The 411 for Politicians

Harvard University’s Institute of Politics (IOP) Student Survey Group recently released their “10 Things Politicians Should Know About Young People” based on their results from an online national poll of 2,923 18-24 year-olds.

According to the five speakers from the IOP, who discussed their findings last week at the Center for American Progress in Washington D.C., politicians should take note that the young voter demographic is much different than it was even four years ago. Not only could the young vote swing the election, as seen in November 2006 Senate election results, they might also save the candidates some money.

“It’s a lot cheaper to reach young voters than it is the older voters,” said David King, Director of Research at Harvard’s IOP. He feels younger voters can be reached by candidates tapping into the new media craze such as blogging and online video sites, which is much more cost effective, than the traditional direct mail that the older generations are used to.

“The negative side is younger voters are more fickle,” said Sarah Bianchi, IOP Senior Advisory Committee and former National Policy Director, John Kerry Presidential Campaign. Bianchi referred to the Howard Dean / John Kerry face off in Iowa during the 2004 election. It was evident that Dean was getting a lot of the younger support from online efforts, which gave many people reason to believe he was in the lead until Kerry ended up taking Iowa to the surprise of many. “You can get all this energy, but you have to convert it,” said Bianchi. “Whoever figures that out, it would be hard to stop them.”

With that said, here are the top 10 items young people want their politicians to know:

1. Youth turned out to vote in dramatically higher numbers in both the presidential election of 2004 and the midterm elections of 2006 that helped secure Democratic control of both the House and the U.S. Senate.

2. Years of war and political turmoil have not gone unnoticed by America’s youth. Young people are overwhelmingly dissatisfied with the general direction of America, with only 13% believing that the country is “on the right track”.

3. However, young people are engaged in national issues and the political process. Over half report discussing politics recently.

4. War-related issues are vitally important to the youth of today. Half of the 9/11 generation cite the War in Iraq, the War on Terror, or domestic security as their greatest concerns; all other issues trail distantly.

5. Young Republicans mirror the general population in their support for 2008 presidential candidates, with former Mayor Giuliani leading the pack followed by Senator McCain and former Governor Romney. Young Democrats show a preference for Senator Obama ahead of Senator Clinton, the leading Democratic candidate in most national polls, as well as former Senator Edwards.

6. Youth show a tremendous lack of confidence in current US foreign policy. Three-quarters, including a majority of Young Republicans favor multilateral solutions, believing that the UN is better-equipped to solve international crises. Relative to older Americans, this post-Cold War generation has a wholly different perspective on the role that America and its allies should play in world affairs.

7. The genocide in Darfur has captured the attention of many young voters. A quarter of college students have discussed the issue in the past few weeks, and Darfur is the second most important foreign policy issue among all young people, far ahead of both Iran and North Korea. Student organizations are rising up across the country with t-shirts, petitions, and rallies to show young peoples’ opposition to the situation in Darfur and lack of intervention to halt the genocide.

8. This techno-savvy generation continues to use the internet to express its political beliefs. The ever-popular Facebook, now used by half of all young people, is a growing political candidates or events. YouTube, with its wide viewer-ship but current lack of influence as a political tool, is a significant untapped resource for the spread of political information.

9. This generation is international in perspective. A majority of youth considers working or studying abroad a viable option, and nearly two in five (37%) say that they favor globalization.

10. Traditional labels like “Liberal” and “Conservative” are no longer sufficient to describe the political views of young people, since a majority fall outside the traditional liberal-conservative divide. Many young people- whether very religious or staunchly secular- are still developing their political beliefs and therefore make up a critical part of the political center, which candidates on both sides of the aisle would be unwise to ignore.

Wendy Cook is a staff writer for Accuracy in Academia.