Voter’s Remorse: Dissatisfaction with Obama is growing in Young Voters
By Krystle Weeks | Friday, February 26th, 2010 | Catch-AllIn 2008, Barack Obama was winning the hearts of young voters across the country as he was seeking the Presidency. Why? He was young, charismatic, and he offered change. Take for example, my sister who will be graduating from college this spring. She thought Obama would open the doors for more employment opportunities and bring change to our economic situation. Fast forward to 2010, where many of these young voters, including my sister are having problems seeking employment during troubled economic times. There seems to be a great dissent for the direction our country is headed in now that Barack Obama is President.
Recently, a friend forwarded me an article from WMAL about the growing dissatisfaction among many young voters. The enthusiasm is gone for the most part. In the WMAL article, a recent Pew Research Poll mentioned some interesting facts.
A year after backing Barack Obama by an overwhelming 2-to-1 ratio, young adults are quickly cooling toward Democrats amid dissatisfaction over the lack of change in Washington and an escalating war in Afghanistan.
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The findings are significant because they offer further proof that the diverse coalition of voters Obama cobbled together in 2008 including high numbers of first-timers, minorities and youths are not Democratic Party voters who can necessarily be counted on.While young adults remain decidedly more liberal, the survey found the Democratic advantage among 18-to-29 year olds has substantially narrowed from a record 62 percent identifying as Democrat vs. 30 percent for the GOP in 2008, down to 54 percent vs. 40 percent last December. It was the largest percentage point jump in those who identified or leaned Republican among all the voting age groups.
Could it be voter’s remorse? My sister confessed during a recent visit that she was extremely dissatisfied with President Obama due to the fact that she is having problems finding a job in the human services field. She will graduate in May with greater anxiety than I did when I graduated college. Another interesting comment my sister made was her dissatisfaction with how both the White House and Congress have spent recklessly on a Stimulus bill that has not yielded any new opportunities that the bill originally intended.
If my sister and others had the opportunity to reverse their vote, I am pretty certain they might have voted differently in the end. The honeymoon is over for Obama with young voters.
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About the author
Growing up in Maryland typically does not yield a Republican. Fortunately, Krystle Weeks was one of the lucky few booted to the Commonwealth for her staunch conservative views. From an early age, she has been debating politics, and since 2006, she has been involved here in the Commonwealth helping Republican candidates to victory. Aside from politics, Krystle is a runner and a dynamite cook. You can email her here. Krystle also blogs at Crystal Clear Conservative and Charm Offensive Cooking.
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6 Responses to "Voter’s Remorse: Dissatisfaction with Obama is growing in Young Voters"
Krystal,
Thank You for bringing attention to this. I get the sense as well that young voters are turning against President Obama. He set the bar high when he was making lofty promises like free college.
Make sure not to interpret this to mean that the youth will suddenly vote for GOP candidates in droves. There are still many things that the republican party needs to do to secure the youth vote.
Ben:
That’s seems correct to me. There is disappointment among young voters because Obama has not been able to acheive what he promised. However, the GOP can’t be confident of getting those votes because young voters were generally IN FAVOR of what Obama promised and Republicans have set themselves in opposition to those policies. Republicans could benefit thought if a large number of the younger voters Obama turned out in 2008 return to apathy in 2012.
Folks, please…let’s not beat up the OP for saying something she did not say. It appears to me that she was not saying that Dem voters will shift to GOP; rather, a certain number of voters who voted Obama, would not have if they had known then, what they know now.
The quoted analysis of the Pew Poll are not the author’s words. They are an observation of the Pew Poll’s numbers. It does not explicitly say that voters will cross over to the GOP. Rather, it shows that the voters in the demographic mentioned who previously “identified” Dem have shown a 8 to 10 point shift towards GOP. Interpret that however you wish. I just see a shift “away” from the Dem party with regards to the way the 18-29 year old demographic identify themselves. It indicates leaning, not a party change.
Obama wanted more people to go to college. The problem is that when too many degrees flood the market, they lose their value to employers. The employers then raise the bar for job qualifications but without the commensurate pay. Yes, it takes a Bachelor’s to become what was once a secretary. However, now the college graduate has to pay off loans. Right now there are so many degrees flooding the market that employers will tend to hire those without them with the justification of low pay. Outside of fields where demand is going to grow (health care, for example, is a given), most degrees will only land graduates with a pile of debt.
Anebt wins the prize. Too many young phd’s, way too many BS & AS degrees go out while we as a country do not reward vocational skills training at the high school level with jobs. This is a cultural crisis folks. We are addicted to cheap stuff, lots of it, no matter where it is made. We want cheap, not made here, just more of it and the cheaper it is the more material goods we can go into debt over.
Our addiction to cheap is killing our future. Until you people turn the label over and demand Made In USA, this problem will not go away. I do weed out most of the time for made in the USA and I often pay more but I sleep well knowing I made the better choice for some young soul who got found work in America.
Talk is cheap, Buy AMERICAN! Our kids depend on it.
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