Clinton has a friend in us
Young voters could put a woman in office
February 8, 2007
Joshua Duvauchelle
On January 27, Hillary Rodham Clinton officially started her 2008 campaign to become the United States’ first female president. She has a good start, already making history as the first female presidential nominee from a major political party. The question is whether or not the country is ready for, not just a female president, but someone with Clinton’s leftist values. Fortunately for her, she has us – Generation Y.
The Gen Y label creates a false paradigm, implying that it follows Generation X. When it comes to politics, however, this is simply wrong. Italian film director Dario Argento once said, “What’s shocking to one generation… may become acceptable, even commonplace.” This is especially true in the realm of politics. As a generation, we are anything but followers of our parents’ culture.
The 2008 United States presidential election underscores the values and ideas of Gen Y. Over 76 million strong in the U.S., we are a force to be reckoned with. For the very first time, we will have complete possession of the 18- to 29-year-old age group that politicians would love to control. As Hillary Clinton (a liberal Methodist), Mitt Romney (a conservative Mormon), and other hopefuls battle for the minds and allegiance of the United States, the political differences between Y and X emerge in sharp contrast.
According to Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research (a polling firm started by a political advisor to both Bill Clinton and politician-turned-environmentalist Al Gore), our generation is far more progressive than our parents’ generation. The majority of Gen Y is liberal, pro-choice, and supports homosexual marriage.
We are also seeing a rise of what influential blogger/writer Chris Bowers calls “the non-Christian coalition.” In a disturbing trend for the conservatives, the number of non-Christians has exploded by a whopping 84 per cent. Generation Y is, simply put, at the forefront of a liberal political revolution.
Clinton is happy to hear this. Over the coming months, she will have to work hard to get people to accept her leftist dogma. As a defender of illegal immigration, supporter of the Kyoto Protocol, promoter of controversial social programs, staunch defender of abortion, and advocate for same-sex unions, she will need all the support that she can get.
It won’t be easy. The United States Federal Election Commission has already labeled the coming election as the most expensive in United States’ history. According to FEC reports, the total cost of the heated 2008 races will hit the $1 billion mark.
Meanwhile, the conservatives haven’t surrendered. Groups like the American Family Association and Focus on the Family Action are mustering their religious constituents to keep Clinton out of the highest tier of the American government. How long they can hold out against the coming wave of fresh, left-leaning voters is only a matter of time.
Our generation is at the leading edge of political ideologies. We are the future of U.S. and Western politics. Liberals and left-of-center politicians have much to celebrate about Gen Y. See you in the White House, Hillary.
Now you go...
One Response to “Clinton has a friend in us”
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I think the coming Democratic nomination will be highly entertaining if for no other reason than the liberal left in America will have to choose what politically under-represented group to elevate to the presidential level, with Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton as leading contenders it will be amusing to see a party that has championed both groups pick which one it believes is more deserving of a presidential shot.
That being said, I don’t believe this massive wave of Gen Y voters is going to materialize quite as Joshua believes. There’s the old expression that Veronica Collins was so fond of, that ‘if you’re not a liberal when you’re young and a conservative when you’re old then there’s something wrong with the world’. And I think it makes a lot of sense. I know in my life and the lives of many of my TWU compatriots, many of us flirted with liberalism in University, but once the practical demands of a life post academia set in, reality set in and washed away many of the liberal tenants we believed in.
As well, from a demographics stand point, it’s the red states, not the blue states that are having children. Democracies are about numbers, and while the liberal left would like to believe their ideas are so fair and reasonable that people naturally gravitate to them, this has not been the case as of late as people return to their home towns and cities after they graduate university and revert back to the conservative consensus that they grew up with. That and young voters (those under thirty) are about the hardest votes to get out. There may be a lot of Gen Y’rs but none of them show up on election day.