This quote, pulled from a conversation I had with a freshmen girl in my residence hall, is representative of a trend displayed among college students as a whole. According to an article by the New York Times, Democratic party affiliations, which once reigned supreme among college students, have dropped significantly.
FORT COLLINS, Colo. — The college vote is up for grabs this year — to an extent that would have seemed unlikely two years ago, when a generation of young people seemed to swoon over Barack Obama.
How and whether millions of college students vote will help determine if Republicans win enough seats to retake the House or Senate, overturning the balance of power on Capitol Hill, and with it, Mr. Obama’s agenda. If students tune out and stay home it will also carry a profound message for American society about a generation that seemed so ready, so recently, to grab national politics by the lapels and shake.
Self-identification figures for Democrats — in national polls asking young people what party they lean more toward — peaked at 62 percent in July 2008, according to the Pew Research Center. By late last year, the number had dropped eight percentage points, to 54 percent, though researchers saw an uptick earlier this year, back to 57 percent. Republican gains roughly mirrored Democratic losses.
Some academics who study voting patterns say that the rule of three is too simplistic, and that lots of factors combine to determine a person’s place on the political spectrum. Individual votes, said Donald P. Green, a professor of political science at Yale who studies voter behavior, matter less than the social fabric that people grow into — in jobs, social life, community and values.
In any case, he and others said, there is no doubt that many young people in Larimer County are still finding their way, at a time when everyone agrees that the stakes are enormous.
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| College student's votes will become increasingly more important in the overall outcome of elections, even as traditional party affiliations among college students decrease. Photo courtesy of the New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/imagepages/2010/09/03/us/STUDENTS.html |
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/03/us/politics/03students.html
