In 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.
