Who's Younger Now?

I read with great interest Anya Kamenetz's Washington Post article Why young voters aren’t feeling Obama-mania this time.   I think Kamenetz makes a valid point that younger voters are not nearly as enthusiastic for Obama as they were in the election.   She attributes this to Obama's having treated them paternally (for instance it's great that they can stay on their parents insurance until age 26,  but this is clearly a stop gap which merely prolongs their dependence upon their parents.   Which from my perspective at age almost fifty is not really a bad thing.   She also points out how college costs continue to increase dramatically and the increases tend to correspond to increases in student debt.   While a great deal of attention was paid to the interest rates charged,  Kamenetz points out that the net changes to federal higher education funding granted students 6 million dollars more in benefits while costing students 20 million dollars more in costs (from the elimination of grace periods to other changes in the fee structures of student loans).   Even this non-math major can quickly note that that is a 14%  net increase for students.    She also suggests that much of the energy that went into the Obama campaign last time was spent on the Occupy Wall Street movement this time around.

I'm sure that there is some truth in all of these claims and I would not in any way attempt to refute them.   However it seems to me that Kamenetz overlooks some other things that I think are needed to have a full understanding of 'the enthusiasm gap among young voters'.    The thing is,  young voters are an ever changing group of individuals.   Today's first time young voter will some,  thirty or forty years hence,  be in the cohort of voters who have just retired.    Comparing cohorts across election cycles is a perfectly reasonable endeavor.    But I think it is important to bear in mind how age-based or generational cohorts are constantly adding and subtracting members as people are born,  grow older and at some point die.  

Any election takes place at a moment in time and what sometimes bothers me about Kamenetz's analysis was how much she personalized her theories based on her own experiences in the 2008 Obama campaign and later on Occupy Wall Street.    And I do think she is right that if Obama were to focus on the real concerns of 20-somethings in a way that is empowering rather than paternal they would stand ready to be called on to vote.    It's certainly advice that I hope someone in the Obama campaign is heeding.     I find myself very very ready for this election to be over.    I try rather hard not to talk about politics on any of my other blogs.   And I try not to promote this blog on most of my social networks,   partly since it is a very occasional thing when I feel compelled to write about political things.....that I don't ever want my other blogs and social networks to become infected with.      (I made a conscious decision on my other blogs Not to talk a lot about my politics and to try to actively gather followers who did not necessarily agree with me about Anything but were willing to respectfully discuss topics of mutual interest.    I cherish my Conservative Christian Republican virtual friends.)  

My friend Wayne,  who is a very sharp radio host and business book reviewer,  was one of several people who suggested to me,  in reply to my talk about attempting to write fiction,  that I might be better served by recognizing my talent for writing essays and concentrating on what I like to do and have a real talent for,  rather than investing a lot of time in a type of writing that I really don't seem to have much talent for.    Part of me worries a bit that this essay is a bit too personal for this political blog.    Yet it is definitely too political for my personal blog.    And what I love about the fact that we can each of us have an almost unlimited number of completely free blogs....is that there is nothing to stop anyone from posting to all the blogs they would like.    There is no real resource limit.   Which I have to say seems really cool to me  :)