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Taylor Swift will lure young voters to the polls through the power of Midnights.
And if Taylor can’t get people to vote, truly who can? If Midnights were blasting from every polling location, voters young across the country would be drawn to their nearest library or elementary school or community center basement by the sweet, sweet sounds of Maroon.
With the midterms literally right around the corner (as you read this, Steve Kornacki is ironing his khakis), it’s especially important that young people get pumped up and ready to vote. A new survey by Data for Progress finds 70% of 18-to-29-year-olds feel that their generation is underrepresented in Congress. This includes 67% of Democrats, 76% of Independents, and 51% of Republicans. Considering the average age in the Senate is 64.3, that adds up. The math is mathing.
Data for Progress also finds 48% of young voters consider the Dobbs decision to be one of the top issues motivating their vote. 49% of voters trust the Democrats to handle reproductive rights over Republicans. As they should.
Even though the majority of Congress may not have stayed up for the 3:00am Chaotic Surprise (honestly, going to sleep before 4:00am on October 21, 2022 should be a criminal offense), it's crucial that young people vote for candidates they believe in and trust. If we all vote, one day there will be a generation of Swifties in Congress who make album release days a national holiday. That’s what we’re fighting for.
Read the full blog and polling here. And stream Midnights here. Do it. Now.
Here are some other highlights from DFP this week:
It’s me (the NFL concussion protocol), hi. I’m the problem. It’s me.
To put it very lightly, the NFL has a history of making a lot of really bad decisions regarding a lot of really important issues, and generally being The Problem™. How does someone go from being accused of sexual assault over two dozen times to signing a $230 million contract?? Beats us!!
The NFL has been under intense scrutiny for a number of scandals in recent years regarding the short and long term safety of the sport for the players, racist settlement practices when it comes to Black former players with career-related brain damage, and concerns about the prevalence of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) among players.
The latest round of alarms went off when Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa was slow to rise from a rough tackle, and emerged in a bit of a haze (not the lavender kind), before falling to the ground again. You would think that after such a severe impact he would be pulled from the game and examined by doctors, but as there appears to be no place for common sense in the National Football League, he continued to play.
We at DFP asked voters about the Miami Dolphins’ handling of the incident. Across party lines, Americans are highly concerned about the way the Dolphins handled Tagovailoa’s injuries, with 76 percent of respondents indicating they are either “very concerned” or “somewhat concerned.”
Additionally, our polling finds that a large, bipartisan majority (84 percent) of Americans support the recent changes to the NFL concussion protocol jointly proposed by the NFL and NFL Players Association. Under this updated protocol, any player who exhibited the kind of instability that Tagovailoa did must automatically be ruled out for the rest of the game, regardless of any other contributing factors.
Gone should be the days where NFL coaches can say “You’re On Your Own, Kid” to disoriented players. Read the full polling here.
Olivia Wilde went to Harry’s house with her magical salad dressing and the contraceptive pill in hand.
If we’ve learned anything in 2022, it’s that Republicans in Congress basically treat reproductive rights like the tooth fairy. They pretend bodily autonomy exists for a bit, and then one day you wake up missing a tooth, no dollar under your pillow, and you can’t get an abortion in Texas.
Since Dobbs v. Jackson held that abortion wasn’t protected under the Fourth Amendement (still not positive where the Supreme Court got that notion from, but ‘kay), other previously protected rights are now being called into question. This includes the right to access contraception.
And while only Olivia, Jason, and the traumatized babysitter truly know what went down on the night Liv fled with her salad dressing, we hope that everyone is practicing safe celebrity sex scandals while they still can. The House recently passed the Right to Contraception Act, which would codify the right to obtain contraceptives. Shocking absolutely no one, 195 Republicans voted against it. Booooo. Everybody boo them (and ask how many abortions they secretly paid for).
A new poll by Data for Progress finds 82% of voters support the Right the Contraception Act, including 89% of Democrats, 80% of Independents, and 76% of Republicans. Sorry Congressional Republicans, but you may want to change your vote on this one!
In fact, 59% of voters said they would be less likely to vote for a candidate who opposes protecting access to contraception. This includes 74% of Democrats, 63% of Independents, and 40% of Republicans. This makes sense to us, since contraception has been a protected right since 1965. The Beatles were at the top of their game, Ron Howard was just that kid from The Andy Griffith Show, and we had access to contraception. What a time to be alive.
Anyway, fuel this anger into popping over to the polls on November 8th. We need to codify our rights while we have them.
Read the full blog and polling here.
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