night of the Democratic National Convention, August 18, 2020.
The Democratic presidential ticket is set and the kids are not alright. Despite … everything, Trump voters continue to eagerly look forward to Election Day, when they’ll vote for their candidate of choice. By contrast, Biden voters will be pulling his lever come November primarily because he isn’t Trump, and many will be doing so grudgingly.
Many of those disenchanted voters are young people, who overwhelmingly sided with Bernie Sanders during primary season (I’m using “young” liberally here, it includes anyone under 50). As has been chronicled at length, the age splits in the Democratic primary were profound; Biden banked less than one-fifth of voters under 45. For under-30 nonwhite voters, the margin was even greater, with millennials and Gen Zers, arguably the most politically animated demographic in the country right now, backing Sanders nearly unanimously. Biden had a chance to close some of that youth enthusiasm gap with a vice president who appealed to their progressive, criminal justice reform–minded politics. He picked Kamala Harris.
Now that the Democratic convention is under way, one of the most important questions heading into November is what party leadership will do to bridge that yawning chasm, and drum up much-needed enthusiasm. Will they expand the playing field on health care, or get on board with student debt forgiveness, or embrace the Green New Deal, all highly important issues to the under-35 crowd? The answer, it seems, is tucked into the convention’s scheduled programming: celebrity appearances!
Much of the conversation surrounding the DNC docket has been centered on the array of Republicans they’ve managed to stuff into speaking roles: former Ohio governor John Kasich, Google lobbyist Susan Molinari, failed gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman, perennial reformed Republican and Iraq War cheerleader Colin Powell, the late John McCain’s wife Cindy, erstwhile Republican and longtime Republican donor Michael Bloomberg … the list goes on and on. Those additions are sure to do nothing for young voters, none of whom are going to be swayed by anti-choice politicians or former corporate executives. Basically zero young people are apostate Republicans. And even factoring in the non-GOP representation, the average age of the opening night’s speakers was 64 years old. On Tuesday, McCain testified on Biden’s behalf from beyond the grave.
To offset that gerontocratic parade, Tom Perez and company have loaded the program up with celebrity hosts, the way an infomercial producer gets Cher to sell hairspray. Actors Eva Longoria and Tracee Ellis Ross hosted the first two nights, while presidency-related stars Kerry Washington and Julia Louis-Dreyfus hold down nights three and four. Pop stars Billie Eilish, Maggie Rogers, Common, and the artists formerly known as the Dixie Chicks will be performing. Meanwhile, Joe Biden turned up for a “grassroots” finance event with Tom Hanks and an event with Lin-Manuel Miranda. He even did an interview with Cardi B as an unofficial prelude to the week’s festivities.
Celebrity appearances are standard fare for conventions both Republican and Democratic—who could forget Clint Eastwood’s dialogue with an empty stool at the 2012 Republican National Convention. But the modern Democratic Party has long held a particular fascination with celebrity. The embrace of A- and B-list actors was a signature feature of the Hillary Clinton campaign. Lena Dunham cut a music video for Clinton in 2016, and Mary J. Blige’s penthouse serenade of the candidate supplied the most awkward a cappella moment in recent memory.
This has been picked up with renewed verve by Team Biden, which is, predictably, staffed by many of the same people. Of course, a teenage pop star like Eilish wasn’t brought on board to fire up retirement-age Biden voters, or to swing those supposedly crucial independent undecideds. Young people are basically uniformly non-Republican: If they’re undecided, it’s about voting at all. But the party’s embrace of celebrities bespeaks a profound, almost laughable misunderstanding of the priorities of young people in this country, and how to animate them politically.
Democrats are often criticized for harboring some truly retrograde beliefs on policy: a fixation on deficit-neutral spending, unease with even discussing tax increases aloud, refusal to cut military spending for fear of looking weak, and moderation to the point that they’re fearful that the voting public will turn on them if they realize their electeds are actually pursuing liberal policy goals. It’s a political sensibility that seems to be still informed by the oil embargo of 1973 (the year Biden entered Congress), and reinforced by the 1980s. Nowhere in that calculation, it seems, does the last 30 years of American politics fit.
And if, for Nancy Pelosi and much of Democratic leadership, time seems to have stopped, their party’s strategists are also laser-focused on truths of a bygone era. Because, of course, today’s youths aren’t motivated by celebrity TV appearances, star-studded music videos, or anything else. They certainly don’t mind seeing celebrities with their political heroes; Bernie Sanders chatted up Cardi B and Ariana Grande during the primaries too. But Sanders’s appearances with youth cultural icons came long after his natural support from young people was well established. Biden, meanwhile, seems to be trying that formula in reverse, using the same stars to insinuate a facsimile of support from that same demographic that doesn’t exist.
Young people are basically uniformly non-Republican: If they’re undecided, it’s about voting at all.
If young people could care less about celebrity endorsements, they’ve never cared more about electoral politics. More than ever, they’re motivated by left-wing politics, social movements, and a well-articulated progressive policy agenda. And if there’s a celebrity they would tune in to hear, it’s Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who was shunted into a 60-second nominating speech for Sanders. If the party wanted youth engagement, putting a candidate with left-wing principles on the ticket would have fit the bill.
Meanwhile, in lieu of Biden picking a vice president that young voters might embrace, the DNC has instead decided to trot out someone who played a vice president on a popular HBO show. Kids watch HBO, right? Of course, she won’t be talking about her support of Medicare for All, which might actually resonate with that demographic, because that’s officially off the platform. It makes you wonder whether Team Biden isn’t just showing their gratitude to the deep pockets of Hollywood rather than legitimately courting young voters.
Of course, Democrats are at no risk of losing the youth vote to the other side of the aisle. But make no mistake: Their biggest weakness right now is not with reformed Republicans, it’s with youth voters. They do in fact need to worry that they may alienate a constituency that could deliver them huge majorities for years to come. Turnout among the youngest Black voters dropped acutely in 2016. And Hillary Clinton actually did better with nonwhite voters than Biden is currently. Hispanic voters, the country’s youngest minority group on average, have particularly cold feelings toward Biden, and the Democratic Party as a whole; they zealously embraced the Sanders candidacy.
Celebrity cameos did nothing for Democrats four years ago—indeed, they visibly undercut any sort of populist credibility the party still harbored. But at the very least, these gimmicks are not going to solve the youth question for Democrats. Progressive policy will.
