Are young voters really as Democratic as being portrayed?

[impactreps]

Speaking as a teenager, and a staunch conservative, young voters aren't necessarily as liberal as everyone believes. Many of my friends supported Obama, but were also somewhat moderate on social issues; some were pro-life and others opposed to gay marriage. I agree with some of the comments on this thread that one of the main reasons Obama dominated among young voters was because of Bush's and the GOP's failures. After all, Reagan won young voters twice and Bush Sr. won them in 1988. Not to say that we only vote based on how well the incumbent party is doing, but we also tend not to follow politics as closely as older voters do, so more often than not make decisions based on how well we perceive the country is doing rather than on one specific issue.