Poll: Young voters disenchanted with Republican party

San Francisco Chronicle ^ | 8/27/7 | Carla Marinucci

[SmithL]

Two larger-than-life politicians, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Ronald Reagan, charged into the California governor's office with the help of young voters, many of whom were drawn to the Republican Party by a message of sunny optimism.

But what those two very different Republican politicians did to attract millions of young adults looks to be a feat the Grand Old Party may not repeat anytime soon - either in California or on the national level in the 2008 presidential election.

A Democracy Corps poll from the Washington firm of Greenberg Quinlan Rosner suggests voters ages 18 to 29 have undergone a striking political evolution in recent years.

Young Americans have become so profoundly alienated from Republican ideals on issues including the war in Iraq, global warming, same-sex marriage and illegal immigration that their defections suggest a political setback that could haunt Republicans "for many generations to come," the poll said.

The startling collapse of GOP support among young voters is reflected in the poll's findings that show two-thirds of young voters surveyed believe Democrats do a better job than Republicans of representing their views - even on issues Republicans once owned, such as terrorism and taxes.

And among GOP presidential candidates, only former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani registers with more positive views than negative with young voters, the poll shows.

The anti-GOP shift for this generation - which is expected to reach 50 million voters, or 17 percent of the electorate, in 2008 - represents a marked contrast from their predecessors, the Gen Xers born in the mid-'60s to mid-'70s whose demographic represented the strongest Republican voters in the nation, pollster Anna Greenberg said.

[qam1]

Xer Ping

Ping list for the discussion of the politics and social (and sometimes nostalgic) aspects that directly effects Generation Reagan / Generation-X (Those born from 1965-1981) including all the spending previous generations are doing that Gen-X and Y will end up paying for.

Freep mail me to be added or dropped. See my home page for details and previous articles.

[SmithL]

You’ve inspired a new tagline.

[frankensnake]

Is this news? I was a liberal in my youth too. I grew up; now I’m not. A lot of these youth “alienated” from the GOP will change their minds once they start making decent money and feel the bite of the tax man.

[VR-21]

Does it matter that public education viv-a-vis the teachers unions is an adjunct of the Democrat Party?

[Doogle]

....a Doogle experience around the Clinton impeachment hearings.

Poll Taker: Hello would you be interested in taking a poll?
Doogle: How long is this poll going to take?
PT: ..about 4 to 5 minutes
Doogle: OK
PT: Do you think the impeachment process of President Clinton is hurting the country?
Doogle: No
PT: Thank you....(click)

[kabar]

Interesting that Carville was one of the authors of the report. Youth Survey: Republicans Collapse Among Young Americans

Here is the questionnaire used. Once you read that, it is quite clear how they arrived at those results. Hillary was the Dem candidate who got the "warmest" approval, including 47 to 37 over Obama. LOL.

[chadwimc]

It’s not just young people disenchanted with the Republicans...

[t_skoz]

Hey, we have a LOT of young people involved in our Ron Paul campaign. For once they are psyched that they can get involved in a campaign where people care about FREEDOM, not just the same old BS.

[kabar]

Here is the lone immigration question [Immigration was rated the third most important issue]:

"On immigration, we need to get control of the border and bar illegal employment, but allow the illegal immigrants who have been here working for a long time to get on a path to citizenship."

OR

"On immigration, we need to get control of the border, require illegal immigrants to re-enter the country legally, and stop illegal immigrants from getting government benefits?"

The first choice won 53-44 with 9 unsure. Not the way the first question is posed. How does one define "Illegal immigrants who have been working here a long time?

Immigration is a winning issue for Reps. They just need to have the cajones to spell out the differences between themselves and the Dems. Note that both choices contain a strong enforcement portion.

[EDINVA]

Just the fact that it’s a Greenberg poll tells you all you need to know.

[epow]

Young voters aren't the only ones who are disenchanted with the GOP. Both of the 2 leading candidates for GOP nomination are liberal Democrats with an R after their names, the only man who has a chance to beat either of them isn't a real conservative either and is keeping us guessing on whether or not he will be a candidate, and the only two announced candidates who I would vote for are having trouble breaking through the 1% barrier in polls of registered Republican voters.

It's less than 20 years since Reagan left office and the party is already right back where it was in the 1950s again. Maybe the party hacks can persuade God to resurrect Nelson Rockefeller and Jacob Javits so they can run them on the same ticket. They might even attract enough liberal Democrat voters to win. At least that couldn't be any worse than a Rudy-Mitt ticket.

I'm now 70 and beginning to wonder if all this crapola is worth worrying over anymore. I have been a Republican all my adult life, but out of those 5 decades only one gave me any degree of satisfaction in the realm of politics and governance. I keep hoping and praying that my grandkids will live in a free and strong USA governed according to Constitutional guidelines and principles, but the chances of that happening get dimmer with every year that passes.

[marinamuffy]

“I was a liberal in my youth too. I grew up; now I’m not.”

Me too. I shudder to remember how I wore a “save the spotted owl” button while in Jr. High. I also put Greenpeace stickers on a bookshelf that I still haven’t been able to completely remove. I have to cover them with NRA stickers!

Polls like this are unsurprising. If anything, it’s a wonder any young people at all think favorably toward the GOP with the constant indoctrination from school and media.

marinamuffy

[stevio]

Good for you. I got young ones, 7 on down, beside teaching good Godly values I don’t get too political with them. When they refer to the two major parties, it’s the Republicans and the democraps. They’re original name not mine.

[JFC]

Considering .... young so -called voters get thier news from Comdedy Central or MTV, college profs, du, moveon... what would we expect?

[epow]

PT: Thank you....(click)

I think that same girl called me a few months ago to get my opinion on a political issue that I don't even remember now. When she didn't get the answers she obviously wanted on the first 2 or 3 questions she thanked me and was gone.

I would have more confidence in a medieval soothsayer's study of chicken entrails than I do in politically motivated polls.

[lentulusgracchus]

The Republican strategy of dem lite is going to kill the party.

That's always been true. Back when FDR had the country in political deep-freeze, voting for Democrats while FDR kept all the balls in the air being all things to all men, the GOP lost it and started running "Me Too'ers" like Wendell Willkie and Tom Dewey. It didn't work then, it worked only with Ike in the 50's (he was basically a Democrat, but he felt he needed to help the GOP, in order to keep the country from becoming a one-party state, which was exactly what FDR wanted), and it hasn't really worked since. Not even when the GOP won with these guys atop the ticket -- Dick Nixon and the two Bushes.

The real GOP is Main Street Republicanism -- without the Yacht Club crony-capitalism, "big-government conservative" element or its "Me Too" subset. The real function of a "Me Too'er" is to go around sounding like a social liberal so liberals will vote him into office, and then apply himself to the essential Yacht Club preoccupation with shoveling pork to the New York business lobby once he gets in.

[uxbridge]

Hey, we have a LOT of young people involved in our Ron Paul campaign. For once they are psyched that they can get involved in a campaign where people care about FREEDOM, not just the same old BS.

Amen to that...Republicans don't even sound like Ronald Reagan anymore...with a very few exceptions, Republicans don't speak about the power of Americans to make better lives for themselves, their communities and our nation once we're freed of the shackles of the always-growing government

Most Republicans today just respond to Democrat calls for expanded government with their own calls for expanded government....differing only in the details. Its gotten so bad, that a guy like Ron Paul, who sounds to me much like most strong conservative Republicans used to sound, is routinely dismissed as a "fringe wacko"

The country, with the help of the Republican party, has dramatically shifted left in the last 20 years

[Ultra Sonic 007]

I’m NINETEEN and voting for Duncan Hunter. ;D

[lentulusgracchus]

Interesting that Carville was one of the authors of the report.

Oh, really?! Well, the article kinda didn't get around to mentioning that, lol....

They don't call him "Snakehead" for nothing.

Bet "Sid the Squid" was working on it, too. He's such a good and inventive liar, they couldn't not hire him for what is essentially a long-con hit piece on the GOP.