Earlier this month, a PRRI survey found that nearly half of American adults under 30 believe that they do not “know enough about the issues” to vote. As I noted last week, this finding does not reflect the millennial (or “Gen Z”) generation’s exceptional ignorance, so much as its Socratic wisdom: Millennials are far more likely to accept the reality of man-made climate change — and reject prejudicial views of African-Americans and Islam — than any other (voting-age) generation is. Which is to say, millennials don’t know less than our parents’ generation, we just know enough to appreciate how much we don’t know (a quality that the boomer-in-chief conspicuously lacks).
Now, a newly released Pew Research report confirms this conclusion: The kids really do know best. The pollsters presented respondents with ten statements about political matters — five based in fact, five in opinion — and asked them to identify which was which. Americans under 50 proved themselves far more capable of distinguishing between empirical realities and tendentious bloviations:
Critically, 18- to 29-year-olds were roughly as adept at separating fact from opinion as 30- to 49-year-olds were.
So, if there are any self-deprecating, politically disengaged millennials out there — who are, for whatever reason, reading an article about millennial political disengagement — rest assured: If Donald Trump is well-informed enough to be president, you definitely “know enough about the issues” to vote this November.
