Here's my take.
Voting was just so mainstream, and turning out Bush was the establishment thing to do.
That doesn't exactly sound like something youthful Americans do - sure, they jump on bandwagons, but man, they reject the hard sell and Bush is counter-culture at this point. Ollie North was the hero for our generation when everyone else was hating his gutts.
It still applies.
I'd even say my own rebellion was in some part a reaction to my parents' liberalism. I would say life taught me the lessons they failed to teach me, and I naturally became a conservative (albeit a somewhat mischievous one.)
My sons are 22 and 19 year old college students and they both voted for Bush and said that all of their friends did too.