Survey: Young People Overwhelmingly Democratic

Apparent a recent discussion about the upcoming election with students at Henry Clay High School helped Kentucky superdelegate Ben Chandler decide to endorse Barack Obama for president.

Smart man. Kevin Drum points us to a recent survey that found young people are voting overwhelmingly Democratic.

THE YOUTH VOTE ... A year and a half ago, the New York Times took a look at the party affiliations of different generations, producing a fascinating chart that showed a tremendous movement among young voters toward the Democratic party. By 2006, Democrats had opened up a lead among 20-year-olds of 52-37, the largest measured gap ever.

So what's happened since then? Acording to Pew, the gap has gotten even bigger. In polling done over the past six months, voters in their 20s identified as Democrats by a margin of 58-33. That's a 25-point gap. For comparison, the biggest recorded gap before now was 11 points at the height of Democratic dominance during the late 40s and 13 points after Watergate. But it turns out that even Nixon couldn't come close to doing the damage to the Republican brand that George Bush has. His administration has nearly doubled the previous record.

Via Mori Dinauer, who suggests that this means at least an extra million votes for the Democratic candidate in November. And the even better news? There's a good chance it means an even bigger advantage in 2012 and beyond.

One of the most heart-breaking political experiences of the last 25 years has been listening to teens and twenty-somethings repeat wingnut talking points with no apparent understanding of how destructive republican policies would be to them personally.

To see that pendulum swing back to the core liberal values of American Democracy warms the cockles of my liberal old heart.

Cross-posted at BlueGrassRoots.