Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Among voters under 30, 66% went for Obama. I think the Republicans have trouble now and for the foreseeable future.
"Nonpartisan pollster Scott Keeter points to two attributes of young voters that pose major challenges for Republicans.
One is their diversity. As Keeter notes, the GOP is "almost entirely a party made up of whites, and it has struggled to find a way to appeal to minorities."
Voters 30 and over in 2008 were 77% white, according to exit polls. Voters under 30 were 62% white. The party's need to do better with young voters goes hand in hand with its need to do better with black, Hispanic and Asian voters.
The other challenge is cultural, says Keeter, director of survey research for the Pew Research Center.
Young voters are less socially conservative than the electorate as a whole on issues ranging from homosexuality to immigration. They are also more secular and participate less in organized religion. In a recent Pew poll, 25% of Americans born since 1976 were atheist, agnostic or "nothing in particular" - compared with 13% of baby boomers.
"Young voters need to see a GOP that is more socially libertarian, particularly toward gay rights. With changing demographics come changing attitudes," Republican consultant Mike Murphy wrote in Time magazine this month, lamenting in the same column that "A GOP ice age is on the way."
They have a lot of this to blame on Nixon, who lowered the voting age. It obviously didn't lose them the election but it certainly had a lot of influnece considering the % of those between 18-21 who voted for Obama is probably even higher than the 66% under 30.
I'm not going to blame a constitutional amendment on Nixon. Sure, he could have vetoed it, but didn't a lot of the states have to approve it before it became an amendment? So there's a lot of blame to go around.
And that was at a time of 'generational gap', with kids fighting in the streets. Remember 'Days of Rage'? Nixon had no option but to approve the change.
Young people are too smart and too well informed and open to reason and change....Republicans have never and will never offer anything to help minorities....Period
I'm not going to blame a constitutional amendment on Nixon. Sure, he could have vetoed it, but didn't a lot of the states have to approve it before it became an amendment? So there's a lot of blame to go around.
And that was at a time of 'generational gap', with kids fighting in the streets. Remember 'Days of Rage'? Nixon had no option but to approve the change.
18 year olds were being drafted involuntarily and sent to fight in vietnam.
Forbidding them to vote was no longer a legitimate option.
Young people are too smart and too well informed and open to reason and change....Republicans have never and will never offer anything to help minorities....Period
This is true: Republicans do need to install policies that benefit and appeal to the yonger voters and minorities. If they don't or refuse to, it just gives the Democratic Party an advantageous position in slaughtering them in elections. Personally, I feel they need an exciting candidate (like Palin or Jindal) but with actual intelligence for the job.
The minorities will likely stay for the Democrats for the time being, but convincing the young voters is more of optimism and excitment than actual policy, and thus if the GOP play their cards right they could claim a portion of the young vote.
If the Republicans adopted policies that would appeal to younger voters the party would be come the Democratic Party. I prefer they remain the party of the plutocrats and the religious.
The boat is being missed here. These deluded and out-of-touch kids (actually over past several generations) are being indoctrinated by the government education system, by "progressive teachers"; and parents are either apathetic or unaware of the kidnapping of their kids' minds. They are weaned on revisionist history and hate-America rhetoric. I run across these little pseudointellectuals all too frequently (some are among family and close friends), and is sometimes difficult to stay polite and not laugh in their faces at some of the inane comments they make. It is their "reality".
the boat is being missed here. These deluded and out-of-touch kids (actually over past several generations) are being indoctrinated by the government education system, by "progressive teachers"; and parents are either apathetic or unaware of the kidnapping of their kids' minds. They are weaned on revisionist history and hate-america rhetoric. I run across these little pseudointellectuals all too frequently (some are among family and close friends), and is sometimes difficult to stay polite and not laugh in their faces at some of the inane comments they make. It is their "reality".
They have a lot of this to blame on Nixon, who lowered the voting age. It obviously didn't lose them the election but it certainly had a lot of influnece considering the % of those between 18-21 who voted for Obama is probably even higher than the 66% under 30.
Except for this immediate past election, the 18-24 group has always voted in very small numbers.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
