California Dreamers: Bendixen/New America Media Poll

Sergio Bendixen and New America Media released a poll yesterday of 600 California youth. It's a pretty remarkable poll. It was conducted entirely via cell phone and focused on 16-22 year olds: young people who will occupy the 18-24 voting bracket come November 2008. The poll was also incredibly diverse - perhaps a reflection of California's demographics. 59 percent of respondents were youth of color and 49 percent were immigrants or the children of immigrants.

Bendixen's overall takeaway seems to be that young Californians represent a "post-racial" America that is keyed into the American Dream. Racial identity isn't a big factor in the lives of this generation, most of whom have interracial friendships or personal relationships, and most respondents believe they will do better than their parents, despite current events and economic pressures.

The poll didn't ask as many overtly political questions as I'd hoped, so there's a lot that's not interesting from a political perspective (information about health and the University of California system, etc.). Nevertheless, there's valuable information to be gleaned from the results that should affect how Democratic campaigns and progressive organizations approach young voters.

On issues:

• 82% of respondents support a pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrants
• 68% oppose the war in Iraq (though interestingly, 23% still say they would join the military).
• Family Breakdown (24%), Violence in communities (22%), Poverty (17%) and Global Warming (14%) were the top issues for respondents.

This is the most tolerant, diverse generation in American history, and that trend is only going to continue. As long as the GOP continues to divide people along lines of race and ethnicity, they'll be shooting themselves in the foot with the Millennial Generation. The third point was most interesting to me - never have I seen youth polling placing those concerns at the top of the list. I have a question into Bendixen about this. I don't know if they proposed a list of options from which respondents chose, or if it was an open ended question. It might be that the available topics were so general (for instance, Iraq is not on the list) that it skewed people's responses. I'll update when I get an answer from the pollster.

On outreach:

• 27% of respondents identified "Music or Fashion Preference" as the characteristic that most defined their identity - followed by religion (16%), ethnicity (15%) and race (14%).
• 73% of respondents said that religion/spirituality was either very or somewhat important to them, and 62% expressed that through church or prayer.

I think Bendixen is right; more and more my generation - especially the younger members - are a post-racial generation. Race and ethnicity isn't a defining factor anymore in the same way that it was for previous generations. Instead, culture is the defining factor. That probably means that Boomer politics with all its racial silos needs to go out the window. It's going to appeal less and less to a greater and greater segment of the population as time moves on.

Instead, we'll have to reach out to young voters - and eventually all voters - through the cultural communities they inhabit. That means more outreach at concerts, bars, barbershops. More of Living Liberally's "political action through social interaction." Not just for "progressive" communities (which are political first and social second), but for all communities; a greater integration of the fabric of our social lives with our politics. Based on the results, religious communities will continue to be one of those venues for the foreseeable future. It's going to be a tough transition for a lot of people, but its a good thing.