Exit poll data shows that Obama does consistently better among the youth vote regardless of race, class, or gender. In Indiana, which Clinton won by a scant two points, Obama won among voters aged 17-29 by a 22-point margin. Clinton won among white voters as a whole by 18 points, but lost under-30 white voters 54-46. The MSNBC poll does not break down age by gender, and there are frequently not enough black and Latino voters to register representative samples. In Texas, Obama nearly broke even with Latino voters under-30 while losing the overall Latino vote handily, though in California his results were similar through all age brackets.
Likewise, Clinton has been sweeping up the over-65 vote by large margins in virtually every state. In Indiana, she won this group by 40 points, and it rarely breaks less. In North Carolina, she lost the overall vote by 15, but still carried the loyal elderly 57-41.
This data may indeed seem academic to some, but in the world of cross tabulation exercises, these splits pretty much assure that there is something significant happening here. I believe the media is treating this issue tenderly because they know that it's impossible to get it "right" from the marketing/advertising perspective. If you are a newscaster/host you know that the tried and true 65 and over demographic is a core base of you paycheck, but yet that ever alluring 18-29 crowd is calling your name... Is it possible to draw them into the "system" whereby they can tune in every Sunday morning (if they can get their lazy asses up) to watch some talking heads (some are bigger than others) blabber on about the talking points? Who do you alienate? The obvious business choice is neither, by ignoring the issue.
Generational change and conflict is at the crux of the American (and probably all) civilization. The young rebel against the old, seeking to simultaneously react and revolt against the wrongs perpetuated by their elders. The significant thing about the current revolt is that the young folks seem to be more directly engaged in the process than in the past, and are willing to exert their power through the more traditional means of organizing and voting. This is both inspiring and depressing at the same time, as one sees hope in the engaged young population and yet we are left to decry the days gone by of less conventional means of change (i.e. real protests). Of course, the extreme adversarialism promoted by the Boomers against their parents didn't exactly work out well. The one thing that I am confident in is that the Obama campaign has mobilized the young folks in a way that most political scientists would have not thought possible. So, to those in the Boomer cohort, I suggest you prepare to give up some of that influence...
Whether or not one sees Obama as an agent of genuine change, he is nonetheless an avatar for the battle between aging Boomers clinging to one more banzai run at saving their legacy and post Gen-Xers staking their own claims to a vision of which direction the country should go.Well said, my friend, well said.
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