These Youth Have Some Growing Up To Do

Good article. I'd add that the realities of actually governing will cause Obama to "grow up" real fast. We are already seeing this with his appointments and his positions.

Actually, I would suspect that "youth" extends much farther than high school, and probably at least to their thirties for many. People coming out of school get hit with the health insurance problem pretty quickly - they're the most underinsured age group out there. Not to mention the rest of life, which probably has them grateful for a while that they have a government safety net.

But on the other hand, I think there's already a visible left/right split in youth - it just happens at the moment that the Democrats seem more likely to address both sides of that split. In terms of fiscal conservatives, the Bush Administration has pushed a lot of them over to the Democrats, because while the common wisdom is that Democrats tax and spend, the reality we've been experiencing is that the Bush Administration borrowed and spent (which to a real fiscal conservative is the only thing worse than taxing and spending). Much of the news about the Republicans right now is that they're not really "free market" advocates so much as advocates for creating laws that allow companies to circumvent the free market. The fiscal conservatives may not quite know what they're getting with Obama, but they're guessing that its better than what they'd get until the Republicans start to conserve things again.

I've thought for a long while that I might end up as a Republican, since I'm fairly conservative. Problem is the Republicans don't want to conserve anything except imaginary versions of religious purity.

Chris,

I think you're fundamentally incorrect on a key issue here. You appear to assume that EVERY generation has been disproportionately left of center in youth, then becomes more centrist and/or conservative in their aging years. While this may be the case, the youth vote was by no means a stronghold for the Democratic Party even as recently as 2000.

Here's a CNN exit poll from 2000, showing a cross-sectioning by age grouping:

http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2000/results/index.epolls.html

You'll notice that, when broken down by age, there really isn't any distinguishing partisan tendency that's statistically relevant. Perhaps 18-29 year olds preferred Gore slightly more than Bush, and had a small following for Ralph Nader, but this is nothing near the scale that young voters broke for Obama.

Here's 2008's numbers:

http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2008/results/polls.main/

I contend that while your explanation for young voters preferring Obama is fairly close to the mark, I don't think that young voters are more liberal by their very nature. They are certainly more idealistic than older voters. Growing up means tempering your political IDEAS with REALITY. And the notion that the Republican Party or conservatives have a monopoly on pragmatic thought is simply untrue.

Young voters aren't naive because they vote Democratic. Naturally, certain life experiences will affect their outlook on the world as they age, but I disagree with the notion that these new experiences will inevitably lead Millennials to gravitate away from the Democratic Party.

Obama won the election. Time to grow up and let it go already.

Chris:

I thought you were off to a good start witht eh comments, until the Obama is superior, just look at his (supposed) demographics crowd moved in. Oh well. Unfortunately, this one election, to the exclusion of decades of prior voting and party affiliations, makes the point for too many. Such is the nature of discussion these days. What will befall us in 4 or 8 years? Obviously nothing to the myopic masses.

I think you've got an interesting post. Keep up the good work. It's never an affront not to like a conclusion or observation, but still recognize them as perhaps valid.

I love when comments come from anonymity, it's cute guys, no really.

@Bret- Have we met before somewhere? I don't have a link to your profile or website or anything so I can't see you. You MUST know me though, to make such a bold assumption that I have not had my own experiences, bravo sir, bravo. Actually both the circumstances you directly attacked me for I HAVE had experiences with and I have also spoken with others that have had those experiences. You call me bitter, and to an extent I am, especially when the government is supposed to create a safety net for individuals who should be allowed to fail to learn how to do the right things, yet we attack the rich on a daily basis because, they have money? Because they worked hard or found a way to profit? Apparently success and the "American Dream" are dead in this country in the name of "equality", even at the expense of the dream itself.

As for the "growing up" part, it could also refer to getting older, which usually puts you through different stages in life like graduating high school, college, getting a job and so forth.