GOP - Geriatric Old Party
This was by far the best headline I've read this cycle. One that perfectly captures the ideology, the make up, and the candidates representing the Republican Party.
Seemingly Young-Republican Sean Scallon of the American Chronicle, is one of the major members of the media lately to notice that the GOP is losing major ground.
"I was at the Iowa Straw Poll in Ames this past summer. While out in the vast parking lots of the Hilton Coliseum that morning, holding a Ron Paul sign, I noticed all the campaign workers from the Romney and Tancredo camps riding golf carts to and from their respective tents to the parking lots.
What were these people doing I wondered? They certainly weren’t making the parking attendants happy as they were cutting through traffic.
It wasn’t until the middle of the day that I figured it out. They were transporting their elderly supporters from the parking lots to the Coliseum.
It was the proper thing to do. After all it was 96 degrees that day and very humid. No one would want grandma or grandpa to die of heat exhaustion trying to make their way across all that hot asphalt.
But it laid in stark reality the biggest problem the Republican Party is facing in 2008 and beyond.
It’s not Larry Craig. It’s not Iraq. It’s not corruption. It’s not Katrina, or religious conservatives or even immigration.
It’s age.
The GOP is literally getting older by the minute.
And that means it’s a slowly dying party."
Never mind that this is about the funnies thing I've ever read about the GOP ... but its a good real world example of what we've been seeing in polling for the last several months.
Mike talked some last week about the Young Evangelical Vote leaving the GOP and shopping for another third party candidate but overall it seems that young GOP leaning voters are also leaving the party for greener pastures.
Scallon goes on to compare the top-line GOPers to youth friendly Ron Paul:
"I asked a reporter from Reason Magazine who was at the Straw Poll to find the median age of a Romney supporter and compare it to that of a Ron Paul supporter. The differences may well be striking. . . . Now here’s Ron Paul in 2007 energizing young voters and more than just the College Republican types."
While the piece goes on to serve as an endorsement for Ron Paul, Scallon does mention that "Right now the Republican Party really doesn’t have anything to offer Millenials and this was before Katrina and the fiasco in Iraq." One of the understatements of the year in regard to both the GOP and the young arm of the GOP. You REALLY have to be a dedicated party member to be staying true to your values at this point and again, we're watching both the youth and the national GOP drop like flies to a third party.
My assumption is that when Ron Paul loses the primary, which, sorry Ron, he will, as a third party, he will be one of the most successful Libertarian candidates we've ever seen thus splitting the party between moderate Repugs and the more divided arm of the GOP that is sick, sick, sick and tired of their insanity.
My hope, is that even with the divisive nature and unfriendly red-state fans of the presumptive Democratic nominee we could still win the White House.
The piece is good - I recommend a read if you're looking for a nice way to poke fun at republicans.
By the way - I tried to accentuate this piece with a Bob Dole Viagra commercial and it was really hard to find... so if anyone has one post it you YouTube already!
2008 Youth Vote in Context
The following charts and graphs are meant to contextualize the unique role that young voters played in the 2008 election, and their increasingly important role in a winning electoral coalition:
2008 Youth Electoral Map

2004 Youth Electoral Map

Youth Vote Partisan Advantage: 2000 - 2008

Youth Vote Historical Support: 1976 - 2008

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‘Young Black Thugs’ Need To Be ‘Put Down Like The Dogs They Are,’ Says Louisiana School PsychologistMark Traina, a school psychologist in Louisiana, has been using his twitter account to spew racially-charged accusations about “young black thugs,” and now the Southern Poverty Law Center ...
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