Here's the whole article from Markos

It's worth reading the viewpoint of a former military man...


On Friday I wrote about the GOP's problem with millennial voters --
the current youngest voting-age population -- and how it could be
traced to the Republicans' hostility to "empathy" as a valuable
political value.

Do you think empathy is an important characteristic for a Supreme
Court Justice to possess or not?

Yes No
18-29 63 17
30-44 47 34
45-59 55 26
60+ 46 35


[...] Same question as above:

Do you think empathy is an important characteristic for a Supreme
Court Justice to possess or not?
Yes No
Dem 73 12
GOP 18 56
Ind 54 28


Millennials have grown up more connected to the world around them than
any previous one. The internet and television (like MTV and Bravo)
have erased geographic boundaries while creating greater tolerance for
people previously outside of the mainstream (like African Americans
and homosexuals). Being exposed to people with different cultures and
experiences sparks that "empathy" thing into action. It's much harder
to wrap yourself up in a cocoon and dismiss other people's real needs
when you are communicating with them on Facebook, Twitter, blogs, and
other social nets.

I was a Republican in large part because post-immigrating to the US, I
grew up in a lilly white suburb, Schaumburg IL (this was in the early
80s. I hear the place has changed quite a bit). Everyone was a
Republican, and most of my worldview was shaped by those around me.
Given how outside that suburban mainstream I already was (short,
skinny, particularly young looking Latino with a funny accent), I
wasn't looking for additional ways to stand out negatively from the
crowd. And having a house with a decently sized yard and a fence
around it, it was easy to block out other people's problems and
issues. There was no need for empathy because I rarely came in contact
with other people.

It wasn't until I served in the Army that I became a Democrat.

There's a reason most vets running for office this year are running as
Democrats. The military is perhaps the ideal society -- we worked hard
but the Army took care of us in return. All our basic needs were met
-- housing, food, and medical care. It was as close to a color-blind
society as I have ever seen. We looked out for one another. The Army
invested in us. I took heavily subsidized college courses and learned
to speak German on the Army's dime. I served with people from every
corner of the country. I got to party at the Berlin Wall after it fell
and explored Prague in those heady post-communism days. I wasn't just
a tourist; I was a witness to history.

The Army taught me the very values that make us progressives --
community, opportunity, and investment in people and the future.
Returning to Bush Senior's America, I was increasingly disillusioned
by the selfishness, lack of community, and sense of entitlement
inherent in the Republican philosophy. The Christian Coalition scared
the heck out of me. And I was offended by the lip service paid to
national service when most Republicans couldn't be bothered to wear
combat boots. I voted for Bush in 1992, but that was the last time I
voted Republican.

Those values -- community, opportunity, and investing in people --
stem in large part from "empathy". They are the antithesis of
selfishness and looking out only for oneself. Empathy means putting
ourselves in other people's shoes, and being progressive means acting
on that empathy. So we do what we can to level the playing field so
children who aren't born into privilege can still have many of the
opportunities enjoyed by trust fund babies. It means understanding the
pernicious effects of discrimination and working to mitigate and
eliminate them. It means realizing that the law should be applied to
all Americans, and that none should be denied equal protection because
of majoritarian intolerance.

Looking at those poll numbers above, it's clear the millennials are
the most empathetic generation today, by a long shot, and thus will
remain completely incompatible with the GOP absent a radical
restructuring of the Republican Party's philosophical underpinnings.
Ain't gonna happen.

But same poll, same question, take a look at this:

Do you think empathy is an important characteristic for a Supreme
Court Justice to possess or not?

Yes No
White 41 39
Black 81 4
Latino 79 4
Other 79 5

Men 48 34
Women 56 24


Is it any wonder the GOP isn't just losing youth, but also any group
that isn't white and male? Those who already enjoy the fruits of
privilege are those most hostile to "empathy" as a governmental value.
They've got theirs and they want to keep it. Yet everyone else sees
the value in working toward community success, rather than just
focusing on the individual.

The GOP's hostility toward empathy, inherent in just about everything
they do -- from starving government, to an aggressive and destructive
foreign policy -- is predicated on a proud and arrogant dismissal of
the wants, needs, and customs of anyone unlike them. So Obama is a
moron for trying to understand Islam, ACORN is dangerous because they
engage in community organizing, taxes are bad because it redistributes
wealth, and blah blah blah blah. Go down the list -- every
conservative position is predicated on selfishness and lack of
give-a-**** for other people.

The problem for conservatives is that ultimately, the rest of the
country disagrees, including its largest growing demographics. And
it's hard to win elections when you are so far outside the American
mainstream on such a key value.