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Wesleyan College student Ethan Norton argued in an op-ed for The Washington Post that Democrats were missing the point in their effort to win back young voters.
“Democrats talk endlessly of courting young voters, but are losing my generation because they miss the point entirely. They don’t just have a young voter problem — they have an attention problem,” he wrote, noting the finger pointing within the party after former Vice President Kamala Harris’ loss. “It’s not just what they’re up against, but how they’re communicating. Crying ‘constitutional crisis’ won’t win votes — it’s hardly enough to get likes.”
Norton wrote that he’s a college senior and said he studies media and film. The Wesleyan student wrote that he found himself scrolling past “lifeless Democratic content,” and noticing conservative content that was more engaging.
“It’s like eyeing your dinner companion’s unhealthy meal — you know it’s not good for you, but it looks so much better than what’s on your plate,” he said.
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The student specifically pointed to Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and his website.
“Take the website of Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer, which looks frozen in the 1980s: A slow, blurry photo montage cycles through images of the New York Democrat from a podium or a news conference. At the top, a line of text: ‘See where Chuck has been and what he’s been doing,'” Norton wrote.
He mocked that nothing got Gen Z fired up like a weekly itinerary.
“Schumer’s approach is dead on arrival. In the words of every content creator ever: bungle those first few seconds and your audience vanishes,” he continued.
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The student also pointed to a headline written on Schumer’s website in all caps that read, “SCHUMER SOUNDS ALARM: AS TRUMP STRIPS STAFF FROM 9/11 HEALTH PROGRAM AND REASSIGNS THEM TO ICE, SENATOR DEMANDS IMMEDIATE REVERSAL TO PROTECT 140,000 SURVIVORS.”
“The irony? There’s no alarm. Just too many words in all caps. It’s bureaucratic and inert. Why not create actual visual urgency? Make it scrollable with ambient noise. Layer in 15-second clips that tell human stories about survivors before anyone scrolls,” Norton argued.
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Schumer’s office did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
The New York senator has been mocked several times by comedians and commentators in the last two years in his efforts to counter President Donald Trump.
Norton gave some examples of Democrats who were more engaging online, including New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, Rep. Alexandria Ocaiso-Cortez, D-N.Y., in addition to Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-VT.
“Even Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) — hardly a digital native — shows up daily with YouTube videos, Instagram clips and shareable quotes,” he said.
Norton also called out Harris over the missed opportunity to appear on Joe Rogan’s podcast during the 2024 presidential campaign. He said podcasts like Rogan’s get clipped, retweeted and “memeified,” therefore creating a stream of content.
Norton charged that the GOP didn’t have an ideological grip on younger voters, but they had their attention.
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