Once Again, the Media Falls for the Myth of the Massive Youth Vote

Every four years, the media plays the same old symphony-- the young people will turn out in record numbers to vote for President. We heard it four years ago and four years before that. So, it should not be surprising that, once again, we are hearing of how the young people are fired up and that they will make all the difference in this year's presidential election.

There is no doubt that young people are currently turning out in large numbers to vote in the presidential primaries. These voters tend to favor Barak Obama. But here is the problem as I see it:

Any pollster worth anything will tell us that the excitement generated by candidates during the primaries wanes. It is a long time until November. People settle in, the excitement at some point will wear off. Couple that with the fact that come November, college students will be right in the middle of classes, dealing with mid-terms, and generally enjoying the social life of college. Add to that the possibility of bad weather, and many young voters will simply decide not to go to the polls. Moreover, we are talking young people here, who because of their age and way of life (I was there once) have trouble maintaining any kind of excitement over anything, especially politics.

The mainstream media touts the young voter mantra because young voters tend to lean Left and the mainstream media overwhelmingly leans to the Left (which I have said in previous posts is fine; they just need to be honest and admit it); so the story the media tells every four years is less true and more the wish of those doing the reporting.

I truly hope that come November, voters of all ages will turn out in record numbers. It is a travesty that too many citizens in our country do not take advantage of the right to vote. I have friends in totalitarian countries who would love to have that right. Whenever somone starts complaining about government and our elected officials, I always ask him or her if s/he has voted. If they haven't, I simply tell them that I am not interested in hearing what they have to say. If we refuse to make our voices heard in the voting booth, we need to keep our mouths shut after the decisions have been made.

I hope this post turns out to be mistaken. Nothing would please me more than to have a record number of young people turning out to vote; but if history is any guide, once again we will find that our youngest generation of voters will have found other things to do on November 4th.

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Cross-Posted at RedBlueChristian