Saturday, July 28, 2007

But will they vote?...

An interesting poll conducted on young people (18-29) and some stark results.
The problems with the Republican brand among young people run deeper than Bush.
Young people are often cynical about politics, but believe in government. By a 68 – 28 percent
margin, voters would rather have a bigger government providing more services over a smaller
government providing fewer services. Even Republican young people prefer a larger, more
generous government (57 – 40 percent for bigger government with more services).
Young people adopt views diametrically opposed from the Republican Party on issues
as diverse as the war, global warming, gay marriage and, to some extent, illegal immigration as well. In fact, there is not a single issue in this survey where younger voters line up with the
Republican Party. [More]
Perhaps those of us who believe in smaller government are the dinosaurs of our time.

[via Daily Dish]

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

John,

I wonder if some of this bias comes from the fact we have not had an effective voice for smaller government since the 70's & 80's when we had Reagan or Milton Friedman's "Freedom to Choose." Also, we are thirty years removed from the excesses of liberalism. It is hard for today's young adults to understand how bad it can be when looking back at this era, just like it is hard for us to understand how bad it was in the Great Depression or to be in Europe in WWII.

John Phipps said...

Anon:

Reagan's contribution to smaller government is debatable, but still a far cry from GWB. Still when I look at Europe, I see us (US) in a few decades.

The attitudes of those who follow seem to support this future.

Thanks for reading.

Anonymous said...

I continue to remend folks that for government to give you anything, it has to take it by force from someone else first. If we remembered that I would hope it would limit our expectations of government. But, I am probably one of your dinosaurs.