The Emerging Democratic SUPER Majority

[RainDog]

The election map if only younger voters were counted:

[Warren Stupidity]

1. As we age we get TEH STUPID

[onehandle]

6. Yep. nt

[RainDog]

7. I think this reflects a changing worldview

and not just people getting old and stupid.

The Vietnam War is ancient history for these voters.
Reagan was president when they were babies - or long before they were born.
The Republicans they have known are Bush/neo-cons/the christo-fascists and what they have seen of "small govt" is huge deficits, a bankrupting war, corporate whoring and stupidity about environmental issues.

[DrToast]

10. Not true. There has never been a greater disparity between the two candidates in the 18-29 vote

In fact, prior to 2004 the votes were pretty evenly matched between the two candidates.

This is NOT simply a case of young people voting Dem and then becoming conservative later in life. This is a change in the electorate.

[Sebastian Doyle]

17. Well, we are talking the age group that would be likely to be drafted

Because if John McCain would have gotten his wish to "Bomb bomb bomb Iran", that's exactly what would have happened.

[ingac70]

2. That looks promising! n/t

[sellitman]

3. My household doubled in voting size this year.

Producing 4 not 2 votes for Obama!


:party:

[RainDog]

4. a couple of guys wrote a book about this a few years ago

http://books.google.com/books?id=KrSyiLvJtbMC&dq=emerging+democratic+majority&pg=PP1&ots=aW2xZGM7CI&source=bn&sig=8nWqWw7RmgXvlTYkAHtD-mFh65I&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=4&ct=result#PPA1,M1

[cameozalaznick]

5. This is very bad news for Republicans going forward

Whether it's your first car, your first computer or your first vote, brand loyalty tens to get set pretty early. That's why the younger demo is so prized by advertisers.

[workinclasszero]

8. Thats beautiful!

I also keep hearing that young people generally keep their voting patterns later on in life.

This is awesome news for democrats! I hope the party and the Obama administration keep this in mind when dealing with the repig minority party.

[RainDog]

9. I feel like the new century started on Nov. 4th, not Jan. 2001 n/t

or 2000 - tho technically, 01 would be the new "new."

[workinclasszero]

11. I'm so glad we are leaving the Reagan era behind

The future belongs to us and Obama!

[abumbyanyothername]

18. It's not just voting

Many of these young voters donated money and time to this campaign.

That will be a pattern that endures for life too.

Imagaine Barack's army of volunteers X 5 or 6.

[TripleKatPad]

12. My age: 2.88888888 times 18

But when I voted last Tuesday at approximately 7:45 am, I was renewed, a teenager again. Mentally wore my 1970-something American flag bell-bottoms all day.

[tritsofme]

13. Nature and politics abhor a vaccum.

Their will always be a powerful opposition party in our system.

[RainDog]

14. that map looks a lot like Reagan's victories

among the general public. I'd say that Reagan had a pretty good run - and over the last 16 years, the hard right has pushed against the majority for a while. I think we're getting the reaction - they're zooming away from the sources of political power at light speed.

I don't think we have as many racists in the nation now as we did immediately after the civil war, and I bet we'll have fewer in the coming years - or fewer who feel that it is okay to take this position - which is, again, political neutering.

there's plenty of opposition WITHIN the democratic party to fill that vacuum. The republicans have to go through a purge or a split - my bet is the libertarians will get a lot of fiscal conservatives while the republican party will continue to move right, racist and populist. we'll see. just my guess.

[Laura PourMeADrink]

15. 18-29 year olds in Alabama went to Obama? Yikes ! After living

there, I can't believe it. Unless most came from the colleges. I bet in the bright red states the 18-29
year olds were the smallest portion of the electorate.

[Laura PourMeADrink]

16. I was wrong - just looked it up - 18-29 yr olds comprised 22%

of the electorate (compared to 20% in California, for instance).

The interesting part is that they had to be almost all African American youth who turned out -- since the
split for votes by race was:

White 85% for McCain
10% Obama

Not much racial harmony here, huh.

Exit polls by state:
http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2008/results/polls/#val=ALP00p1

[RainDog]

19. it's sad, isn't it?

I honestly do not understand the south anymore. I'm from the south and, as I've said here before, I refused to live there when my kids were younger (when my ex was looking for jobs in diff. parts of the country) because I did not want my children to be exposed to southern "culture." I know it's not just the south, but that's racism I know about and refused to be a part of it.

I have to start applying for jobs again - I just finished a master's program - and so far I have simply not even applied for jobs in some states. I do not want to live in certain environments - and there are lots of people like me. Richard Florida wrote about this phenomena - growth and economic health in areas of the country (at the city level) that are multi-ethnic, not homophobic, culturally open - those are the places that attract job seekers, that build on this educated base for OTHER jobs... and this is one big reason that many parts of the south, esp. the deep south, are not places where businesses want to locate or where professionals want to work.