Why do 54% of the UNDER-30 voters support Bush ?

[eyeswideopened]

This is being reported on CNN.

The interesting thing is both of my college age kids lean toward Bush. They think he saved us during 911 and for this reason they support him. They know I am not for Bush getting another term but they still see him as a hero.

[leyton]

1. Tax cuts?

Young people don't have a lot of money, and they may like his tax cuts. (As a young person, I'm pissed about them, because eventually I will be footing the bill for the programs of Reagan, Bush, and Bush.)

[BayCityProgressive]

2. I am a college student

and I hate his guts. People my age and younger are not educated very well in government and don't know what the president does and doesn't do. Most government classes in highschool and even college are a complete joke. Also, kids don't watch the news much and since the media is so right wing, if you only catch it once or twice a week you are likely to see something pro Bush. Bush didn't save us from 9/11 he allowed it to happen, and then destoryed our constitutional rights afterwards, he is a traitor.

[dennis4868]

3. The same reason alot of other people support the idiot....

they are not well informed...thanks to the so-called "liberal" media of course. If the media did its job before the Iraqi war and questioned Bush and the intelligence community about the evidence and reasons for war we would not be in theis mess now. If the media would truly investigate why 911 really happened and how Bush did NOTHING to try and prevent 911 people would think differently of Bush. If the media would simply do its damn job the whole country would be demanding impeachment hearings.....

[lancdem]

4. I think you put your finger on it

However, is this job approval or re-elect? There's a difference; one doesn't necessarily translate into the other. BTW, if this is job approval, it's a major improvement over a Drudge story in the last week that said 62 percent of 18-29-year-olds approved of Bush's performance. Also, since his rating in the last CNN poll was 53 percent, that's about the same as his overall rating then.

Edit: Younger people also were more likely to be gung-ho about the Iraq war.

[cprise]

5. Because there's nothing in effect like, say, a draft

...that would cause these Ambercrombie punks to re-evaluate themselves.

They want Bush as a proxy for their selfishness.

[Cappadonna]

26. Yeah, the difference is just listening to NWA and growing up in Compton:

Basically, the surburbanite whitebread crowd my age raised on MTV, Video games and Rambo flicks, have no sense of what massive, hysterical widespread violence can do. Of course they are going to support this war, they're too stupid and sheltered to know otherwise.


Give the same question to alot of kids and 20-somethings in the inner city, and they know the score. Its basically a rich white guy using his guns and money to rip-off a bunch of brown people for their natural resources and inherent wealth. Living the pre-Clinton inner city of the Reagan era, they also have an idea of what happens in a real gunfight-- people die. Seeing their own relatives behind bars on total BS charges while real crooks run free (Poindexter, Negroponte and just about everyone in the Bush empire.), they're probably alot less keen on the enemy combatant schtick that Smirkco cooked up. Many kids in the ghetto are duped, but put the war in terms they understand, you have a moment of true clarity.


In essence, Democrats will do better and always do better in the ghettoes. The most anti-war candidate is going to resonate with poor Black, Latino and work-class white families whose relatives are getting blown to bits because Haliburton and the Carlyle Group want to build a pipeline. Yeah, inner city schools suck and most of my former HS classmates may not know what "imperialism" means, but they have more sense of what a right wing prick Bush is than plenty of upper-middle class, shallow Ivy League educated brats I went to college with.

[Jacobin]

6. I think its because they get their sound bytes from CNN and Faux

and nothing more need be said about that. Obviously, 24/7 Dems are demented, lying peaceniks who want to give the country to the terrorists, whereas Smirky is a fighter pilot loved by all freedom seeking Murkins.

They also didn't experience Vietnam and Watergate, to see what happens when the military industrial complex completely grabs the government by the throat, which is what is happening now.

[gulliver]

7. They don't know any better.

Bush is flim-flam, a plastic product. Don't expect anyone who hasn't bought siding to see through Bush easily.

[WhoCountsTheVotes]

8. because all they have ever seen in Dems acting like Republicans

if you have a choice between GOP or GOP-Lite...

[kentuck]

9. Because they have been brought up in an era of right-wing propaganda

Unlike no time in my memory. It's almost a cult-type thinking.

[lancdem]

11. It's very depressing

:(

[SoCalDem]

10. Because they have only known a rising stock market, lots of jobs,

and they have remained upwardly mobile ..ON CREDIT (largely)..

They were not old enough to know the shitstorm that was "The Reagan Years"... In school they were taught that St Ronald of Raygun, singlehandedly "won the cold war"... They watched a two term president assassinated (verbally), and no one stopped it , so it "must" have been true..

They have grown up with right wing media, (the GOP madrassa system), so what else would they think??

It has to hit THEM where it hurts..the pocketbook.. before they will wake up and smell the latte...

[Devlzown]

12. I've noticed that too.

When I've had conversations about politics with people in that age group, they seem to be either conservative Republicans or libertarians. I live in the South, so I kind of take that kind of thing for granted, but maybe this is a national trend. It wouldn't surprise me, when you consider how much the media glorifies the shrub. They just don't hear anything critical.

[bearfartinthewoods]

13. because 56% of under 30 are pubbies or pubbie leaning

[magatte]

14. "He saved us during 9/11..."

Please, someone, out there, please help me regain my faith in humankind. It's been very hard to do this past week...
Fuck democracy. Really.
Get rich, pay low taxes. Live you life happy. Fuck the rest of the world. If they are happy with their lot, why should I be sad?

[indepat]

15. They are mostly ignorant as to the issues and have been blinded

by the right as have some of my grandsons, whom I would venture, have good prospects of being sent off to pre-emptive war(s) on foreign soil?

[eissa]

16. Style over substance

Standing with a bullhorn for a photo-op near the WTC, or saying "bring it on" to terrorists appeals to them. Kickbacks to Halliburton, a deficit their grandchildren will be stuck with, appointing extreme rw judges, alienating us from the world are not issues that affect them right now.

[StClone]

17. Machismo and simple thinking

They have a USA myopic view on things and like thinking the country has the same attitude and energy as they to expend being tough, cool and 'mean'

[Indiana_Dem]

18. Heck I don;t know why they do---parents???

All my daughter hears in this house is about the primary candidates and how we criticize this administration (she's 16). She always asks us why we don't like Bush. She says she doesn't understand it because all her friends and their parents like Bush. She went to stand at the polls last November during election time,likely just to get out of school--and she said her friends asked her what party her family is for and she said she was too embarrassed to say Democrat because they were putting down all the Democrats. Then she made a remark about how all the local Democrats (we're from a county of 30,000 in Indiana) looked so shabby compared to the Republicans. I just about came unglued because I didn't raise her that way!!!!!:mad: I think it's peer pressure and I just told her she'd understand when she got a little older.......boy it made me upset!!!

[Iverson]

19. cutbacks in public education

There may be other factors too.

[populistmom]

44. Bingo!!! (however, I'm 31, always a Democrat) nt

[Edge]

20. That's a good question.

I'm 21, and most people I know under 30 can't stand Bush! The people on my campus especially hate Bush! I don't know what CNN is smoking, but they need to put it out quick.

[creativelcro]

21. In part because they don't remember the Poppy Bush years

or the Reagan years...

[kentuck]

22. Another reason Wes Clark's message is so important...

Clark clearly states that 'Bush did not do everything he could do to protect our country on 9/11'...The media does not pursue that subject because the truth is something some people may not be able to handle.

[Cheswick2.0]

23. bad upbringing?

Just kidding! :7

But think about the cultural influences. Kids don't get any information except what is on talk radio and Fox news. Teachers are afraid to tell students what they personally believe and parents even seem to wimp out when it comes to influencing their kid's thinking. Please tell your kids why they are wrong. It works, I had to do it with my oldest. What the heck are we for if not to influence the next generation? Do we really want to leave it up to Rush and O'Reilly?

[arewethereyet]

24. its simple, taxes

they have student loans to be paid, they want a cooler car, a down payment on a house and to generally start a good life and all that takes money of which they're only just starting to make some.

Think back to your first paycheck. Was it a surprize when it didn't come out to rate X hours ?

Think it doesn't matter ? Think again.

[progressivebydesign]

25. Because roughly half of America voters are republicans...

and these are their children. They grew up with Faux News. And things like CHannel One are beamed into classrooms now. It's just remnants of the affluency that Clinton afforded them... once Bush's legacy is felt, it'll switch back.

[Indiana_Dem]

28. I'm afraid Bush's legacy will be made to look like

it's the Democrat's fault in years to come if we get back in and then incur the damage that is being put upon us now...

[SaintLouisBlues]

34. 70 percent of their fathers vote republican if they are white

Maybe a higher percentage amoung white guys with kids.

[felonious thunk]

27. The key word is "Voters"

This is about a poll done of people under 30 that are likely to vote. Politically active ones, just like the rest of the population, skew conservative. Keep in mind how horribly low turnout rates are for people under 30, we're talking under 25%. So, if the question is do I believe half of that 25% (i.e., 13% of the total population under 30 is pro-Bush) then yes, I believe it.

The other 75% that don't bother voting tend to lean more liberal, and usually don't vote due to apathy. They are so worn out by what they see as the meaninglessness of their votes, they don't bother. In that group, you might find a mix of economic conservatives, but you're not going to find social conservatives.

So fear not, this is media spin. You're talking about 13% of the under 30 crowd that is behind Bush. 12% aren't and 75% don't care. If we can convince some of that 75% to vote, these numbers will change significantly.

[Cappadonna]

30. Yeah, too many in my generation thinks its about bitching and protesting..

....which, of course, is only half the struggle. You can throw on your army fatigues, play your bongos and scream "Free Mumia" until you vocal cords rip. If the politicians who write the laws don't listen, then you words don't mean jack. I learned that by working for local politicians.

More than losing campaign dollars, politicians (at least the career ones like Clinton, Lieberman and even Tom Delay) fear a mass of pissed everyday people voting for the other guy. Seeing as only 45-51% of Americans vote, it don't take alot of people to shift this countries fate. Why the hell do you think Gore even cared about the Nader run?


So that's part of the reason I am mulling a run for local office. It means giving up a mundane but fairly decent job which is actually helping my career as a systems engineer and putting alot of stress on me. But, so long as I sit around and do nothing, bastards like Smirk will continue to run our country and the planet to the ground.

I'm young, fairly well educated, straight and I'm not ugly. And most of all, I'm not some corrupt political careerist who needs to lie to people to stay employed. I'm a mid-level phone support technician at a succesful mid-size webhost. Its not a glamourous job, but its okay and stable. I'm pursuing two masters degrees in Computer Science and Industrial engineering, which will hopefully lead to a doctorate or a JD. IOW, I make more money in the long run staying far away from politics and pursuing my career path to becoming a CTO or proffessor of information science. WTF do I care about a paltry government salary? I'm running because I believe in democracy, not because I need a job.

This not to toot my own horn, this is to make a point. In order to get young people (or just regular people in general) to start voting we have to stop having the same old over-educated smooth talking, middle aged white guys running the show. This is why so many people support Dean Clark and Edwards. These guys have real jobs outside of politics, they're not careerists like Joe Lieberman who hasn't had a non-government job since Billy Jean King whooped Bobby Riggs' ass at the Astrodome. If push came to shove, Dean could aways go back to medicine, Edwards could just live off his trial lawyer winnings and Clark could just live out his retirement as a guest lecturer on military history. In theory, this is also why Bush wooed so many-- on face value ( for the uniformed) he was a businessman who has no real interest in politics. Its complete bat guano, but it worked.

We want government for the people, then 'people' have to run it.

- Cappa

[GreenArrow]

29. selfishness.

Spoiled. They don't know how to think. Ignorance.

[redqueen]

31. Why do 99% of people (esp. liberals) give a damn what polls say?

What would the polling have been against ending Jim Crow?

What would Democrats do now, about it, given that we govern by poll now?

Honestly.

[mohc]

32. The keyword.....voters

One of the cornerstones of the Democratic party over the years has been liberal youth. But more and more, they simply are not turning out to vote. Conservative youth vote religiously, and I mean that literally as well. This is one of the big arguments for someone like Dean, his ability to excite young voters could help us quite a bit. But whoever the nominee is, we need to start reversing the trend. Most of the people my age (I'm 26) that I know do not like Bush, and while not as liberal as I am, their views are definitely left leaning. And I am the only one of them that votes.

[Indiana Democrat]

33. 9-11 woke America up from her sleep.

Soccer doesn't matter as much as Security. 9-11 drove that home.

[JVS]

35. Harsh authoritarianism resonates in the hearts of America's youth!

If the Democrats win this election and don't start ruling with an Iron Fist, they will lose the youth vote forever ;-)

On edit: I could continue to argue this as a devil's advocate if you wish.

[spooky3]

36. they haven't had enough experience to see how often

institutions (such as the media) and people they should be able to trust (such as the pResident and his friends), will lie to them. Without this, they haven't learned how to discern lies very well, not that any of us are perfect at it. So they will be too trusting or too cynical (once betrayed, believes everyone is lying and corrupt).

[Monte Carlo]

37. These people have NO memory of Vietnam...

... it is just stories in history books. I myself barely remember Communism. I blame the Baby-Boomer generation.

[qanda]

38. It's called....

The dumbing down of America.

[Terwilliger]

39. you answered your own question

the youth of today are conditioned to believe what they see on their TV screens...woe for the republic when the young can't actively question what they're being told

[Iverson]

42. let's have a chorus

(organ music)

Panem et circem got ahold of my soul.
Panem et circem got ahold of my soul.
Gonna take me to the river, gonna wash it to the sea.
Panem et circem for me.

(sustained chord)

[VOX]

40. Most of them are aware of only 8 years of Democratic leadership...

And those years were lived under the assault of the right wing.

The only Democratic president they've experienced has been Clinton. (Either they were too young to be conscious of Carter, or they weren't around yet.)

And those young minds have been told over and over by the RW media that Clinton is this, that, etc.

[dawn]

41. How scary. I'm 33 and I've never been a Repug.

And I come from a very Republican, upper-middle class suburban white family. My younger brother is even more left-leaning than I am.

I sometimes think it goes both ways. Growing up with Republican parents made me see the hypocrisy of the right wing. And while my parents have always been frugal, and never judged others based on how much money they had, many of our neighbors were like that. Yuck. It turned my stomach to hear some of the things they'd say.

That said, it's true that most younger people don't watch too much news or even care to. They just support whoever is in office.

[K8-EEE]

43. Because They're Stupid?

Same as Fox News viewers supporting Bush?

[poskonig]

45. 911 and Democratic praise of Bush.

*Some*, and I mean *some* with emphasis, don't pay attention to politics that often. The percentage of people who support Bush is a similar number, i.e., around 50. As Mr. Nader puts it, if you aren't turned on to politics, politics turns on you. And that is precisely what happened on 911.

People started paying attention to things briefly. Republicans praised Bush as a great leader, and Democrats praised Bush as a great leader for well over a year. I remember Gephardt and Lieberman talking Bush up in March on CNN when the Iraq war began.

So given that the Bush = great leader idea is well established, we have a lot of work ahead of us to undo the damage. Recent polling data fortunately is auspicious.

[I_like_chicken]

46. How accurate is this poll?

I think there is a huge problem with the media relying on polls for stories. Polls dont show shit, since they are incredibly inaccurate. Trying to understand the results from a poll is like reading tea-leaves, you can come up with a lot of good theories, yet none of them can be proven true. Polls can often have biases,in the form of how the question is asked. So before you can take a poll seriously, you first have to question the legitimacy of the poll. I wouldnt worry too much about a poll like this, I think as election day nears, people will start to pay attention to the canidates, and Bush will be exposed as the lying piece of shit that he is. I think its important for everyone to get the message out, that Bush is evil and must not be reelected. So dont worry about polls, instead worry about getting the message out to as many people as you can!!