The Myth of the Monolithic Youth Voter

In the aftermath of the 2008 election cycle, it was in great fashion to talk about the "youth vote” as a solid block. But GOP outreach efforts should understand that young voters mirror the same political divides as the electorate at large.

This week, at least one piece emerged whose subject matter ought to be of concern to every conservative - an unprecedented news story from Illinois detailing the rise of conservatism among young voters.  Along with its unconventional coverage of youthful conservatism, this piece included a highly provocative sidebar explaining that:

One issue where many young conservatives stray from the party line is gay rights--and particularly same-sex marriage… From a political standpoint, many young conservatives take the libertarian approach, supporting the extension of legal rights to same-sex couples without forcing religious communities to sanction something their members condemn.

It went on in the article proper:

For a generation entering the workforce under the worst economic conditions since the Great Depression, the conservative platform on jobs, economic opportunity and lower government taxing and spending is increasingly appealing.

Both of these assessments – on the issues of gay rights and fiscal conservatism – are entirely correct. Indeed, even Campus Progress, in a poll which has now been mysteriously removed from their website, discovered that while this generation as a whole runs substantially to the Left of previous ones on social issues, it also runs slightly to the Right of previous generations on economic issues, especially relating to trade/taxation. This suggests that a generation of libertarians may be the future – something I think most Tea Partiers, at least, could live with.

However, I still think it’s an oversimplification. In the aftermath of the 2008 election cycle, it was great fashion to talk about “the youth vote.” I found this highly puzzling at the time, and still do, because I don’t think there is such a thing as “the youth vote.” Just by analogy, imagine what would happen if a candidate tried to appeal to the “middle-aged male vote,” or to the “women over 40 vote.” Neither strategy would be successful, because the former group is far too diverse to have singular interests, and the latter group, according to most internal polling done by that group, does not exist. So it is with the “youth vote,” which is far too large and diverse to be an electoral category. Moreover, it’s really a rather insulting designation when you think about it, because it implies that young people can’t possibly form distinct political groups of their own. This especially is nonsense, for if you walk onto the campus of any American high school, and indeed, most American colleges, you will probably find a culture war alive and well, though of a very different kind than the one of the 90’s, and far more focused on questions of relative merit than on questions of religion.

Acting on this understanding is difficult, and should be undertaken with the utmost care by the Right. Nevertheless, if you’ll permit me a slight stereotype for the sake of illustration, I would wager that the average American party girl and the average American Dungeons and Dragons enthusiast have as much in common as a supporter of Nancy Pelosi would have with a supporter of Newt Gingrich.