President elect Barrak Obama won more of the popular vote--53 percent-- than any non-incumbent candidate since Dwight Eisenhower in 1952. After decades of recount worthy elections, the question arose, how did Obama assemble such a formidable coalition? Many of the demographics reported only a slight voting increase from John
Kerry in 2004. Obama’s margin of victory came mostly from big gains among a few key demographics: Hispanic and Black voters voted for Obama in greater numbers than they voted for Kerry, but perhaps the most important Democratic gains were among voters under 30. According to exit polls, 54 percent of these voters voted for Kerry in 2004. Four years later, they voted for Obama by a 2-1 ratio.
Both the up swelling of youth votes and questioned experience of Obama are reminiscent of John Kenny’s election. But where Kennedy won over Protestants with the assurance of secular policy, Obama appealed to the youth, in particular, the evangelical youth. In Laurie Goodstein’s article, she illustrates how Obama won “small but significant chunks of white evangelical voters.” Obama began his outreach early in his campaign when he “mobilized a team” led by Rev. Joshua DuBois to sway moderates. Obama’s campaign “visited 10 Christian colleges in swing states” to lobby awareness, and possibly adding another college nightmare to conservative parents: drinking, tattoos, promiscuity, and voting democratic. By targeting moderates instead of die hard republicans, Obama reached a larger group-- those more geared towards more social issues. The more comprehensive approach speaks to the young evangelicals audience, who are “attracted to a broader agenda” that encompasses far more than abortion and homosexuality.
The religious youth’s yearning for a wider voting platform alone does not explain why is there such a generational gap within Evangelicals. Why are young voters so liberal? Partially, they are exposed to a more racially and ethnically diverse populous than previous generations. As a group they are highly educated but economic troubles loom in their future. The political cleft within generations can be seen on many issues, but unfortunately for republicans, it appears deepest on the hot-topic social controversies that Republicans depend on for the galvanization of voters.
The political independence of the nation’s youth may turn to the downfall of the conservative right. The majority of youth voters have first hand political experience with a successful democratic President, and arguably one of the worst republicans. Can the Right break out of its corner to approach the youth, and the majority? If Barrak Obama lives up to his promise of change, can the Republicans break back into the socially conscious, and politically active, youth voting bloc?
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/07/us/politics/07religion.html?ref=politics
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I think this is a really fascinating topic, but I do think one thing must be clarified. The sort of youth that came out for Barack Obama are generally well-educated youth (as you actually mentioned in your blog), not necessarily youth at large. It is generally believed, based on polls and voting statistics that the higher the education one has the greater chance one will vote for the Democratic party. Barack Obama was able to galvanize this support among disaffected college students in a way that an uninspiring and bland John Kerry could not do. The other problem as cited by the author of the blog is that the Republicans are increasingly relying on a core base of old white Christian men. The Evangelical community generally disavows Democratic candidates based on a set of "moral" issues but Obama was able to transcend this obstacle to some degree.
This whole election was really interesting. There are so many contributions and groups that aided in his victory. In our class we discussed the significance of the Catholic vote and but obviously the age of voters was also a contributing factor. To answer your question about whether the right can draw the more moderate youth back, my answer would be possibly. I think that it depends on the state the country is in. Since our country is in an economic crisis, and I have heard that people were more likely to put aside their moral beliefs and that they voted more on economic issues. However, this article is making the claim that the reason the youth supported Obama was of the social issues. It’s difficult to tell what people were really thinking.
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