Posted on 07/08/2014 5:24:57 AM PDT by Theoria
There was a time not so long ago when the young seemed destined to be liberal forever. Americans in their teens and 20s were to the left of their elders on social issues. They worried more about poverty. They voted strongly Democratic.
In retrospect, we refer to this period as the 1960s, and it didn’t last long, let alone forever. Less than a generation after young people were marching for civil rights and against the Vietnam War, they voted overwhelmingly for Ronald Reagan.
Today, of course, the young are liberal again, and it seems as if they will be forever. They favor same-sex marriage, marijuana legalization, stricter gun laws, citizenship for illegal immigrants and an activist government that fights climate change and inequality. The Republican Party, as you have probably noticed, does not.
But the temporary nature of the 1960s should serve as a reminder that politics change. What seems permanent can become fleeting. And the Democratic Party, for all its strengths among Americans under 40, has some serious vulnerabilities, too.
In the simplest terms, the Democrats control the White House (and, for now, the Senate) at a time when the country is struggling. Economic growth has been disappointing for almost 15 years now. Most Americans think this country is on the wrong track. Our foreign policy often seems messy and complex, at best.
To Americans in their 20s and early 30s — the so-called millennials — many of these problems have their roots in George W. Bush’s presidency. But think about people who were born in 1998, the youngest eligible voters in the next presidential election. They are too young to remember much about the Bush years or the excitement surrounding the first Obama presidential campaign.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
A Majority of young people are non-white and a huge majority are going to vote democrat for life just like their parents.
Well good luck on financing their “dreams”. With no jobs, and a 75% tax rate, unemployment and poverty will become the new norm. Oh yeah, and those One Percenters? They will be in daily danger of their lives as bands of the young unemployed become total savages when the money runs out for those EBT cards.
I am skeptical of his prediction (for a longer term) however Romney and McCain were pretty crappy candidates, McCain was a guaranteed losing pick in 2008 and Romney wasn’t all that much better four years later.
We definitely need better than them.
Of course.
People FIRST have to know how to read in order to vote Conservative.
The NEA is making sure THAT will not happen. The deck is certainly stacked.
Keep giving out all the odumbo “free stuff” and there is NO WAY these young will vote conservative..........Until they get a job and start paying taxes and realize where all their tax money is going. I have a son who was VERY liberal until he experienced exactly that.
Alinsky tactics begin to fail when the response to the one demonized becomes "Who?". Politics moves away from personality and back to issues. And the Democrats find themselves in trouble...
The rallies at Nuremberg!!!
Well, a dose of reality doesn’t hurt once in a while… such as when a far left liberal guvmint spends money like drunken sailors causing deficits and accumulated debts to balloon and finally the credit rating agencies downgrade them so that their interest rates go up several notches. Then when it all crashes, the cycle can start over again from a basis of no guvmint programs and no money to spend on anything.
Any young person who opens his or her eyes and sees the path we are on has to be conservative. They will be able to see that when they are in their 50s and 60s, or even their 40s, that our country’s Welfare State Ponzi scheme will be falling apart and that they will be the ones getting screwed even worse than today’s middle-aged people. Then they will look around for a “rich” person to tax and none will be around. They either have to change that system now or live in a country that is much poorer and much less safe.
That that is one pillar of Obama's fundamental transformation. keep people out of the workforce.
Worked for me.
Having to slog my way through high-school as my family struggled with all the indignities of the Carter Administration turned me to the right and kept me there.
I considered myself fairly liberal until I went to college. There I saw what liberals (Northeastern, Radical Liberals....the worst flavor!) were really like. I quickly figured out that I had little in common with them.
That is the norm in Detroit, Philadelphia, Baltimore, etc.
and guess what, they still vote 95%+ Democrat
In 1968 the Democrats won 47% of the (21) to 29 year old vote, in 1972, they won 46% of the 18 to 29 age group, in 1976, after Watergate, and with the weak, moderate (and under suspicion) Ford, against what appeared to be a social conservative Democrat with a strong military back ground, the Democrats picked up 51% of the 18 to 29 year old vote.
In 1980 Democrats got 44% of that age group, 1984-40%, 1988-47%.
It wasn’t until 1992 that the under 30 age group became a Democrat voter group, George W. did get 46% and 45% though.
The 66% that Obama won, is unprecedented and doesn’t bode well for the future.
This myth making by the left never ends, we conservatives wish the under 30 vote was what it used to be.
Not to mention their teachers.
“Youth” has very little to do with this voting pattern.
Race is the key issue.
In 2014, almost half of all 18 year olds will be non-white.
Fact is, young people vote very much like their parents, and non-white parents vote overwhelmingly for Democrats.
Republicans have only themselves to blame for this political catastrophe.
Since the Reagan Amnesty in 1986, the GOP has agreed to 3 more smaller Amnesties, and we agreed to massive increases in work visas, Green Cards, and new naturalized citizens.
The political bill for those reckless decisions has now come due.
2012 - Obama’s youth vote came down to 60%.
The 4 million white voters who “stayed home” in 2012 are most likely young whites who voted for Obama in 2008.
But, as you say, long term, the political future for Conservatives looks very grim.
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