PDA

View Full Version : Salon: Why young voters love Ron Paul




KingNothing
11-28-2011, 12:35 PM
http://www.salon.com/2011/11/28/why_young_voters_love_ron_paul/singleton/


Despite a sustained campaign by the Washington media and political establishment to marginalize him, Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, is still a serious contender for the Republican presidential nomination. That has a lot to do with the support he’s receiving from young voters. In almost every survey and activist straw poll, Paul draws big numbers from voters between the ages of 18 and 29.




Paul, of course, is one of the only presidential candidates in contemporary American history in either party to overtly question our nation’s invade-bomb-and-occupy first, ask-questions later doctrine and to admit what the Central Intelligence Agency acknowledges: namely, that our military actions can result in anti-Americanism fervor and terrorist blowback.

redictably, Paul’s foreign-policy honesty has generated Washington media scorn (most recently and explicitly, as Glenn Greenwald points out, from CBS News’ Bob Schieffer). No doubt, that scorn has much to do with that media being disproportionately older, more establishment-worshipping and more hyper-militaristic than the general population. But far away from D.C. green rooms in Real America — and especially among younger voters — Paul’s foreign policy positions are generating the opposite of scorn. Indeed, as a new Pew Research Center report suggests, these positions are almost certainly a driving force behind the support for his candidacy.

CaptUSA
11-28-2011, 01:04 PM
I'm not buying this. I believe it is all about access to Ron Paul's ideas. Younger people have more of it.

If the only way you get your news is from the mainstream media sources, you aren't getting the full picture. Young people, by virtue of their internet acumen and savvy, have access to more information.

It has nothing to do with "groups". Individuals vote - not groups.

sailingaway
11-28-2011, 01:10 PM
Good article. A brief side note - that is not a personal endorsement of that author overall; I have serious concerns with his economic positions.

KingNothing
11-28-2011, 01:13 PM
Good article. A brief side note - that is not a personal endorsement of that author overall; I have serious concerns with his economic positions.

Correct. The author is your standard non-Greenwald Salon writer. Still, ALL positive writeups from mainstream publications are good things. With that in mind, I'm kind of surprised at the frequency with which positive articles are being published. Something is happening here, and I think it all started with that last debate.

Brian4Liberty
11-28-2011, 02:34 PM
I'm not buying this. I believe it is all about access to Ron Paul's ideas. Younger people have more of it.

If the only way you get your news is from the mainstream media sources, you aren't getting the full picture. Young people, by virtue of their internet acumen and savvy, have access to more information.

It has nothing to do with "groups". Individuals vote - not groups.

I agree. It's more about access to information via the internet.

As a matter of fact, I believe that the author's hypothesis that older people are more bloodthirsty is the exact opposite of reality. Age and experience tend to reduce the appetite for death and destruction. There's a reason they prefer to send 19 year old kids into battle. And in extreme societal breakdowns, its not unusual to have an army that consists of mostly pre-teens (ie. some countries in Africa, Asia, etc.).

That's not to say that there are not "elders" out there who are paranoid, bloodthirsty and without a fully developed sense of morality or conscience, and little awareness of the consequences of their actions.

laurenforliberty
11-28-2011, 02:48 PM
As young adult myself I know that for me it was definitely that I had more access to information as well as the fact that my generation is incredibly ambitious. We have goals that can't be reached if our economy is being flushed down the toilet. Most of us want to succeed as soon as we get out of college so our goals need to be similar to whoever we're electing. Plus, I feel like a decent amount of the 2008 campaign had to have been aimed at the younger generations because I grew up knowing that if he ran again in 2012 I'd vote for him as well as tons of other young adults I know that witnessed the 2008 elections.