Generation Gap

The New Republic ^ | July 07, 2008 | Alan I. Abramowitz

[forkinsocket]

It isn't just that young voters like Obama--more importantly, over the last eight years, they've come to believe in liberalism.

Young voters played a crucial role in Barack Obama's successful campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination. In state after state, exit polls showed that Obama received his strongest support from voters under the age of 30. Now that he has clinched the Democratic nomination, Obama is counting on strong support from under-thirties to offset John McCain's expected advantage among older white voters, some of whom continue to be uneasy about the prospect of an African American president.

Recent polling data suggest that younger voters are poised to turn out and vote for Barack Obama in very large numbers. According to a recent Gallup Poll analysis, in mid-June Obama held a relatively narrow five point lead over John McCain among all registered voters. Among 18-29 year-olds, however, Obama held an enormous 27 point lead, 59 percent to 32 percent. Obama's support among younger voters was largely responsible for his overall lead in the poll.

Barack Obama clearly has a special ability to connect with younger Americans. For many young people, Obama, like John F. Kennedy in 1960, represents a new generation of leaders not associated with the controversies and failures of the past. It is also much easier for many young people to identify with the 46-year-old Obama, who casually references Jay-Z lyrics on the stump, than the 71-year-old McCain, who has admitted to not knowing how to use a computer. But the strong support that Barack Obama is receiving from younger Americans is not a new development in American politics. It is a continuation of a trend that has been underway since the 2000 election.

[forkinsocket]

.

[Neoliberalnot]

Nothing to do with his african but everything to do with his muslim connection, his racist attitude, his lack of competence, and the fact he doesn’t even know how many states there are in the US. NoBAMA—no to racism, no to socialism, no to incompetence, and no to higher taxes.

[Slapshot68]

“Hope” and “change” have a lot more substance when you’re high/drunk evidently.

[lexusppd]

James Carville-”There’s a name for a candidate who depends on the youth vote to win an election and that’s loser”

[Mr. Mojo]

63 percent of those under the age of 30 wanted the government to provide more services even if it required higher taxes

I'd hazard a guess that a large % of that 63% never filed income taxes in their lives.

[JimSEA]

Obama is counting on strong support from under-thirties to offset John McCain's expected advantage among older white voters, some of whom continue to be uneasy about the prospect of an African American president.

Of couse, the only reason not to vote for Obama is racism.

[Eurale]

“... they’ve come to believe in liberalism.”

Wrong. They’ve been brainwashed by the educratic government school systems. Thank the NEA and their socialist lemmings.

[Mr. Mojo]

"the political attitudes of the current under-30 generation have been shaped by the war in Iraq, Hurricane Katrina"

lol...Katrina? Do "I might be a Republican if not for Bush's slow reponse to Katrina" people truly exist? If so, the MSM must be proud of this accomplishment.

"It is no exaggeration to say that the Bush presidency has given both conservatism and the Republican Party a bad name among younger Americans."

Those who think the Bush admin. is in any way conservative are even more ignorant than those who blame Katrina's aftermath on the GOP.

[penowa]

Some of the kiddies will awaken from their heavy-duty lifetime of public school propaganda and brainwashing once they get a taxpaying job and Mommy and Daddy are not footing the bill for their lifestyle; some will never awaken and will demand more Mommy-gov’t. services once their parents cut them loose, with someone else, preferably “the rich” picking up the tab for their keep.

[Toki]

Whether Democrats can turn their temporary advantage into a long-term advantage--one that could help them to solidify their position as the majority party in the U.S. for decades to come--will depend on whether the next Democratic president and Congress can actually deliver the kinds of changes that most Americans, and especially most younger Americans, want including ending the war in Iraq, reforming health care, expanding economic opportunity, protecting the environment, and above all restoring faith in the fairness and competence of government as an institution.

So you mean if Obama is elected that people will under him realize how good they have it? Nah. (we can hope if he does though, though I doubt it till college students start working and non ones start actually money [if they do])

I think an MTV culture (as it sits in the background as my roommates watch) with a dying GOP is going to leave young people Democrats for a long while.

Plus with the fact that college students who subscribe to the fact that abortion is a right and environmentalism (which is a lot, at least when they are politically active) doesn't bode well to the republicans (though I will say that college students who are republican will probably stay that way unless they totally become liberal and decide that abortions are good)

Though I do know some liberals college age who are liberal but subscribe to the amendment meaning the right to bear arms, know way to many actually who for their 21st birthday looked forward to getting their concealed license to carry. Then again I live on a college where the deer outnumber the students.

But I do have hope for one of my friends a liberal and a Poli Sci lover, she know Obama is just a puppet, I about jumped for joy when I found that out

[x]

If you were born in 1986, you wouldn’t have been scarred by the torments of the 1960s and 1970s, so you probably would be more supportive of liberalism. Live and learn, though. Some of these young people will be showing up here if Obama actually is elected.

[tbw2]

Or receive WIC or EIC.

[RED SOUTH]

No worries , these young voters who don't pay taxes because
other than part time jobs or summer gigs , they don't hold
down a full time job and pay the mortgage , ect. They have been enlightened by their liberal socialist teachers and they want change because they think mom and dad are idiots.
They support the democratic flavor of the cylce in the primaries but .... forget to vote in Nov.
Then life happens to them and they learn their teachers were full of sh!t and mom and dad aren't so dumb and government is a bad thing. then they start remembering to vote in Nov.

[RED SOUTH]

I remember being young and conservative and had a liberal
communist teacher for 10th grade literature. The year was 1988 and Dukakis was leading Bush and he used the time he was supposed to be teaching us literature to brainwash my fellow classmates about politics and how Dukakis was the savoir of the country after 8 evil Reagan years. I defended Reagan and conservatism every chance I could. He hated me. I got a b- on the editorial he made us write. It deserved an A. It was titled “the conservative cause” and I am sure he puked his way through it. How much fun I had the morning after the election and I got to rub it in how Dukakis got his a$$ handed to him by Bush.

[Toki]

Live and learn, though. Some of these young people will be showing up here if Obama actually is elected.
Do and usually do it (But it takes some hits with a baseball bat).
Born in the late 80's and already here scared of Obama (actually just joined tonight, but have been lurking since I stumbled upon the site a while ago), and I know others who are too (early 80's).

We are small, but we will hopefully, maybe, grow (even without Obama winning)... But if he limits religon as much as I could see him doing I could see him losing a whole group (The hippy-envorimental friendly, good doing Christian) in the end, because I'd like to hope anyway there religion would come first (though not all).