Tweet
A new survey finds a shocking 85 percent of new graduates are moving back in with their parents. From Time:
The kids are coming home to roost.
Surprise, surprise: Thanks to a high unemployment rate for new grads, many of those with diplomas fresh off the press are making a return to Mom and Dad’s place. In fact, according to a poll conducted by consulting firm Twentysomething Inc., some 85% of graduates will soon remember what Mom’s cooking tastes like.
The sorry economic conditions for the young and educated could have political implications for President Obama who depended on this age group in the 2008 election to not only come out and vote for him but also work as volunteers on the campaign.
I imagine it is very tough to be filled with a lot of “hope” and believe Obama will eventually bring “change” when you are still living with your parents, struggling to find a decent job and buried under a mountain of student loans.
It is unlikely young voters are going to start voting overwhelmingly for the Republican nominee, but if their current economic struggle leave this younger demographic politically disengaged and they simply don’t turn out to vote, that could easily change the outcome of close elections up and down the ticket.
42 Comments
I would say that almost everyone legitimately progressive, is disappointed with Obama’s run to the center where he adopts already-failed GOP policies by half.
Other than ObL – a non-economy item – the only time Obama got on the mat for anything was HCR, digging in to put it through. Watered down HCR, after he gave away Public Option and never even put Single Payer on the table.
So IMO there is no way he gets the volunteers, enthusiasm and small dollar donations of last time. Yet it remains as always, an equation lesser evils. You vote for a weak Obama, only to keep Gingrich or Romney out.
– Balkingpoints / www
Are You (Moving Back) In?
You might be right, but honestly, when your options are “Not nearly as progressive as we like” or “Most likely to completely annihilate the country”, most young voters are going to pick option A.
I know a lot of you around here are over Barack Obama, and frankly, I wish he’d get (gotten?) a from-the-left primary challenge too.
But bleak economy aside, when the only options against Obama will be a Frothy Mix of Crazy, Corrupt, Dangerous, and Stupid, well…picking the less-than-we-hoped-for Obama will still seem like a no-brainer.
It depends will the GOP promise to create jobs? I don’t think college grads will buy the GOP line that tax cuts will create jobs. We need the Dems to say we will create jobs because the Free market has failed to do so even though they got tax cuts for ten years. Tax cuts failed to create jobs when the economy was good (relatively ) under Bush but compared to Bill it sucked. Tax cuts failed to create jobs in a bad economy under Obama.
All Obama has to do is say I made a mistake real world evidence says that FDR created jobs by taxing the rich and creating jobs and it worked.
When the GOP says WW2 got us out of the Great Depression we point out 10 years of war under Bush/Obama has not created jobs.
I won’t vote for Obama again. I’m not inclined to vote for people who repeatedly lie to me. If the Rs get in and the whole thing crashes, so be it.
And tens of thousands of those parents have lost a job themselves and are underwater on their mortgage. This clown in the WH is presiding over the destruction of the American dream for millions of folks who voted for him and worked to elect him. All while he preaches deficit reduction and cuts to basic services.
TOTAL FAIL.
Last month HuffPo reported that of the 700,000 jobs created in Q1, 80% were part time.
I know this is a bit out-of-bounds for FDL, but I’m not only a fan of Jane… I’m also a diehard Paulista.
IMO, if the seemingly impossible happens and Ron Paul gets the GOP nod… he’s a game changer. I’m not convinced he beats Obomba, but the demographics of the vote will certainly change. And I suspect the disenchanted youth vote may come out for the Congressman.
Alas, it’ll probably be another pro-war, pro-Wall Street Corporatist R… just like the incumbent.
Last month HuffPo reported that of the 700,000 jobs created in Q1, 80% were part time.
Part time jobs are a joke tax cuts won’t create and have not created jobs Jobs is the biggest issue for voters how will Ron create jobs?
The Dems and GOP are not talking about creating jobs except with tax cuts which as I point out has not worked.
We need plans to create good jobs and we need at least a million jobs to be created in a year over and above what economists think will be created currently.
Who cares about the political implications for President Obama?
Who will notice any difference whether a bought-and-paid-for D or R gets into office?
Who gives a sweet shit what the impact of human grief is upon crooked politicians of any stripe?
If Ron wants to win he needs to fight Sarah, Michelle and Trump for his voters. Not that I support him. Mitt has Romeny care and Huckabee paroled a guy who killed a bunch of cops in Seattle they are the front runners if Ron does not take them out we will easily.
Huckabee has a sense of Humor, Sarah has her screaming flying monkey’s Ron might be the best GOPer out there. Except for the racism and economic ideas.
But — but — I thought our dynamic, handsome young president was bringing us hope and change we could believe in! Have I, like Humphrey Bogart in “Casablanca,” been misinformed?
Ever study the french revolution or seen the Arab Spring coverage young people to poor to marry tend to revolt the Dems and GOP both don’t want that.
Oh yeah! Anti-abortion Paul is gonna fly with all those under 35 female graduates. You’ve got to be kidding me–or not thinking, one of the two.
Look, the whole thing has been wired since FDR.
See these videos on DWT:
http://downwithtyranny.blogspot.com/2011/05/why-werent-fascist-coup-plotters-irenee.html
I can’t explain what RP will do to create jobs. I readily acknowledge that’s a philosophy that one either accepts or does not accept. And while I come here to FDL, I also want to be respectful. This isn’t a Ron Paul blog. So I choose not to engage (even if I could do so well).
I simply intended to respond to the post, pointing out that the “recovery” is IMO overblown. As well, I do think that any pro-peace, non-corporatist has a chance against the President. I do think it’s mostly the economy anyway.
I’ll give you a hypothetical. What if the R’s run Santorum? Will you still NOT vote for Obama? Or maybe I should rephrase the question. How crazy are YOU?
15 was intended to be a reply to thingscomeundone at 8… sorry
Jobs are the biggest issue for voters your a Paul supporter he should have a plan to address the biggest issue that voters care about his supporters should know his plans. to be fair I’m not supporting Obama unless he does something to create jobs, end both wars now etc. It seems your left as high and dry as we are.
Actually, I’m reasonably sane and have been a Dem my whole life. Never voted for anyone who wasn’t a D. The sadness that I feel is really overwhelming – for my party and my country. However, it is clear, or should be, that the Democratic Party has sold out. I can’t see any way to get it back except by letting it fail. And if an R gets elected he or she will most certainly fail because they always do. It’s called tough love and I think it’s time.
I’m not aligned with Ron Paul on Roe. Nor do I think any group votes as a monolith. But generally speaking, I don’t think Roe will be an issue in the general election. I see social issues driving primaries, not generals. The general will be about the economy, not Roe.
Young people will stay home. So what else is new? What’s new is their parents may just stay home with them.
Obama appears to have been drawn into the Commander and Chief power trip. Wars are a lot more fun than fighting the endless slog against poverty, bigotry and inequality especially when it’s the other guy’s kids who are fighting the war.
I came in protesting LBJ’s war but I’m getting nostalgic for a guy who could dream of ending poverty and racial injustice and have the grace to bow out when his endless war in Asia proved to be, well, endless. Now, the endless war in Asia is not a bug, it’s a feature.
He who is wiling to destroy a thing can control a thing we are playing chicken and yes we are crazy. Either we get what we want or well we will revolt we won’t settle for a half loaf as Bankers eat all they can eat meals every day.
This kind of thinking only empowers the people that are fucking us. It isn’t serious.
If we allow them to give us no choice, they will keep doing what they’re doing. Holding our noses and pulling the lever will only get us more of the same. Expecting any other result is right winger-esque magical thinking.
I agree it’ll be the economy and jobs. But if the Obama / Paul matchup happened… and voters felt they couldn’t distinguish between the two on the economy and jobs… I think foreign policy would be a “top five” issue in which they would see a clear difference.
Agreed Ending both wars could give Ron a shot especially if he links the savings to jobs or tax cuts for the middle class. Tax cuts for the rich well then he might as well go home.
When the economy is scary bad voters tend not to vote for the party in power, if that party doesn’t seem to be able — or try — to right that economy.
Who can blame them? It’s something both Rs and Ds should have realized in the last two elections.
I’ve voted for Democrats for 40 years, because the Republicans were always scarier (and now more frightening than ever!)
I’ve also lived through the consequences of well-informed Dems who didn’t vote because they were trying to “teach the party a lesson” or because “both are the same.”
How’d you like those Nixon and Bush regimes, boys?
As for a Ron Paul presidency, oh please, the idiocy. Not gonna happen, and God forbid it did, ever. Think we’re in trouble now?
You have got to be kidding, it is being generous calling Obama a centralist Republican.
Haven’y you heard? GM will employ all those grads. There are 4000 of them, right?
Obama is one of the most right wing presidents this country has ever had. A fraud to the extreme. Arrogant beyond belief and a pathological liar. Which is also pretty much what the democratic party is about these days as well. Since neither party tries to hide their corruption and the fact that they work for the oligarchy and couldnt care less about the serfs it will make at least the next election bizarre. Youll have nobody of interest on the republican side and the current asshole on the dem side. Big choices there!
Personally i cant stand obama. His arrogance just annoys me to no end. The problem is we dont really know what will happen by then. Its possible he will easily win. Its also possible he will lose easily. Theres just so many variables this time around. Last election it was a given that a dem was going to win.
If the Obama campaign hires all those young enthusiastic voters (Black college grads have an unemployment rate of 19%, so that’s a big pool), then he has his own little jobs program, targeted at people most able to convince/hoodwink others into voting for re-election.
Even people who don’t like him all that much would take a job from him – you don’t want a gap on your resume in this economy. Hearing from people in your neighborhood is a better way to increase turnout than a million commercials (though Dem consultants take a nice cut off the top for the latter).
Go ahead. What you’ll get is an ultra-rightwing government instead of just a rightwing government. Instead of tolerance for your gay friends you’ll get a government that actively works to disenfranchise them. The anti-abortion meme will go national–you can see what is happening in the states that elected Republicans in 2010. Blaming immigrants, especially brown immigrants, for all our ills will become a national policy. Yeah, go ahead.
Ain’t going to be a third party. As long as the electoral system is a “Winner Takes All” we are stuck with the two party system. It was planned that way, and the two parties like it because one of them is always going to win. The Presidential races are not going to change in our lifetime because it is unlikely that any third party will take over all the statehouses, which the third party must do in order to gain traction. If the third party does manage to do that they won’t be interested in changing the electoral system because they will have eliminated one of the parties and will be part of the “two party system” themselves. Get used to it and work within the system you have.
Oh, by the by, Reagan also won that first victory of the presidency by a narrow margin — and 12 years of Republican rule followed, which began the hollowing out of the tax base, and the beginning of the end of the New Deal, among other delights.
So hate on President Obama all you like (oh, I have my bitter complaints!) but don’t vote Democratic, or vote Green party, and you’ll get the scariest Republicans of my lifetime in office, for God knows how long.
The Liberal Vichycrat capitulation season begins. Gnash your teeth and rend your garments for you have no choice but to vote for the, Death by A Thousand Cuts, or the Scariest Repug ever.
If Obama wins in 2012, he then has little or no use for the Democrats. If he loses in 2012, he has no use for Democrats.
We are caught up in the crap of “there is no other real choice”, so each one of us has to decide if we want another 8 years of Bush 2.
Well we already can see the evil, I ll go with the unknown.
The Obama Admin on the real unemployment rate of 17%
A Comic … but telling
http://www.boingboing.net/2011/05/11/tom-the-dancing-bug-48.html
We already have the
think I will go with an unknown, or if you like,
.
The problem is Obama can get Democrats in Congress to vote for reducing Medicare, Social Security and Medicaid. Sarah, Donald, Newt and the others can’t.
Rename this post:
“How can you work, or vote, for Obama when your your parents won’t give you gas money?”
hahaha…
NOW is the time to work and vote for the Greens! Just as the Canadians have sent their lily-livered “Liberal Party” packing, for a truly left NDP, we need to let the D party die its well-deserved ignominious death. When people are unemployed at a rate of 1 out of 5 (a conservative number), dying for lack of health care, let alone food and shelter, I think they will wake and see what the Vichy parties have wrought, their lack of response, the push for even MORE income inequality, and they will rebel. “Lesser evil”? I laugh hysterically…for if the Rs can create MORE evil, the resulting response will resound across the nation, and just as during the days of FDR, populist movements will rise up. In any event, I refuse to sell my soul/vote to the devil that stabs me in the back, I’d rather be stabbed facing evil.
I’m 61 years old and have seen that every time Democratic voters fall for a third party, or don’t vote because their Democrats aren’t behaving properly (or worse), we got Republican regimes that made the misbehavior of Democrats look like child’s play.
Nixon, Reagan, Bush: eight to twelve years of Republican rule, followed by brief respite of Democrats who believe they have to act like Republicans because that’s who the people who vote are voting for.
No one could be more disappointed/appalled with Obama, than I. But your little voter rebellion will result in more Republicans.
The unknown — for instance, Arnold for Govenor of California — is rarely an improvement.
The Greens in Texas allowed themselves to be financially supported by the Republicans, and look how that turned out: more toxic Texan Republicans in office.
As for the Libertarians, sigh, they’re just tricked up Republicans: Rand Paul Says Universal Health Care is Slavery
http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2011/05/12/rand-paul-says-universal-health-care-is-slavery
Do your best to pressure the Democrats in power (after you’ve voted for them) Republicans in power won’t respond to you, and they’ve got some unknown tricks for you that you won’t like (Wisconsin and Michigan, for instance.)