Posted by
john on Tuesday, November 11, 2008 2:34:00 PM
Hugh Hewitt has been directing a fair amount of attention to the so-called "Youth Vote", as it manifested itself in last week's election. This is not without good reason. It may be the single most striking - and alarming - element of the vote. Data is showing that voters under 30 cascaded for Obama by better than 2-1. While under 30 voters did not turn out in anything near the spectacular proportions some media nitwits predicted, the tremendous margin by which they went socialist (whether wittingly or not) contributed greatly to the election's result.
There are, no doubt, many explanations for the tremendous margin among these voters, among them the ridiculous "Reality TV" culture, and, as Hugh points out, the simple fact that minority voters comprised a larger percentage of this cohort than ever before.However, I have an explanation which I think encompasses and overarches most of these. I call it, "The Reagan Paradox (Part 1)".
The Reagan Paradox holds that the Prosperity and Security that Ronald Reagan created, and which has lasted for a generation, has left so many Americans so spoiled that they are incapable of grasping the dangers of bad policy. For young people in particular, the Generation of Prosperity and Security that President Reagan ushered in, through sound policy, has left them oblivious to the consequences of bad choices. In short, the cost, or price, of fecklessness in their personal lives has been so greatly diminished thanks to Reagan's achievements, that the significance of elections is reduced to the spectacle of a reality TV show, or a rooting interest in a sporting event.
I'm afraid these people are (finally) going to get an education during the next four years. I pray that the cost to the nation will not be too high. The bottom line is that we all are going to have to start the hard work of both unmasking the real BO (as opposed to the two-dimensional fantasy they mostly voted for), and connecting the dots between policy and consequences. That latter point is a Reagan legacy we are going to have to redeem.