The campaign of Barack Hussein Obama in 2008 ran on a brilliant appeal to youth voters. They used music and other forms of popular culture to mobilize young voters to vote. Too many Conservatism have dismissed this as a fad or not permanent. This is a dangerous idea because abandoning young voters could lead to a hardening of their apolitical views. The irony of of course is that this wasn’t always the case. In the 1980’s Ronald Reagan won the youth vote and this help cement a large segment of the population into the Republican Party for the next 20 years. Then in the 1990’2 the Republicans decided that family values and culture wars were the way to go, abandoning their economic conservatism. The result was that by the 2000’s. young voters were solidly in the Democratic camp. Obama is now trying to cement these voters to the Democratic party.
Early last month, President Obama addressed 1,000 people at Penn State about his ideas for reviving the country’s economy. A couple of weeks later, he delivered a similar address to about 100 small-business owners at Cleveland State University.
But it was what Obama did offstage and away from the news cameras at the schools, before groups of about a dozen at a time, that was perhaps more important to his campaign for reelection.
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“We are so interested in figuring out how to get your ideas, your input, your energy,” Obama told a group of student leaders from Cleveland State and nearby schools. He shook each participant’s hand and posed for a group photo
Read the rest: White House seeks to re-connect to young voters
Unemployment among young people is at historic levels. There should be no way Obama should even appeal to these voters, yet he is trying. The only reason the he even has an opportunity to win them again is because the GOP doesn’t fight for the youth vote. Conservatives have a tendency to mock young people, insult the music they like or criticize how they dress. This condensing attitude is why Progressive propaganda calling the right hateful works. Obama on the other hand uses youth culture to appeal to them. It workls becasue he doesn’t criticize the young and
The Republicans since Papa Bush and even to this day, have engaged in this culture war and family values nonsense that really turns young people off. The youth don’t want to be lectures, they want to hear how policies can improve their opportunities. The Tea Party was a good opening to win back the youth, but the Culture warriors hijacked it (people like Angle, O’Donnell and Buck) and turned off many Libertarian leaning youth. It’s almost as if Conservatives hate the young. This makes the youth receptive to lies about the Right. Running lame candidates like George HW Bush, Bob Dole, George W. Bush and John McCain has cemented the idea the Republican party as a bunch of old grumps.
Obama’s policies are anti-youth. It is burdening future generations with debt and has accelerating America’s decades old economic stagnation. This should be the opening Conservatives shoulduse to win young voters over. We should address young voters economic concerns and give them hope for a better tomorrow. Insulting what music they listen to will not win them and could harden their views. Ronald Reagan made being a Conservative cool among the young in the 1980’s, we can do it again. Conservatism should adpat to the times, not fight against it. Reagan proved ity can be done.
