Young, Liberal and Open to Big Government

[CG6468]

Young, Liberal and Open to Big Government

By SHERYL GAY STOLBERG
 
Published: February 10, 2013 688 Comments

MISSOULA, Mont. — This funky college town, nestled along two rivers where five mountain ranges converge, has long been a liberal pocket, an isolated speck of blue in a deeply red state. Now Montana is electing more politicians who lean that way, thanks to a different-minded generation of young voters animated by the recession and social issues.
 
Sam Thompson, a 22-year-old environmental studies major at the University of Montana here, considers himself “fiscally conservative” but opposes cuts to Medicare; he expects to need health coverage when he grows old. Aaron Curtis, 27, a graduate student, admired Jon Huntsman, a moderate Republican, but could not stomach Mitt Romney’s opposition to same-sex marriage.

Billie Loewen and Heather Jurva, editors at the student newspaper, speak of a Depression-era mentality that is pushing their generation to back Democrats. Saddled with student debt, they worry about health care and are terrified that they will not find good jobs. “You might be just one accident away from losing everything,” said Ms. Jurva, who has worked 40 hours a week waiting on tables to put herself through school.

It is no secret that young voters tilt left on social issues like immigration and gay rights. But these students, and dozens of other young people interviewed here last week, give voice to a trend that is surprising pollsters and jangling the nerves of Republicans. On a central philosophical question of the day — the size and scope of the federal government — a clear majority of young people embraces President Obama’s notion that it can be a constructive force, a point he intends to make in his State of the Union address on Tuesday.

“Young people absolutely believe that there’s a role for government,” said Matt Singer, a founder of Forward Montana, a left-leaning though officially nonpartisan group that seeks to engage young people in politics. “At the same time, this is not a generation of socialists. They are highly entrepreneurial, and know that some of what it takes to create an environment where they can do their own exciting, creative things is having basic systems that work.”

Here in Montana, a state that backed John McCain in 2008 and Mr. Romney last year, voters under 30 have helped elect two Democratic senators and a new Democratic governor. Nationally, young voters have since 2004 been casting their ballots for Democrats by far wider margins than previous young generations — a shift that could reshape American politics for decades.

Under-30 voters are “the only age group in which a majority said the government should do more to fix problems,” the nonpartisan Pew Research Center reported in November. In a Pew survey a year earlier, more than 8 in 10 said they believed that Social Security and Medicare had been good for the country, and they were especially supportive of seeing the programs overhauled so they would be intact when they retire. (Young people were also more open than their elders to privatizing the programs.)

Young and stooooopid 

[thundley4]

Billie Loewen and Heather Jurva, editors at the student newspaper, speak of a Depression-era mentality that is pushing their generation to back Democrats. Saddled with student debt, they worry about health care and are terrified that they will not find good jobs. “You might be just one accident away from losing everything,” said Ms. Jurva, who has worked 40 hours a week waiting on tables to put herself through school.

   They're frelling idiots.  It's the democrat policies that have created the environment of high student debt.  If you throw money at the colleges with loans backed by the government then the prices that colleges will charge are going to rise.  It's a standard inflationary circle of cause and effect.

By voting Democrat, they are insuring that college costs will continue to rise and add to the debt of students, but on top of that,  their taxes will have to go up drastically to pay for all the other Democratic spending programs.   

[CG6468]

   They're frelling idiots.  It's the democrat policies that have created the environment of high student debt.  If you throw money at the colleges with loans backed by the government then the prices that colleges will charge are going to rise.  It's a standard inflationary circle of cause and effect.

By voting Democrat, they are insuring that college costs will continue to rise and add to the debt of students, but on top of that,  their taxes will have to go up drastically to pay for all the other Democratic spending programs.   

And their pay will also go down in relation to bumass's economic screwups.

[JohnnyReb]

And their pay will also go down in relation to bumass's economic screwups.

You will never convince them of that......they're educated now.

[NHSparky]

Fauxcahontas made $350K/year at Haaaahhhh-vaaaaahhhhddd to teach ONE class.

And they wonder why the price of a college education is out-of-reach of most without HUGE loans/subsidies.

I'm looking at the price of even the in-state schools like UNH and realizing that there's no effin way I could ever afford it, let alone when the kids are ready for college.  In-state tuition at UNH is now $21K/year.  When I went to GT for engineering, it was $6K/year.  It's now $27K--but that's out-of-state.  In-state is still under $8K/year.

[Chris_]

Fauxcahontas made $350K/year at Haaaahhhh-vaaaaahhhhddd to teach ONE class.

And they wonder why the price of a college education is out-of-reach of most without HUGE loans/subsidies.

Michelle Obama got paid that much to work at a Chicago hospital that turned away the sick and the poor.  And they wonder why the price of health care is sky high.