Protest Paige
 | |
| Era | The 2000s |
|---|---|
| Age | 19-25 |
| Home | Ann Arbor, MI |
| Demographic | young white, university, activist left |
| Lean | Strong Democrat |
| Race | white |
| Predecessor | Madison Steph |
| Successor | College Chloe |
Paige is a university student in her early twenties from a comfortable family who opposes the war. She votes Democratic at every election and often campaigns against her own party's leaders, so her vote is reliable but difficult to change.
Who they stand for
Paige stands for the young, university-educated white voters on the left during the Bush years, the students who marched against the Iraq war in February 2003, staffed Howard Dean's internet-based campaign in 2004, and worked in Barack Obama's field offices in 2008. They lived in college towns such as Ann Arbor, Madison and Berkeley. Voters under thirty were the only age group that John Kerry won in 2004, and they gave Obama two-thirds of their vote in 2008, though their turnout fell most in the 2010 midterm elections. Their media was new. They got their view of the war, the Patriot Act and the 2000 recount from the film Fahrenheit 9/11, the radio network Air America, political blogs and the television host Jon Stewart, ahead of the mainstream press.
Paige is part of a lineage of personas representing young left-wing activists across decades. Madison Steph, in the 1990s, was motivated mainly by feminism after the Clarence Thomas confirmation hearings. Paige treats feminism as settled and is motivated instead by opposition to the war and to government surveillance. College Chloe, in the modern era, inherits the same high turnout and dislike of Republicans, but is motivated by a different cause again.
Playing to them
Only a Democratic president can lose Paige's support; a Republican president is unlikely to win it in the first place. She wants the war ended, the Patriot Act repealed, the Guantanamo Bay prison closed, and higher taxes on the wealthy. If a Democratic president compromises on any of these, she treats it as a betrayal rather than a disappointment. She does not switch her vote to the Republican candidate; instead she stays home, or votes for a third-party candidate such as Ralph Nader, which has the same effect in a close state. A Republican president gains little from courting her, because nothing he does reaches her, and trying can cost him voters he already holds.
Ending the war and cutting military spending win Paige's support but lose Fort Hood Cody's. Repealing the Patriot Act pleases both Paige and Flathead Wade but loses Security Mom Donna. A hard line on Israel wins Paige's support but loses Park Slope Dana's. Anything that pleases Megachurch Heather or Abilene Ray on abortion, marriage or prayer loses the support of both Paige and Berkeley Leonard.
Where they live
The five states where Protest Paige makes up the largest share of the electorate in the 2000s:
- Wisconsin
- Vermont
- Rhode Island
- Massachusetts
- Maine
Lineage
Madison Steph → Protest Paige → College Chloe
The same type of voter in three decades: a young, white, university-educated woman on the left who marches and votes every time. What changes is the cause she campaigns on and where she gets her politics from. Steph campaigns on feminism, still an open fight after the Thomas confirmation. Paige campaigns against the Iraq war and the Patriot Act, and gets her politics from Michael Moore and the liberal blogs. Chloe treats feminism as won and campaigns on climate, trans rights and Palestine, and gets her politics from social media. Her position on the spectrum, her turnout and her contempt for Republicans are the same in all three.