PLI Bulletin

Youth Voting, Health Care, Higher Education and More

Posted on October 10, 2018

Primary Voting at Age 17 Act: Young people usually vote at the lowest rates; we need to do more to engage them. The Primary Voting at Age 17 Act allows 17-year-olds to vote in primary elections if they will be 18 by the date of the general election. Many states permit this already and it makes little sense to deny the primary vote to young people who will vote in the general.

Drowning the American Dream, Part 2: Our last blog argued that “The failure to understand and empathize with the economics of the average American family was the progressives’ greatest preventable mistake in 2016.” But that does not mean that “economic anxiety” was a stronger factor than racism and sexism. In fact, it is not an either-or issue. For the connection, read the latest IdeaLog, our blog intended to raise eyebrows and engage minds.

Voicing Our Values—How to Talk About Health Care: This is the ninth segment of our podcast series, which you can listen to at your convenience. It explains messages and narratives you should use when you’re talking about health care. To listen to or download the podcast, click here.

State cuts to higher education: 45 states now spend less per student on higher education than they did in 2008 (adjusted for inflation). In nine states (AL, AZ, LA, MS, MO, NM, OK, PA and SC), per-student spending has fallen by more than 30 percent. Read about how your state is doing in a new report by the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities.

Human Rights Campaign’s Municipal Equality Index: This annual study rated 506 cities across the nation, including all 50 state capitals. Seventy-eight cities earned a perfect score for advancing LGBTQ-inclusive laws and policies—up from 68 in 2017 and 11 in 2012. Click here to read all about it.

Best practices for successful advocacy: PLI’s Preparing to Win: A guide for successful advocacy is available for free as a PDF download on our website. A published version is also available for purchase on Amazon.