Saturday, October 25, 2008

Millennials Go A-Voting

Warning. This is not a posting about the media. But I can't seem to find a venue to post this hypothesis. 

I've been hunting around the web (because everything must be on the web!) about the impact of the millennial generation on this year's presidential election. The boomlet peaked in 1990 - and I believe the arithmetic means over 4 million 18 year olds could potentially head to the polls this year? And that's not counting the millennials who were born before 1990, the 19, 20, and 21 year olds who are also first time voters. 

WHO CARES? 

I would suppose Barack Obama's campaign does. Doesn't he have super smart people working for him who think about this stuff?  When the kids do elect to exercise the franchise, they tend to vote Democratic. A couple political scientists have written a book about it - check it out. And some brains at USA Today broke down the demographics in a recent article that has nothing to do with the coming of age of the current boomlet and their impact on this election.

It seems this is like a perfect storm for Barack Obama's campaign: the convergence of not only an unpopular president, but of the GOP; bad economy, scratch that, make it depressingly grim economy; and a swell of first time voters who can't remember a life without Internet access, a computer, and the dull memory of a Facebook-less existence. Combine that with the Internet-savvy Obama campaign, and all Barack needs to do is get a good interior designer for his new digs.  

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

You're absolutely right about the numbers. My generation (I was born in 1990) is really getting out there and pushing others to vote.
I love it, just because everyone's getting their voices heard. I think we're the biggest generation the US has had so far--which gives us a lot of power--I just hope we use it for good....

Anonymous said...

Obama has certainly changed the way political campaigns are run, and I agree--it will be very interesting to see how other campaigns follow.

To touch on your other question:
I think a lot of my generation was originally just along for the ride, but as the campaigns moved on, they realized what they wanted our government to do. Now, I can't say we're all experts (we are far from them) but I think my generation is very politically aware, and understands changes need to be made from the inside out.
Honestly, I think many of us will be involved in the political process for the rest of our lives! (I hope.) It's not just me who feels this way, people who I never thought in a million years could care about politics are talking about the issues, and what we need to do to get out of this mess.
Sure, we're still new to some aspects of the entire process, but hey-- I think we'll learn quickly.
:D
I'm so excited to see what the future holds!