Hope for the future

August 7, 2006

As difficult as it may seem to believe, the Bush White House has long believed that its agenda would help create a powerful GOP block of young voters. According to the plan, 18-to-29-year-old voters would respond to the president’s vision of an “ownership society,” especially the privatization of Social Security.

It was always a rather far-fetched goal. In 2004, Bush beat John Kerry in every age group — except voters under the age of 30, who backed Kerry by a wide margin. According to a new national poll, young voters are even less impressed with the president now.

President George W. Bush’s hopes of attracting a new generation of voters to the Republican Party may be fading, as younger Americans are far more critical of his job performance than the broader population.

A Bloomberg/Los Angeles Times poll of Americans age 18 to 24 found Bush’s approval rating was 20 percent, with 53 percent disapproving and 28 percent with no opinion. That compares to a 40 percent approval rating among Americans of all ages in a separate Bloomberg/Times poll.

Much like Franklin Roosevelt attracted a new generation of voters with the New Deal, Bush and his administration have had high hopes of drawing younger voters to his party. He has sought to do that through policy initiatives aimed at creating an “ownership society,” and public relations tactics like a Youth Convention at the party’s 2004 national convention, in which his twin daughters took the stage.

The reasoning behind the president’s unpopularity isn’t a mystery — younger voters tend to be more socially progressive (and therefore don’t respond to Karl Rove’s campaign to motivate the far-right base) and they’re staunchly opposed to the war in Iraq (Rock the Vote’s political director said, “They feel like it’s their generation that’s been asked to sacrifice”).

There’s ample evidence that people’s approach to politics can change over time, so I’m not exactly counting on poll results like these to predict Dem dominance over the next decade or two, but it’s encouraging that Bush is almost single-handedly turning off an entire generation.

Hence, the war on the Daily Show and John Stewart. Believing that they are losing the youth vote because John Stewart skewers them four nights a week, the Republican’ts take every opportunity to complain that the Daily Show is turning students cynical about politics.

As if Politics under the Bushite era somehow don’t deserve to be viewed cynically? 😉

  • No surprise really:

    Bush Flunks on College Aid:

    “President Bush promised in last fall’s campaign to expand the key federal program for helping low-income and working-class Americans pay for a college education. Here’s how he has fulfilled the vow: He’s cutting grants for 1.3 million students and dropping 90,000 from assistance entirely.”, etc.

  • How popular would the Bush crime family and the Republican’ts be if there were a draft for the military?

  • A simple description of the GOP’s approach under Bush II would be “eating the seed corn.” In venue after venue, you see a recklessly profligate use of limited resources that will be needed later, generally for little return. Whether it’s the lives of soldiers thrown away in an ill-conceived and poorly executed war, the entire financial position of the nation sacrificed for tax cuts aimed at the wealthy, the integrity of scientific institutions undermined in an attempt to appeal to religious know-nothings, the good name of the country internationally dragged through the dirt, or the contemptuous destruction of the Bill of Rights in order to save face for the Dauphin, we see over and over this idea that anything is fodder for the short-term gain of the President’s party.

    So it’s not a surprise that they take the same slash-and-burn approach to politics. Bush bought himself a second term, but the price may be that the GOP will be discredited for a generation. Karma lives.

  • As I recall back in college, you could always tell the Young Republicans: they were the morons too moronic to know they were morons. Who wants to be that obviously uncool???

  • He might get some respect if he sent the twins to Iraq, in uniform, as grunts in a combat unit. The same with the neocons and chickenhawks.

  • This also reminds me of an article in the New York Times business section yesterday about how difficult it is becoming for investment banks to find new hiressince poeple in the target age group care more about balanced lifestyles than money–which undermines a key pillar of the appeal of Republicanism.

  • It is good the see the younger folks getting it. I myself was a Republican in the late 80’s and early 90’s (end of high school to end of college). But being a Repub in MA is DRAMATICALLY different than being one elsewhere in the US. In fact, moving to St. Louis in ’94 is what cured me of the GOP disease. I would also like to blame the rebeliousness of youth for my past Republican indiscretions.

  • “…younger voters tend to be more socially progressive…” -CB

    Not just that, but I thnk it’s mostly that teens and twentysomethings have realized the mess the current residents in Washington are making of their future and THEIR kids’ future.

  • this is funny in the strange way. i was just thinking how i can’t imagine anyone looking back on the years 2000-2006 as the “good ole days,” unless of course we do become a dictatorship after bush sets aside the election results in november.

  • Now, if we could just find a way to get the little bastards to get up off their asses and go to the polls . . . .

  • W HO CARES? They don’t vote. And by the time they’re old enough to realize they should vote, they’ve changed.

  • It’s ordinarily the case that younger people tend to be more idealistic than older people, but it’s hard to be idealistic about personal and corporate greed, wreckless and self-serving military crusades, a whopping increase in the national debt, cuts in school funding of all kinds, a deaf ear toward the poor and a calculating eye toward environmental resources … i.e., al the Republican “values”.

  • The big news here is the stealth rise in Bush’s approval ratings, now hovering at 40%. Check this out:

    http://www.pollingreport.com/BushJob.htm

    There’s probably a natural law that in the absence of a constant battering from fresh, new scandals, Bush’s approval ratings rise toward the 50% level.

    This does not augur well for the Democrats in November. A few more points for Bush and it’s a Republican sweep. Imagine what it will be like if the Republicans actually come out relatively unscathed after the pummeling Bush has taken in the past two years. And what’s going to stop it from happening? Certainly not the Democrats. Mum’s the word with them.

  • I find it Extremely depressing that fully 1/5 of the upcoming generation suffers from severe mental retardation.

  • actually, hark, you’ve put your finger on a very real lurking danger. the media has so built up the odds of Democratic gains of significant magnitude that if the R’s come out ok it will look like (a) miracle work by the Rs and (b) a crushing defeat for progressives. not to put on the tin foil hat, but the spin machine is laying a huge trap for us. . .

  • “If you aren’t liberal at 18, you have no heart If you aren’t conservative by 35 you have no intelligence” – Winston Churchill

    I might have gotten the quote not quite right, but it seemed aprapos.

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