I want my MTV (NYT poll)

Posted June 27, 2007 - 4:41pm by Joseph Knippenberg

This NYT article describes the findings of this poll. We learn, shockingly, that young people lean liberal, as (apparently) they almost always have, at least for the past half century.

I doubt we can predict anything about their future political behavior from this. And I’m not even sure that, given their general participation rates and the difficulty of mobilizing them, their predilections will make a big difference in 2008.

What we don’t from the article is that, for the most part, there’s not an appreciable difference between the views of those folks and the general population. And we certainly don’t learn that they’re slightly less pro-abortion than is the population as a whole and that, however tolerant and supportive of same-sex marriage and civil unions they are, they’re overwhelmingly unlikely to vote for a gay or lesbian presidential candidate.

Hat tip: Acton's Anthony Bradley.

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Comments

One ray of light

by Michael Dunaway - 06/27/2007 - 9:12pm

Uncanny timing, J-Knip-- I just got finished reading Dean Barnett's analysis of this article on Hewitt's site (http://hughhewitt.townhall.com/g/47ed02e9-673a-4c52-9068-df28e810c946). He largely concurs with your analysis, although he does point out that the most shocking result, by far, is that when asked whether the war in Iraq has made us more safe from terrorism, the students leaned much more heavily towards "yes" than towards "no." And this in the face of a constant MSM drumbeat about the abject failure of the war.

And of course, Nagourney makes that the lead of his story in the Times. Oh, wait...

I stand corrected

by Joseph Knippenberg - 06/28/2007 - 8:56am

You're right, though the question was worded oddly, as were some of the others.

Joe Knippenberg

The question you were

by Dustin Kidd - 06/28/2007 - 9:37am

The question you were alluding to is the more interesting question and should have been asked. Their perceptions of the people they know (whoever that is--peers? colleagues? parents?) could easily be wrong.

Dustin Kidd

Dustin Kidd

I'm not sure why the NYT

by Will Hinton - 06/28/2007 - 8:14am

I'm not sure why the NYT thinks that this is news. I have been reading reports like this for 20-25 years.

There are two major things that balance the left-ward leanings of youth: apathy and growing up. (please do not read into this that I mean that those on the left are immature; only that oftentimes people's opinions and views change as they grow older, sometimes more conservative, sometimes more liberal, but probably more conservative for varying reasons....I guess I've opened up a can of worms here. :) ).

This idea that campaigns are filled with young volunteers is a fallacy. Years ago, I trained to organize youth for campaigns. I went through two training schools and worked on paid staff for about 3 campaigns specifically to recruit and organize youth. Talk about pulling teeth. And this was not a partisan phenomena; our opponents had the same experience. The average 20-something would rather hang with their friends on the weekends, seeing bands and drinking beer than go stuff envelopes and canvassing neighborhoods.

Most successful campaigns rely on retirees.

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