January 26, 2004
CONSTRICT THE FRANCHISE:
Survey: Freshmen more political — and more conservative (Greg Toppo, 1/25/04, USA TODAY)
After 35 years of decline, political interest among young people is on the rise, a wide-ranging survey of U.S. college freshmen finds. [...]In the newest edition, released today, 34% of freshmen surveyed last fall say it's important to keep up with politics, continuing a three-year uptick that began just months after the Florida recount and weeks before the Sept. 11 attacks.
Still, modern kids' political engagement pales next to that of the freshmen class of 1966, the survey's first subjects, 60% of whom said it was "essential or very important" to keep up with politics.
Since then, the survey shows, students' political views also have shifted to the right. Liberals still outnumber conservatives, but just barely: 24% say they hold liberal political views; 21% call themselves conservatives.
The percentage of liberals has nose-dived from its high of 38% in 1971. The percentage of conservative students, as low as 14% after Richard Nixon's second presidential inauguration in 1973, has hovered near the 20% mark since 1981 and Ronald Reagan's first term. Then, as now, the largest group by far remained students who call their their political views "middle-of-the-road."
The unnaturalness of being a conservative at such an age is reason enough to repeal the vote for 18 year olds. Posted by Orrin Judd at January 26, 2004 12:59 PM
I think the decline since 1966 can be explained by one fact. We had the draft in 1966.
Posted by: Robert D at January 26, 2004 01:15 PMHEY! I resembled that remark! Voted RR in '80. But I was pro-choice.
Posted by: Sandy P. at January 26, 2004 01:40 PMIt's a more repulsive America that these kids are growing up in. They've had a lifetime of garbage thrown at them by the time they hit junior year of highschool. Perhaps that bombardment is what really isn't natural.
Posted by: Matt C at January 26, 2004 05:27 PMIt's also the nature of the threat they were confronted with in their teen years. The rationale in part for the liberalism in the 1960s -- at least for young men was "We don't want to go to Vietnam and die, when that corner of the world means little to us." Scroll forward to post 9/11, and to maintain a liberal stance means "We know we may be killed here by foregin terrorists, but we don't want to do anything about it."
So liberalism today asks for far less self-preservation on the part of those who support it, to the point of in some cases living in a fantasy land of "We deserved it" thinking. Hard to see how that type of world view could appeal to many teenagers out there, who'd prefer not to spend the rest of their lives fearing a terrorist attack every time they go mall hopping.
Posted by: John at January 26, 2004 09:06 PMC'mon Orrin -- haven't you claimed to have been a conservative since childhood? I think I've been conservative -- or at least been of the opinion that liberals are goofy -- since about the age of 12. It can't be THAT unnatural.
Posted by: Matt at January 26, 2004 10:35 PMI said I was conservative, not that I was natural.
Posted by: oj at January 27, 2004 12:01 AMIf you are a College Freshman all of the authority figures around you (i.e. the Faculty) are LLL. What can you do that will really be rebellious and really upset the authority figures?
That's right: be conservative, it annoys the hell out of them.
QED
Posted by: Robert Schwartz at January 27, 2004 02:00 AMMatt:
Orrin didn't have a childhood. He was born forty years old with a perfect recall of everything the Founders ever wrote.
Posted by: Peter B at January 27, 2004 04:07 PM