the youth vote?

[indy007]

Okay, ripsnort got me with the values vote thread... wrote this for my livejournal, but thought some others might find it interesting w/o having to read about my personal life...

So, all that money thrown at it to mobilize the youth vote. Keep in mind they call the youth vote 18-29. 29 isn't much of a youth to me, but whatever.

Here's some of the programs, partisan, bi-partisan, democratic, republican, & privately sponsored. Hundreds of millions of dollars thrown at it... The results are pretty interesting...

Slacker Uprising Tour, MoveOn, Project Vote Smart, Rock the Vote, Vote or Die! (seriously, puffy, fire your marketing guy), NAACP Youth Voter Empowerment Program, "Reggie the Registration Rig" (the RNC should fire their marketing guy too), "Pride at the Polls", Smackdown Your Vote!, Freedom's Answer, Voter Virgin, Declare Yourself, Involver, Citizen Change, Punx for Democracy, The Conservative Punk, Gay Youth Unity Project, The League of Pissed Off Voters, Redeem the Vote, Hip Hop Team Vote... and that's just a drop in the bucket of how many there actually are...

and now for some numbers...

* 4.6 million more people under 30 turned out to vote in 2004. 9.3% more than 2000.
* 75% said they were registered. 51.6% actually turned out.
* The youth vote was up heavily in battleground states, pushing 64%, up 13% from 2000.
* The youth vote favored Kerry-Edwards over Bush-Cheney 54-44.
* The youth vote was the only age group to prefer Democrats.
* The youth vote constituted 18% of the vote in 2000.
* The youth vote constituted 18% of the vote in 2004.

So... was it all money well spent? Somehow I don't think so. Only 2 million more youths voted in 2004 than they did in 1992. The '92 youth vote went heavily to Bill Clinton. However, now that demographic is in the 30+ category. The 30+ demographic was won by Bush in this election, and has historically voted for more conservative candidates.. So, knowing the bulk of the programs were DNC sponsored, how smart is it to encourage political activism in a group that history and statistics show will get older and begin to vote against you?

Lesson learned this election? *#!@ the youth vote.

note: I'm 24. So I'll still be a "youth" vote in 4 years. Also, I voted for Bush, but TX isn't much of a battleground state

[Lizking]

Get drunk and chase pusswa or vote.  I think the youth are smarter than we give them credit for.

[AKS\/\/ulfe]

I voted early in the day, then got drunk.

At that point, chasing poon would have been an excercise in futility.
-SW

[GOTSOME]

Youth Vote?

Will the Youth either Vote or stay home and play X Box?

Lucky they didn't have AH when I was in college or I probably would still be there.

[narsus]

the problem with concentrating all this hype on the youth vote is, granted more youth voters came out, but so did everyone else the stats say that the percentage of "youth" voter was no different than 4 years ago.

[Suave]

I thought youth ended at 20ish, not 30ish. Somebody who's cells are still dividing faster than they're dieing. It's a subjective term, but I've never thought it was synonymous with adult.

So I find it odd that the definition of a youth voter is anybody 30 or younger.

[indy007]

Actually the vague point I was making was that all the money the DNC & donors poured into it will probably backfire in a few years. History repeats itself. Everybody they tried to mobilize, the numbers show, will probably be voting against them in the next 4 - 8 years. I just found it ironic & thought I'd share

[Ripsnort]

Originally posted by indy007
Actually the vague point I was making was that all the money the DNC & donors poured into it will probably backfire in a few years. History repeats itself. Everybody they tried to mobilize, the numbers show, will probably be voting against them in the next 4 - 8 years. I just found it ironic & thought I'd share

In 2050, 40% of Americans will be of minority descent anyway, so the Democrats will rule. Thankfully not in my lifetime.  My kids will learn survival techniques within the next 10 years.