Guess Who College Students Blame The Government Shut Down On…

I read the title of this on Campus Reform and figured I knew EXACTLY what these kids were going to say.

SUUURELY this was all Trump’s fault. At the very least it was all due to Republicans.

Surprisingly… that’s not what happened:

Hmm… Does this mean there’s hope today’s college students are going to grow up and start looking at things a liiiiittle more objectively?

According to Campus Reform:

Republicans may be having more luck escaping blame for the latest government shutdown, at least according to students at New York University.

Although the shutdown came to a close Monday after 69 hours, the political blame game has only just begun. Republicans were quick to label the event “The Schumer Shutdown,” blaming Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, while Democrats sought to place the blame on President Trump and Republican leadership.

“I mean, the government in general is pretty dysfunctional, so there’s equal blame on both sides.”

So… why does this matter?

With the 2018 midterm elections rapidly approaching, the question of who takes the blame amongst the electorate is an important one

In 2013, for instance, Republicans took the majority of the blame for a 16-day government shutdown even though Democrats held both the Senate and the White House at the time.

A contemporary Washington Post-ABC poll, for instance, found that 53 percent of voters placed the blame on GOP leaders while 29 percent blamed Democrats and President Obama, with just 15 percent saying that both sides shared the blame equally.

That sentiment was especially noticeable among millennials, with 59 percent blaming Republicans and 24 percent blaming Democrats.

Because according to millennials, EVERYTHING is ALWAYS Republicans’ fault. (I’m a millennial, folks. Don’t get worked up. We’re talking as a whole here.)

Wanting to know if that same resentment for obstructionist tactics in Congress would be felt by millennials now that Democrats were the minority party, Campus Reform headed to NYU in Manhattan to ask a simple question: “Who do you blame for the shutdown?”

I told you all what I expected them to say… BUT…

It quickly became clear that the students weren’t ready to place the blame solely on either party, regardless of who is currently in power, saying that Republican and Democrat leaders are both responsible for the situation.

“I mean, the government in general is pretty dysfunctional, so there’s equal blame on both sides,” one student responded, with a classmate concurring that “they sort of both lost…the people didn’t really win.”

“The fact that people aren’t talking to each other; working across the line…I think everyone is a little bit to blame for it,” another student opined.

This is what progress looks like! It might not be much…. but the fact that they didn’t automatically pile on conservatives means SOMETHING.