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How the GOP Can Take Back the Youth Vote
Pajamas Media ^ | November 30, 2008 | Justin Higgins

Posted on 11/30/2008 6:43:55 AM PST by outofstyle

How the GOP Can Take Back the Youth Vote

Posted By Justin Higgins On November 30, 2008

The Republican Party hasn’t captured a majority of the 18-25 demographic for decades now, and with President-elect Obama renewing the debate about youth in politics, it’s about time we ask ourselves, “How can the GOP capture its fair share of the youth vote?” As a rare member of that demographic who votes Republican (Obama won the youth vote 66-32), I have a few answers — and they all have to do with some fundamental differences in mindsets and rhetoric. The disconnect is more about words and less about policies.

The 18-25 demographic is made up of a few types of voters, the two largest being the idealistic and apathetic. Somehow, election cycle after election cycle, the Democrats manage to mobilize the idealistic and either scare the apathetic into action or, in the event of a pro-Republican cycle, keep them home. If the GOP could somehow make the case that there is idealism in conservatism and there is an urgency of action, we wouldn’t lose the youth vote. It is true that there is a wave of liberal thought on college campuses, but policy points aren’t driving the difference in young adult voting.

Let’s start with the idealists. Throughout the last election cycle, Republicans made fun of the “hope and change” mantra of the Obama campaign and criticized it for lacking substance. What most didn’t realize was that he was making a direct appeal to the 18-25 demographic. Yes, he was attacking the Bush administration by pushing “change,” but he was also trying to inspire a group of young adults who favor big ideas over meticulous details and new vision over long-developed experience. John McCain ran as the pragmatist, while Barack Obama ran as the idealist. Idealism sells to the youth vote.

Meanwhile, the Democrats launched a massive PR campaign against George W. Bush, touting the economic collapse. The media played right into it, and soon enough there was panic. This was the play for the apathetic, who felt they had to vote. With a coalition of those with their heads in the clouds and those who normally couldn’t care less, the Democrats won the youth vote with massive margins.

How does the Republican Party change this? It starts with an assault on the apathetic. Following September 11th, there were very few apathetic youth around me. Everyone watched the news, followed the war, and listened to our history teachers far more intently than we ever had before. It was a crisis. And the war is far from over.

Also, the Republican Party needs to explain that my generation is paying into a broken entitlement system, our borders are broken, and radical Islam is still growing in the dark corners of the world. Al Gore and the Democrats have teenagers convinced the seas are going to rise and flood New York City, but the Republican Party can’t convince us that we’re going to be bankrupt in 50 years? It sounds like we need to take a page out of their playbook and talk about genuine crises that are building.

The more complicated task, and the more meaningful, is a play towards the idealists. The difference is that the idealists do watch the news, do read the newspapers, and vote in much larger numbers. The Democrats have dominated among the idealists for the past two decades by talking about building a more inclusive society, helping the downtrodden, and fighting for the oppressed. These rhetorical ploys attract the idealists. We need to fight this by putting out an inspirational conservative platform.

We need to emphasize the elements of conservatism that empower the individual, expand liberty, and defend freedom. We need to break down issues like earmarks into simple terms, and explain that it’s not about changing the rules in the Senate. It’s about fixing our government and building a future without debt, a future with strong American consumers making individual decisions. We need to talk about the elements of conservatism that create a strong culture, instead of talking about the “inside baseball” issues surrounding the Supreme Court. We need an ambassador to the idealists just as John McCain or Mitt Romney were ambassadors to the pragmatists who focused on policy solutions but not public relations solutions. To win the youth, conservatism needs to become “sexy” again, and we have to start talking about issues in a way that shows that they matter to my generation.

We don’t have to dumb down our agenda or abandon our principles for populist rhetoric, but we need a strategy that convinces people they need to vote for America’s future, and that the Republican Party isn’t the party of old ideas or “rich white guys.” As much as I hate to admit it, the Democrats have successfully made that our image. We need a new strong message that focuses on the urgency of today and our ability to strengthen not only ourselves, but our country going into the future. We need more idealism in the Republican Party.


TOPICS: Editorial; Miscellaneous; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: bho2008; gop; newgop; rebuilding; vote; youth; youthvote
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1 posted on 11/30/2008 6:43:55 AM PST by outofstyle
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To: outofstyle

the passage of time does a pretty good job of eliminating the youth vote.


2 posted on 11/30/2008 6:52:04 AM PST by gusopol3
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To: outofstyle
With all due respect, youth have undeveloped brains. Brains don't become fully developed, generally, until age 26. Which is why many of them are liberal.

Many, but not all, become conservative later in life. Some brains never fully develop, as evidenced by those that are about to become in power come Jan. 20th.
3 posted on 11/30/2008 6:55:51 AM PST by marvlus
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To: marvlus

I’ll buy that!


4 posted on 11/30/2008 6:57:45 AM PST by thesetruths
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To: marvlus
With all due respect, youth have undeveloped brains.

As the father of a 19 year old, I hear you. However, they have the right to vote. The Dems have shown how unsophisticated a successful appeal to young voters can be. We can refuse to stoop to that level and concede those votes, or we could consider the advise of the author.

5 posted on 11/30/2008 7:02:31 AM PST by outofstyle (There's a rake at the gates of Hell tonight)
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To: outofstyle

I only have two comments. This country is bankrupt now, not 50 years from now, and the focus of the youth voters as well as the general population will soon be refocused on terrorism just as we were after 9-11. Biden pretty much spelled it out.


6 posted on 11/30/2008 7:02:44 AM PST by saganite
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To: outofstyle

This is a GREAT article.

I just hope that the idiots who run the RNC read it and take the advice. But so far they have demonstrated a marked immunity to logic and good advive.

The other issue, which the writer doesn’t mention, is that in most cases, young Americans are subjected to an incerasingly defective and selective anti-American, anti-Judaeo-Christian, anti-traditionalist brainwashing by the leftwing traitors who run the NEA, our elementary and High Schools and the overwhelming majority of our colleges.

Just this morning on FOX news there was a debate between two students at Columbia over the issue of “allowing” the military to run an ROTC program and recruit on Columbia’s campus. One Avi Edelman, a spokesperson for Columbia Democrat Students, and no doubt a stool pigeon for the leftist professors there, said that because the military discriminates against transgender and homosexual persons by the don’t ask, don’t tell policy, they shouldn’t be allowed on campus. I guess he feels we need more male privates in skirts and high heels.

The government - if the Republicans ever take over again - should stop this nonesense. Colleges which refuse to allow ROTC on campus or recruit there should lose ALL their federal aid. ALSO, any student attending such colleges should lose any federal scholarship money they might be receiving. States which provide scholarship dollars to such schools should be informed that ALL federal grant monies will be withheld from said states unless they stop supporting said colleges.

Republicans and conservatives have to be more proactive in unmasking and attacking the subversive elements which run our teaching institutions. Like the Pied Piper, they are STEALING generations of young Americans and turning them into the kind of mindless zombies who would elect an Islamophilic socialist with absolutely no qualifiying experience and close ties with unrepentent terrorists to the Highest Office in the land.

“Academic Freedom” is as absent from the Constituion as “separation of church and state” yet teh Libs have succeeded in bamaboozling an entire nation to the contrary.


7 posted on 11/30/2008 7:04:15 AM PST by ZULU (Non nobis, non nobis Domine, sed nomini tuo da gloriam. God, guts and guns made America great.)
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To: outofstyle

The youth vote is a lost cause.

They get ALL of their information from the most liberally biased sources of information. You combine that fact with how younger people haven’t lived and produced enough to know how the real world works, what it’s like to raise children and pay taxes. The liberal propaganda just naturally resonates with them.

I was one of the rare people that was a conservative when I was a teen back during the Clinton years. I was occasionally scorned by teachers and some classmates in high school. Over the years I’ve leaned more toward being a libertarian.


8 posted on 11/30/2008 7:04:36 AM PST by KoRn
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To: outofstyle
The youth vote was basically irrelevant in the last election. They turned out in relatively low numbers. The biggest area the GOP needs to make headway in is single women. They voted for the O in droves (70%).
9 posted on 11/30/2008 7:04:48 AM PST by mad_as_he$$ (Nemo me impune lacessit.)
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To: outofstyle

The Reps would do better to focus on the concerns of seniors. The number of those over 65 will double to 78 million by 2030. And they vote in higher numbers.


10 posted on 11/30/2008 7:06:11 AM PST by kabar
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To: outofstyle
“How can the GOP capture its fair share of the youth vote?”

The problem is in the question. What the hell is a "fair share" when it comes to survival? These kiddies have zero critical thinking skills.

11 posted on 11/30/2008 7:08:00 AM PST by Glenn (Free Venezuela!)
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To: KoRn

I was a student during the Viet Nam War ers. The actions of the left in college at that time was as bad as today, but the infection had not yet spread to the High Schools and grammar schools which were still run by patriotic, decent Americans. The SDS generation with free love. God is Dead, drugs and anti-war philosophies altered all that later.


12 posted on 11/30/2008 7:10:13 AM PST by ZULU (Non nobis, non nobis Domine, sed nomini tuo da gloriam. God, guts and guns made America great.)
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To: outofstyle
Here's where we go down a slippery slope.

There are really only two issues that strongly divide the two parties.

The Right to an Abortion and the Right to Bear Arms.

The left live in fear that we will overturn Roe vs Wade, and the right live in fear that their guns will be confiscated.

I don't have a solution to our differences, but Abortion issue is the elephant in the room with the youth vote.

FWIW, I am totally against abortion...I'm just sayin..

sw

13 posted on 11/30/2008 7:10:50 AM PST by spectre (Spectre's wife)
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To: Glenn

I disagree.

But they are being directed and propagandized by vicious, anti-American professors and lower school teachers.

SOME of them probably can see through this - the 1/2 who DIDN’T vote for the Obamanation.

The others merely need to be re-educated.


14 posted on 11/30/2008 7:12:09 AM PST by ZULU (Non nobis, non nobis Domine, sed nomini tuo da gloriam. God, guts and guns made America great.)
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To: mad_as_he$$
The youth vote was basically irrelevant in the last election. They turned out in relatively low numbers.

You are half right. They did turn out in low numbers, as usual. However, this is not irrelevant. Those that voted for the first time in there lives voted overwhelmingly Dem. It is likely that these voters now identify themselves as Democrat. Although many will eventually become politically conservative, it will take many election cycles to bring about the transformation. Republicans benefited enormously from Reagan's successful appeal to first time voters.

15 posted on 11/30/2008 7:12:25 AM PST by outofstyle (There's a rake at the gates of Hell tonight)
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To: outofstyle
Also, the Republican Party needs to explain that my generation is paying into a broken entitlement system, our borders are broken, and radical Islam is still growing in the dark corners of the world.

Carefull. Start talking too loudly about entitlements and many of those on the Right who are already on the dole from that entitlement system will sit at home. It may even create a net loss of voters.

16 posted on 11/30/2008 7:16:41 AM PST by LowCountryJoe (Do class-warfare and disdain of laissez-faire have their places in today's GOP?)
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To: outofstyle

Conservatism isn’t idealistic, and selling it as such will never work. However much we spend and regulate, the Dems claim we can always “do more.”

To get the youth vote, I would emphasize that conservatism allows you to customize your life almost any way you see fit. True diversity is in the marketplace. Progressives in contrast want to subordinate everyone to universal comprehensive plans— they want us all to be the same. I’d even place abortion and gay marriage in this context — we stand for local democracy, not the federal government or judges dictating these issues.

We should have been saying this all along to everyone. But too many conservatives these days are simply Christian progressives who want the federal government to do Great Deeds for Jesus. Our behavior during the Terri Schiavo affair, for instance, made us look like a horde of unprincipled wackos to most of the country.


17 posted on 11/30/2008 7:18:00 AM PST by JHBowden (Obama bin Biden: Keep the Change!)
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To: outofstyle

When they figure out that socialism kills jobs they might also figure out that political freedom requires economic freedom before prosperity can return. But I’m not holding my breath.


18 posted on 11/30/2008 7:18:09 AM PST by Combat_Liberalism
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To: JHBowden
As to Christian so-called Progressives [nothing progressive about progressives], did you read this crap today? He might be right but who needs this kind of paternalistic BS coming from the clergy?
19 posted on 11/30/2008 7:21:59 AM PST by LowCountryJoe (Do class-warfare and disdain of laissez-faire have their places in today's GOP?)
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To: outofstyle

GWB soldout on school vouchers in NCLB with Kennedy. Maybe it helped HIM get re-elected but it means kids will be indoctrinated by government worshiping liberals. But many here think short term election strategy (Ayers, Wright, etc McCain) is all that counts, then as the losses pile up they call everyone else stupid or (in some extreme cases) traitors. Not a winning strategy, something democrats HAVE had for four years.


20 posted on 11/30/2008 7:24:04 AM PST by sickoflibs (McCain asks: "Did you stupid conservatives really believe me? HA-HA-HA, wait til 09")
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