Menominee Marijuana Referendum, Courting Millennial Voters, Noisy Kids In Restaurants

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As millennials reach voting age, candidates will have to cater to an increasingly diverse electorate. Our guest and political pollster looks at voting trends among young people, and explains how politicians can keep up. We also discuss the etiquette of dining out with noisy kids, and hear about a referendum on legalizing marijuana on the Menominee Tribe’s reservation.

Featured in this Show

  • Menominee Tribe Members To Vote On Marijuana Legalization On Reservation

    In less than a month, the Menominee tribe in Wisconsin will hold a referendum on legalizing the use of marijuana for both medicinal and recreational purposes. The tribe’s chairman talks about why its being put up to a vote. Plus, a tribal law expert weighs in.

  • How Republicans Can Win Over Millennials, According To One GOP Pollster

    While politicians of all stripes are having difficulty engaging with younger Americans, Republicans in particular have struggled in recent elections to capture the youth vote. However, one young Republican consultant is optimistic that can change.

    In her new book, “The Selfie Vote: Where Millennials Are Leading America (And How Republicans Can Keep Up),” Kristen Soltis Anderson offers the GOP some ideas for how they can reach out to Millennials — the generation of people born between 1982 and 2004.

    Anderson said that given their low voter turnout rates, Millennials aren’t exactly the most coveted demographic among political campaigns. However, the co-founder of the public opinion and data analytics firm Echelon Insights believes Millennials deserve political courtship, given the country’s shifting demography.

    Some political observers may argue that Republicans should just wait a few years for the Millennials to age and become more conservative, but Anderson said the party can’t afford to do that.

    “Republicans have to adapt to the fact that these headwinds are really threatening their chances to take back the White House, and that the events that are happening when these Millennial voters are first coming of political age will echo and resonate for the rest of their political and voting lives,” said Anderson.

    She said that the Republican party has been relying on the party’s traditional strongholds, which she described as white, married homeowners who live in rural areas and go to church on Sundays. According to her, that doesn’t begin to describe the Millennial generation.

    “Nowadays young people look at the Republican Party and overwhelming view it as the party of the past,” said Anderson.

    It wasn’t so long ago that the youth vote was up for grabs. Anderson pointed to the 2000 presidential election between George W. Bush and Al Gore, in which young people voted about the same way as their grandparents.

    “But ever since about the 2006 election, this generation gap began and has really widened with the emergence of President Obama and sort of the decline in the Republican brand,” she said.

    Anderson said that winning over Millennials is going to take more than posts on Facebook and Twitter. She believes Republicans need to explain how their principles of reform can be applied to modern problems. While there are a few issues where the core of the Republican Party and Millennials differ — like marriage equality — Anderson said there are a lot of Republican principles where the difference is very small or nonexistent.

    “Republicans need to take advantage of those issues if they want to succeed among this generation. They can’t just change a little bit of their message,” she said.

    She cited student loan debt as an example of something that could be a winning issue for the GOP.

    Of the 16 Republican candidates to officially announce their candidacy for president, Anderson believes Florida Sen. Marco Rubio has probably been the most dedicated to young voters. That said, she doesn’t think any of the candidates have yet to offer a message that truly resonates with millennials.

    “At this point, no one Republican has captured the ‘selfie vote,’” she said. “They all have the opportunity to do so if they try.”

  • Noisy Children In Restaurants

    After the owner of a diner in Portland, Maine yelled at a noisy child in her restaurant, we take a look at the cultural debate: what should we do, if anything, when kids are loud in restaurants?

Episode Credits

  • Rob Ferrett Host
  • Veronica Rueckert Host
  • Chris Malina Producer
  • Marika Suval Producer
  • Gary Besaw Guest
  • Richard Monette Guest
  • Kristen Soltis Anderson Guest
  • Ann Imig Guest