Well... The “young people” love “rebellion”
That crazy Rage Against the Machine music and such...
I doubt that I’m going out on a limb here to suggest that indoctrination is a huge uphill battle to fight against and, regrettably, most of my age group (18-24) is completely sold out for O
I saw the demographic breakdowns and the youth vote, while not larger than I expected, was heavily for That One
That aside, if O does the damage I think he will, and reacts to conflicts like his ego will press on him to, I think the key to winning the young demographic is to prey on this factor and pitch it like “support for Obama is support for the mainstream” ... the only thing more hip than being a Lib is being a contrarian; if conservatism gets a fresh face and the youth can begin to see the hypocrisy that permeates every single facet of the Lib party in general, we’ll see a shift
Awesome post. Thanks. Great points.
Many I have talked to that voted for Obama leave me to suspect they are expecting some sort of free ride out of Obama. Once they have to make a few sacrifices, many will become disillusioned by him.
When the disillusionment comes, we need to be prepared, not in the sense of the Republicans being the “opposition”, or the “alternative”, but in principled, easy to understand ideas that make sense.
I tried an experiment a few months back. I went down to the local state university, and asked some students (I too am a student, but at a private, Christian university) what being a republican meant. Would anyone like to guess the answers that I got? If any of you guessed anything at all, you are correct. And that is part of the problem. We are perceived as being all over the place on a number of issues, and I lay the blame squarely at the feet of those in the party who tried to be everything to everybody.
The biggest criticism that I heard was that we are supposed to be the party of SMALL GOVERNMENT. How can you expect someone to vote for your party that is founded on smaller government, when it is doing the exact opposite, which is growing the size of the government?
I do not have an answer to the last question. And I as a young person who is a conservative would like to know what the answer is.
both my young adults voted for McCain / Palin. They are really upset about this loss. I don’t blame them cause I am too.
part of the problem in that group is social conservatism. alot of the young voters i talk to are not anti-abortion, pro-embryonic stem cell research and pro-gay marriage (or at least don’t want to ban it), yet they are pro 2A, fiscally conservative, want lower taxes, pro-fair tax, anti-welfare, pro-privatizing SS...
if conservatives would knock off all the talk on social conservatism and focus and talk about the fiscal end, that would sway alot more younger voters.