The Youth Vote

[J-Mann]

And when those young idealists have kids of their own and start paying taxes, they won't be so overwhelmingly idealistic any more.

Wishful thinking, buddy.  The election is NOT up to 18-30 year olds.  They can't even get out to vote.

[J-Mann]

Don't compromise your ideals, but having all this hope pinned on the youth of America was just a pipe dream.  So a few more voted this time around, eh?  Big deal.  It made little difference.

I read a letter from Howard Dean (sent to a friend of mine) and he tried to put a positive spin on the elections, and from reading his letter, you'd think that the Democrats obliterated Republicans.  He said, "more Americans voted against George Bush than any sitting president in history."  Yeah, it's true, but it matters very little when 3.5 million more Americans than that voted FOR the President.

All I'm saying is that this election (despite a slightly higher turnout) will just reinforce why politicians don't spend time pandering to the youth vote.  Here's something I said way back in January of this year (quoted from my website):

Liberals: say all you want about Bush's intelligence, but he never felt compelled to use the word f*** in a Rolling Stone interview in order to appear "hip" to a younger crowd. Bush, as far as I know, never gave a Rolling Stone interview anyway, and with good reason: it'd be flat out pandering to a group of people who don't vote.

IF ONLY 18-30 year olds were the only ones voting...yeah, maybe the Dems can think about that for the next four years.  The percentage youth vote, by the way, was the same as in 2000.  Raw numbers were up because around 60 percent of eligible voters actually voted, but the youth did not significantly change.

[J-Mann]

That'd have a big affect if it occured during any other year with average turnout.

But it wasn't average turnout, so khirkhib's point is null and void.  The original post's Electoral Map (what if only the youth voted) is ridiculous and only wishful thinking on the part of the Dems.