College Republican Totally Schools MSNBC's Touré on Why Young People Aren't Just Democrats

June 26th, 2012 4:27 PM

Alex Schriver, the Chairman of the College Republican National Committee, totally schooled MSNBC's new co-host Touré Neblett Tuesday on why young people in America aren't just Democrats.

Schriver did such a marvelous job that you have to wonder if MSNBC's new program The Cycle will consider inviting him back on (video follows with transcript and commentary):

TOURE NEBLETT, CO-HOST: I want to engage Alex for a second because I generally find young Republicans to be a sort of strange breed. Most young people regardless of who’s at the top of the ticket, most young people tend to be Democrats. It’s been that way for a long time. So when I meet a young Republican, I want to put him on a couch and be like, “How did this happen to you?” And “how might you be saved?” Can you talk a little bit just philosophically about why you’re a Republican at, how old are you by the way?

S.E. CUPP, CO-HOST: Are you really treating him like he’s some kind of science experiment?

NEBLETT: Oh, absolutely. I treated you like that when I met you, and he’s even younger. How old are you, sir, and why are you a Republican?

ALEX SCHRIVER, CHAIRMAN COLLEGE REPUBLICAN NATIONAL COMMITTEE: I’m 23 years old…

NEBLETT: Wow!

SCHRIVER: …and I’m proud to be a Republican. I’ll tell you, unfortunately Steve, history says that’s not true. Republicans have won the youth vote three times in the modern era. We actually came with two points of tying it in 2000. And so this idea that when you’re young you’re supposed to be liberal and as you grow older you grow more conservative just isn’t the case.

Polling tells us that the youngest members of this demographic, right, the number you just put up on the screen, 8 million new voters that have come of age since 2008, and that portion of this demographic is skewing more conservative. These are college freshmen and sophomores who saw their older brothers and sisters get caught up in Hope and Change three and a half years ago, and have moved back.

Boomerang Generation, okay. One in three young people now live with their parents after going to college. That’s the highest since the 1950s. We’re heading in the direction of countries like Spain and Greece where half of young people live with their parents.

So that 8 million new voters, we’re confident they are going to come out, they are enthusiastic, but unfortunately for this White House, not for their guy.


So, in just the second day of this new show on MSNBC, one of its co-hosts got embarrassingly schooled by a 23-year-old.

The folks that made the decision to promote Neblett to this role must be feeling awfully foolish right about now.

As for Schriver, he certainly makes you feel A LOT better about the future of this nation, doesn't he?

Bravo, Alex! Bravo!