A viral video campaign is aiming to motivate young Americans to get out and vote Democrat in the upcoming midterm elections by reminding them that rich, elderly Donald Trump supporters will be out in numbers.
The video was created as part of the “Knock the Vote” campaign set up by ACRONYM, an organization that uses digital media campaigns to encourage people to vote in progressive candidates.
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It begins with a group of actors playing elderly Trump supporters and talking about why they voted Republican and will continue to do so.
“Tax cuts for the rich? Hell yeah, I’m rich as f**k,” says one man.
“Climate change? That’s a ‘you’ problem. I’ll be dead soon,” adds a woman.
Another woman appears to make a jibe at the Black Lives Matter movement, saying with a bemused expression, “I can’t keep track of which lives matter”
They then proceed to tease young people for acting on their frustrations by liking Instagram memes, going to “one of those little marches” and sharing videos like this one on Facebook — but not actually voting.
“But I do,” one man says as the background music turns ominous.
“Midterms, primaries, every single election. We’ll be there, but you won’t.”
The ad comes amid continued concerns about low voter turnout among young Americans, especially in midterm elections.
A Pew Research Center study from June revealed that while younger generations will make up the majority of eligible voters for the midterms, they’re unlikely to actually cast the majority of votes.
“Not only are younger adults less likely to participate in midterm elections, but millennials and gen-Xers have a track record of low turnout in midterms compared with older generations when they were the same age,” the think tank’s release reads.
The low turnout takes on even more significance when you consider that generational differences in political leanings are wider than they have been in decades, as previously reported by the Pew Research Center.
However, another Pew study released last week offers encouraging signs for Democrats, finding that voter turnout in this year’s congressional primaries was higher than in 2014, particularly among Democrats.
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ACRONYM says its “Knock the Vote” video is already starting to have an impact, with the group’s founder tweeting that the video has already prompted thousands of young people to check their voter registration.
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