Eating our young

Posted by Marc Hodak on July 29, 2007 under Invisible trade-offs | 2 Comments to Read

The Daily Dish picks up on a new study from Democracy Corps that purports to find a collapse of support for the GOP among young people.

Money quote:

Young people react with hostility to the Republicans on almost every measure and Republicans and younger voters disagree on almost every major issue of the day. The range of the issue disagreements range from the most prominent issues of the day (Iraq, immigration) to burning social issues (gay marriage, abortion) to fundamental ideological disagreements over the size and scope of government. This leaves both potential Democratic nominees with substantial leads over Rudy Giuliani, but importantly, both Democrats still have room to grow their support among younger voters. The current problems with the Republican brand are not fully reflected in young people’s preferences for President.

Notwithstanding the source (an ultra-liberal think tank), any approximation of this result can only be characterized as pathological incompetence on the part of the GOP. W had the perfect issue to turn this younger generation against the Democrats–Social Security, or, as I like to call it, the wholesale plundering of our youth by today’s older voters. He blew it.

I’m sure this generation now coming of age will one day look back on the growth of government in the first couple of decades this century (especially if we get the kind of president that Democracy Corps wants), and wonder how their parents/grandparents who professed to care about them so much could have stiffed them so badly.

(HT: ProfessorBainbridge.com)