BRADENTON, Fla. -- Morgan Bettes started her downtown music-promotion company 11 months ago armed with business savvy and a lot of hope. She's not relying on government policy, nor the outcome of the November election, to give her much help.
"I probably should be thinking about that, but I don't," said Bettes, who's 27.
Just like so many others in her generation. Unlike their parents, younger people don't regard Washington -- or their presidential votes in the fall -- as an important force behind their economic well-being.
"I don't think the presidential race has anything to do with economics anymore," said Tifini Hill, 36, a financial systems administrator from Brandon, Fla., near Tampa.
Rebecca Arends, 26, is an attorney from Tampa with tens of thousands of dollars in outstanding student debt.
She's paying 6.8 percent in interest, the rate on loans to a graduate or professional student, well above the prime rate. She's a fan of President Barack Obama's, but she lamented that he hadn't done much to help her with the loans.
"I've kind of given up on the government helping me out," Arends said.
This disdain for all things political is a logical aftershock from the politics that dominated the younger generation's most impressionable years. Since they became adults and began dealing with taxes, mortgages, health insurance and jobs, most voters under 40 have witnessed only what most regard as an inert, bickering Congress and White House.
For the past 15 years, they've seen the federal debt balloon to once-unfathomable numbers, watched the nation stumble through wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and endured a bitterly polarized political system.
Add to that the grave disappointment younger voters felt after 2008, when they turned out in big numbers for Obama. "There was so much optimism when Obama was elected," said John Della Volpe, the director of polling at Harvard University's Institute of Politics, which regularly surveys 18- to 29-year-olds.
But the good feeling was tempered by the times. The nation was enduring the worst economic recession since the 1930s. The government tried to ease the pain, but to people just starting to struggle to compete in the adult world, it wasn't enough.
The pessimism lingers. Today's college students "feel government is not there to help," said Sylvia Panetta, co-chairman of California's Panetta Institute, which surveys those students. Nearly 3 of 4 in the institute's spring study said it would be tougher for their generation to achieve the American dream than it had been for their parents.
These attitudes are shaping a major change in how voters choose presidential candidates. Absent an active war, people historically vote their wallets.
In 1992, Bill Clinton's answer to a recession was a line-by-line description of how he'd improve the economy. Ronald Reagan won in 1980 with his prescriptions for easing double-digit inflation and unemployment. Each candidate came with records of governing and some expectation that Washington also could be governed.
Today's younger voters don't see the political system as providing any special potions for improving their lot in what they view as a persistently sluggish economy.
Bernie Sanders, a Vermont independent senator who's running for the Democratic presidential nomination, is promising to fight for free tuition for public college and university students, and presumptive party nominee Hillary Clinton has a plan to overhaul the lending system. But younger voters aren't counting on government smoothing their path. Too expensive, they say, and too unrealistic.
The college-related issue that should be addressed, said Victoria Pearce, 22, a Florida State University law student, is that "we've made it so easy for everyone to go to college. Most of us now have to go on to more school."
That undoubtedly means more expenses and more debt, rather than waiting for the government to come to the rescue. "Mainly you have to do it for yourself," said John Garneau, 26, a machinist from Bradenton who's studying at Manatee Technical College.
Outside college campuses, young people in the business world have much the same do-it-yourself attitude.
Matt Gilbert, 38, started Custom Computer & Network Solutions in Bradenton six years ago. While he relies on military and medical-based clients, he's not looking to this year's election results to make much difference.
"Every candidate is going to say they're the world's best," he figured.
What affects these young people more, said Ben Bakker, 40, a commercial real estate agent in Bradenton, are local economic drivers. "They're the ones deciding our property tax rates and other things that directly affect us every day," he said, important factors in his business.
With the economy low on the list of government-related concerns, there's no easy way to gauge how young people will vote. The Harvard spring survey found that a scant 15 percent of 18- to 29-year-olds saw the nation going in the right direction, below other generations' already dismal numbers.
Half of the younger people agreed that "politics today is no longer able to meet the challenges our country is facing," while just 16 percent disagreed. Only 23 percent trusted the federal government and 18 percent trusted Congress.
Given the disconnect with economic policy, young Americans tend to judge candidates on some social issues and on personality.
Democrats have an edge because they're seen as more tolerant of gay rights, abortion and other social issues. And Clinton starts with an advantage, though she generates little enthusiasm.
"For some reason, I just don't like her," said Garneau, who voted for Obama twice. But he's not a Donald Trump fan. "I don't think the country should be run like a business," he said.
Indeed, younger voters also feel little ardor for Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee.
The bigger question involves whether they will vote at all.
"I can't tell you I have an answer, but I'll tell you what we're doing now isn't working," said Patricia Mitchell, 32, a paralegal from Bradenton, who said she "likes and dislikes different things" about Trump.
Turnout among voters under 30 plunged in 2012. In 2008, voter turnout for people 18 to 29 was 51 percent, well below any other age group's percentage but up from 49 percent in 2004 and 40 percent in 2000. In 2012, the turnout dropped to 45 percent; the national figure was 62 percent.
He's drawn to how Trump "isn't able to be bought out" but conceded "he offends a lot of people." Clinton doesn't stir him, either.
"I have a hard time with all the bad stuff," he said, notably her use of a private email server while she was secretary of state.
Arends, the attorney, said she'd be "voting on who will have the least amount of impact if the system fails."
What they all have in common is not just that lack of passion for a candidate but also no sense that their individual well-being is linked to their vote.
To the younger generation, that seems as though it's the way politics is today. Bettes, the music promoter, is too busy trying to expand her two-person company, to book regional and national shows.
"Government serves its purpose," she said. Her focus is elsewhere. "When I think about the economy," she said, "I think about the economy of Bradenton and the Tampa Bay area."
About the Author
