WTF is wrong with our young people??

[muriel_volestrangler]

63. in 1972, 18-29 year olds voted 52% Nixon, 46% McGovern

https://www.nytimes.com/elections/2008/results/president/national-exit-polls.html

Yeah, that was better than other age groups, but it's still a majority for Nixon.

We can look at the comparison of the margin for Nixon, in his re-election year, and that for Obama, in his re-election year, of the youth age group versus the overall vote. 18-29 year olds voted 52-46 for Nixon, and overall it was 61-36. So that's 19 points better than the overall vote (6 point margin v. 25 point). In 2012, it was 60-37 for Obama, v. 50-48 overall - 21 points better. Or, in electing the piece of crap in 2016, it was 55-36, v. 48-46 overall - 17 points better overall.

So, there's not much difference in the relative enthusiasm of youth for Democrats from 1972 to now. What's "wrong with them" is what's always been wrong - some of them are dumb reactionaries, or don't care. And that goes for all age groups.

More: Here's the figures for all intervening years. In 1984, the youth group voted for Reagan's re-election at the same rate as the whole country - 59% Reagan, 40% Mondale! WTF was "wrong with them"?

1972 1976 1980 1984 1988 1992 1996 2000 2004 2008 2012 2016
18-29 Democrat 46 51 44 40 47 43 53 48 54 66 60 55
Republican 52 47 43 59 52 34 34 46 45 32 37 36
Total Democrat 36 50 41 40 45 43 49 48 48 53 50 48
Republican 61 48 51 59 53 38 41 48 51 46 48 46
Diff 19 2 11 0 3 4 11 2 12 27 21 17

(can't format tables on DU3. The bottom line is "the bottom line" - the difference from the average for all age groups. In 1972 youth was 19 points higher for the Democrat, in 1976 2 points, and so on. The vote that was the biggest pro-Dem youth vote was 2008; 1984 the worst. In 1996, Clinton's re-election, it was only +2.)