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Young Voters Are Abandoning Obama-But Not Running to Romney (Explains empty seats at Ohio State)
The Daily Beast ^ | Sunday, May 6, 2012 | Mark McKinnon

Posted on 05/06/2012 10:31:11 AM PDT by kristinn

It's no surprise President Barack Obama officially kicked off his re-election campaign on two college campuses on Saturday. You're supposed to apply pressure at the site of bleeding. And the president's support among young voters is bleeding away.

Though their elders vote at higher rates, the Millennial generation, aged 18 to 29, represented almost one in six votes in the 2008 presidential election. And they voted for Obama over Senator John McCain by a two-to-one margin.

While others in the media are focused on the upward trend in the president's approval ratings over the last four months in this age group, as shown in the latest Survey of Young Americans' Attitudes toward Politics and Public Service from Harvard University's Institute of Politics, there are troubling signs for the campaigns and the country embedded more deeply in the numbers.

SNIP

In terms of policies and priorities, the group appears more right-of-center than imagined. Almost four in ten believe cutting taxes is key to growth. Just 19 percent think government spending is the answer. And those who believe health insurance is a right dropped from 61 percent in 2008 to 43 percent in 2012.

The top ten issues ranked in importance for this cohort were: creating jobs, reducing the deficit, lowering the tax burden for all, becoming energy independent, ensuring affordable access to health care, creating a world-class education system, addressing Social Security, preventing the spread of terrorism, protecting individual liberties from government, and preventing Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon. Combating the impacts of climate change fell near the bottom of the list.

Surprisingly, little support is expressed by 18-to-24 year olds for the Occupy Wall Street protests, at 19 percent. (A plurality of 42 percent are unsure.)

(Excerpt) Read more at thedailybeast.com ...


TOPICS: Front Page News; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: 2012; bhofascism; elections; nobama2012; obama
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To: kristinn
Glad you pointed that out. Just 19% think government spending is the answer that is good news. I would bet the numbers that are against cuts in govt spending are higher among some of the senior voters. One other thing..the article includes voters up to the age of 29..if you are old enough to die for your country..you should have the privilege of voting.
41 posted on 05/06/2012 7:45:42 PM PDT by katiedidit1 ("This is one race of people for whom psychoanalysis is of no use whatsoever." the Irish)
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To: hinckley buzzard

I’d support that.

I would also support a requirement that the franchise be restricted to net taxpayers. That means that in order to vote you have to pay more in taxes than you receive in public support.

Of course, that would virtually wipe out the Democrat Party voter base. Not that I consider that to be a bad thing.


42 posted on 05/06/2012 7:57:04 PM PDT by Ronin (Dumb, dependent and Democrat is no way to go through life - Rep. L. Gohmert, Tex)
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To: Rio

Legal marijuana is actually a good idea. Think of the tax revenues and economic stimulus. But it’s not worth a Ron Paul to get it.


43 posted on 05/06/2012 11:02:20 PM PDT by Eleutheria5 (End the occupation. Annex today.)
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To: Ronin; ReformationFan; hinckley buzzard
I have come to the opinion that universal sufferage is a disaster for democracy. The franchise must be earned, not bestowed gratis to all comers. As De Touqueville observed centuries ago, the masses will eventually discover that they can vote for themselves unlimited largess from the treasury. This has now happened and the results are visible for all to see who will.

I agree with raising the franchise age (30 is OK...40 is even better) and restricting the franchise to net taxpayers, but specifically net property tax payers. This comports most closely with original intent and does not further entrench the income tax. One exception: the franchise should be awarded at the honorable completion of volunteer military service regardless of taxpayer status.

I realize that these are fighting words in today's Amerika. Don't much care, either.

44 posted on 05/07/2012 6:29:51 AM PDT by jboot
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To: ansel12
for the voter, maturity of judgment far outweighs other qualifications.

Not any more. Even 98.6 is optional these days.

(Thanks for the reference, though!)

45 posted on 05/07/2012 6:40:50 AM PDT by thulldud (Is it "alter or abolish" time yet?)
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To: ansel12; hinckley buzzard
I think a possible reason why it took several decades after the 60's for the youth vote to fall solidly in the Democrat column was that over the years, those 60's radicals were now holding positions of influence (teachers, media, etc.).

Instead of their liberal opinion(s) only leading to one vote ... their own ... their misguidedness was able to be leveraged to indoctrinate the generations that followed.

46 posted on 05/07/2012 6:53:41 AM PDT by mellow velo (Oxymorons: jumbo shrimp, rap music, liberal think-tank)
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To: mellow velo

There is definitely truth to that, but those children of the 60s and 70s gave us something that we did not have in 1970, an alternative to the left’s absolute control of the media.

Today we have talk radio, conservative book publishing, Fox, magazines, counter science to the left on everything from sex to climate, effective pro-life groups, mass (and effective) conservative movements like the tea party and so on, we often control the Congress, Senate, and Supreme Court, in 1970 all the young had for information, was the left’s view, and the left controlled everything.

In the 1960s and 1970s the left was all-powerful and passed legislation without challenge, bold, sweeping, nation destroying, legislation that would be impossible today, like the immigration law that did this to us.

This health care thing is a throw back to that “greatest generation” type legislation, but while it is a rare 60s type victory for the left, it is far from over or decided.


47 posted on 05/07/2012 9:49:21 AM PDT by ansel12
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To: max americana
Exactly. These young brainless morons ruined the country for the past 4 years. My business partner and I try our best to weed out the liberals for the past 3 hiring sessions as we do not want any part of them. Let them eat their hopeychangey cake and choke on it..

I suppose the Baby Boomer generation has NOTHING to do with the mess we're in.. or even Gen X...
48 posted on 05/07/2012 12:57:03 PM PDT by libdestroyer
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To: ansel12; All

This crap needs to stop. All of you bashing my generation must have either been extremely informed when you were in your 20s or miraculously skipped that age.

One could easily make the argument that the PARENTS of this current generation deserve equal or greater ire for the state of things!

I’m a very well-informed 27 year-old but I can tell you there are TONS of ignorant people and they span all generations.

Let’s not forget what generation is RUNNING this country!


49 posted on 05/07/2012 1:04:14 PM PDT by libdestroyer
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To: hinckley buzzard

>”The 18 to 29 year old demographic are the most ignorant and shallow, with the poorest judgment. It would be good for America if the voting age was raised to 30.”

Yeah... I guess we shouldn’t let those STUPID 18-year-old troops vote either.

Remember this generation? They are in charge of the country right now...

http://s2.hubimg.com/u/2488081_f520.jpg


50 posted on 05/07/2012 1:09:18 PM PDT by libdestroyer
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To: libdestroyer

That was the 18-29 year olds voting for Nixon and supporting the Vietnam war by a higher percentage than any other age group.


51 posted on 05/07/2012 1:19:54 PM PDT by ansel12
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To: libdestroyer

I wasn’t aware that I was bashing your generation. Twenty year olds did used to be more conservative though.


52 posted on 05/07/2012 1:22:05 PM PDT by ansel12
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To: Longbow1969

No, the founders were not perfect but I would wager than an honest accounting would reveal a ton of misery caused by NOT following the original constitution (and that includes all amendments after the first ten) for every ounce caused by FOLLOWING the original constitution. At this point the constitution is functionally almost completely moot, in many cases we only pretend to follow it with the original meaning being discarded in favor of some new version created out of whole cloth by liberal judges and in other cases it seems that we don’t even pretend to follow it as with the prohibition against anything other than silver and gold as currency. Does anyone REALLY believe that means that the states cannot do it but the federal government can make dog doo a legal currency?


53 posted on 05/07/2012 4:04:52 PM PDT by RipSawyer
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To: jboot
...the franchise should be awarded at the honorable completion of volunteer military service regardless of taxpayer status.

I like that! Agreed!

54 posted on 05/07/2012 4:06:02 PM PDT by Ronin (Dumb, dependent and Democrat is no way to go through life - Rep. L. Gohmert, Tex)
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To: ansel12

“Fox”

Really?


55 posted on 05/07/2012 4:36:43 PM PDT by OldPossum
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To: OldPossum

My understanding is that Fox is pretty much down the middle, which means that conservative points of view are heard as well, what network was doing that in 1970?


56 posted on 05/07/2012 4:50:26 PM PDT by ansel12
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To: ansel12

Could be. I really don’t know since I never watch TV. I’m just going on comments by Freepers as how that network is such a disappointment, having flipped from being what it started off as.

I certainly will grant that it HAS to be better than ABCCBSCNNNBC.


57 posted on 05/07/2012 5:12:34 PM PDT by OldPossum
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To: OldPossum

I have read those comments also, and I only saw a little Fox back in 2005 and part of 2006 so I’m no expert on it.

I think that it is probably a disappointment as a ‘conservative’ network, but we do know that they will put on pro-lifers and pro-gun, low tax people and so on, in 1970 we didn’t even know that there was another point of view.


58 posted on 05/07/2012 5:19:36 PM PDT by ansel12
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To: LibsRJerks; Road Glide; ZULU
The young people I know and TRY to discuss politics with are so hopelessly uninformed and (un)knowledgeable about this country’s history — that they truly and really should NOT vote.

So what are we as conservatives doing about this???

This is the CRUCIAL issue of our times!! It doesn't matter what we are able to squeak out politically if we don't turn the tide of indoctrination in the high schools and universities. Every conservative should commit to doing SOMETHING to help educate the next generation in what made our country great.

I'm copying from a post by Road Glide from a couple of days ago:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2879805/posts?page=251#251

To: ZULU

“But our bigger problem, in my mind, is what is going on in the “educational” system. American Children are being taught a revised, biased, false story about western civilization and America. They are leaving schools with no knowledge of what America is, and how we evolved to become the world’s first and most successful democratic Republic. And so, they become ready tinder for minds like Obama’s.”

Just a thought....

What is needed is an integrated network of private schools that will again teach from the perspective that Western Civilization was (and is) superior, and teach with a true account of the facts of history (rather than the “rewritten history” of the post-1960’s).

Kind of like I remember receiving in public (yes, public!) schools in the 1950’s and early 1960’s before the lefties took it over.

Just as there are “Christian academies” that provide education based on a religious foundation for those parents who choose it for their kids, we need “Western Acadamies” that teach (for lack of a better phrase) “true history” from a Western perspective.

It may be impossible to reclaim the public schools from a Gramsican left that has become firmly entrenched. But that may not be necessary. What -is- necessary is to create a large-scale alternative to the public schools. Do the same thing with education that has been done [by conservatives and traditional-minded folks] with the mass-mainstream media — that is, ignore it, bypass it, do an end-run around it.

Just as conservatives now obtain their news and information from alternative sources, we must build a system to completely bypass the leftist indoctrination centers that are more commonly known as public schools.

59 posted on 05/07/2012 6:11:38 PM PDT by boxlunch
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To: boxlunch

Great ideas. Maybe a new market niche for schools?

I’ve posted on here before also that Republicans might not be doing the BEST job of reaching college students. My daughter went to a pretty conservative white bread type of school, but often said the Republicans just didn’t come to campus and communicate with them like the Dems did.

At that time, she and many other students WERE open to various ideas, and would have liked to have heard from Republicans/conservatives, but the only ones to visit were Dems, Michelle Obama, etc.


60 posted on 05/07/2012 8:07:49 PM PDT by LibsRJerks
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