This morning the Morning Joe panel hosted Evan Siegfried, author of "GOP-GPS: How to Find the Millennials and Urban Voters the Republican Party Needs to Survive."
Siegfried correctly remarked that millennials have surpassed baby boomers as the largest generation in America. He also knows that they are the most diverse generation ever in terms of race and sexual orientation. Siegfried's diagnosis is that millennials are turned off by the "old white guy" image and intolerance on social issues displayed by today's Republican Party. "We have to combat caricatures that have been perpetuated about Republicans. We're not this intolerant party. we don't have a war on women!" he said.
No, really.
"There are many issues where we sync up with millennials but they're not receptive to us because they see the Republican Party as the party of the crusty old white guy."
The panel was impressed.
Siegfried argued that in order to attract Millennials, the Republican Party needs to go left on same-sex marriage and address the issue of women leaving the workforce in order to care for an aging parent. Siegfried says the Democratic Party is "silent" on that issue.
Guess he didn't read page 4 of the Democratic Platform.(pdf)
Our work and family policies must also help family caregivers. We will ensure that family caregivers have the support, respite care, and training they need to support their loved ones. We will create a strong stable paid caregiving workforce to help meet families' needs, by raising wages, improving access to training, and giving workers the opportunity to come together to make their voices heard in support of a stronger system. We will address the conditions that make it hard for workers with unpredictable or inflexible schedules to meet caregiving responsibilities. We will take steps to expand and strengthen the home care workforce. We will increase investments to make quality childcare more affordable, boost wages for childcare workers, and support the millions of people paying for, coordinating, or providing care for aging relatives or those with disabilities.
That may be aspirational language, but it isn't silence.
Joe Scarborough contributes this nugget:
We can talk about education. we can talk about education reform. you can talk about all the money Americans spent on education and all the money Americans spent on health care. more money per pupil than any other nation in the world. We don't get the results. Health care, we spend more money on health care per person than any other place in the world. We don't get the results. It's because of broken, old, corrupt systems!
Hey Joe! Why don't we TRY to model our healthcare and education systems on those used by the other nations of the world, and then see if we get the "results" you want us to attain? Because seriously, you are advocating nationalizing, not privatizing, education, as well as single payer healthcare. If you want the results the rest of the world gets, say so or shut up.
Except no one on Morning Joe's panel said that.
And then the punch line. Mister "We-Can-Attract-Millennials to the Republican Party" was asked who he's going to vote for.
WAIT FOR IT.....
"I'll be voting for Hillary Clinton over Donald Trump. He lacks the judgment, temperament, and pretty much everything required to be President of the United States."
Including a party that will ever, ever attract millennials? Seems legit.
