If you’re reading this, chances are you either plan to cast a ballot for the Democrats in the coming weeks or are at the very least, sympathetic to their platform. How do I know?
You’re young, you attend a relatively prestigious university and you are much likelier to have gone to private high school than the average American. It’s also roughly 10 times more likely that your parents are in the top 20% of earners rather than the bottom 20%. Many of you represent the archetypal affluent college liberal being largely insulated by generational wealth from the pocketbook woes of everyday Americans. Unfettered access to your parent’s bank account means you lack the experience necessary to comprehend the desires of working-class America, leading you to instead direct your political activism toward enabling personal hedonism.
People like you are unique in the sense that your policy preferences tend more toward advancing a cultural vision than pursuing economic prosperity. You are, for the most part, post-materialist in your thinking. You value things like social equity, democracy and the imposition of your moral preferences above more tangible matters, such as inflation or American jobs being outsourced. It’s fair to say, for instance, that the typical Emory University liberal is far more likely to mobilize over abortion access than high gas prices.
All this is to say that the average student enrolled here is a good fit for the modern Democratic party, which seems to value the institutionalization of gender theory more than class solidarity. National Democrats, like their counterparts on our campus, have cast aside bread and butter economic issues in favor of the cultural concerns championedby the privileged college kids who fill the ranks of their staffers, alienating normal working people in the process. So why not vote for them?
Consider abortion. Whether or not a woman should be legally permitted to terminate an unwanted pregnancy is the issue our peers seem to care most about this election cycle. A relatively milquetoast statement from the College Republicans celebrating the Dobbs ruling, for instance, garnered nearly a thousand comments — mostly angry — from students. Relatively few Americans outside the academy, however, share the enthusiasm Emory students have for abortion access.
Voting blue, as disappointing as you may find it, probably won’t do anything to restore access to abortion. For one, Georgia’s abortion laws aren’t going anywhere, even if gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams defies relatively daunting odds and ekes out a win. There simply aren’t enough competitive seats in the Georgia House of Representatives for Democrats to flip the chamber, a sentiment reputable election analysts echo. Democrats would need the consent of the House to repeal the heartbeat bill, something that would be virtually impossible with the chamber in Republican hands.
On the federal level, the path for Democrats to codify abortion access is similarly narrow. Democrats would need to win the House, which is unlikely given current polling and get enough votes in the Senate to negate the opposition of Senators Krysten Sinema (D-Ariz.) and Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) to ax the filibuster, which is also unlikely. All this would be required for us even to begin thinking about federal abortion legislation. In the unlikely event such a result materialized following election night, it wouldn’t even be strategically sound for Democrats to codify Roe v. Wade by repealing the filibuster.
It’s well-accepted that the Senate is biased toward Republicans as it provides disproportionate representation to people from less populated states, which tend to be more conservative. Further, in 2024, members of the Senate Democratic Caucus in Montana, West Virginia, Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin, Arizona, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Maine are all up for reelection, heralding a brutal cycle for Democrats. The only somewhat competitive seats held by Republicans up for grabs in 2024 are in Florida and Texas, leaving little ground for Democratic pickups. It is profoundly unlikely that Democrats will hold the chamber long-term even if they take it during the midterms. Democrats removing restraints on senatorial power by repealing the filibuster would be a massive boon for the GOP. Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) understands that he likely won't win Senate races in Ohio, West Virginia and Montana, states that former President Donald Trump carried by double digits, so he certainly realizes that killing the filibuster is not in his party’s interest.
These criticisms apply to all the hot-button cultural issues Emory’s liberals care so much about. Federal Democrats aren’t going to be willing (or, more likely, able) to overturn the filibuster to expand abortion access or achieve other aspects of your social agenda, and Georgia Democrats don’t have a path to achieving enough hard power to enact that same agenda at the state level.
Even student loan debt forgiveness, perhaps the most salient economic issue among college students, is a farce. Not only is it almost comically regressive, essentially forcing plumbers to saddle the burden of loans taken by New York University film school graduates, but it’s also obviously unconstitutional.
Democrats know that using a bill with legal basis designed to address the needs of veterans stemming from the 9/11 terrorist attacks to forgive student loan debt isn’t going to fly with a conservative Supreme Court; they only need you to think it will. They’re trying to buy your vote with no intention of actually paying out.
If all your primary concern is advancing a progressive social agenda, stay home on November 8. Conversely, if you genuinely care about the material well-being of people who live in Georgia, you should throw your lot behind the party that has a track record of growing the state’s economy while others atrophy. Gov. Brian Kemp has attracted a steady flow of both blue and white-collar jobs to Georgia; kept the state open during the pandemic while other states imposed economically damaging lockdowns, which may have had only a minimal effect on public health; and ensured the integrity of our elections in 2020. He may not be the obvious choice for a 20-year-old English literature major from Greenwich Village, but he is for the average Georgian.
On Election Day, you’ll probably be better off staying in and binging “Succession” (or whatever people are watching these days) rather than making the trek to a polling location to cast a ballot that is ultimately meaningless if you want to turn Georgia into Maryland.
Robert Schmad (23C) is from Kennewick, Washington
