Once these youngsters start paying taxes; experience supporting the laziness of others; see less qualified candidates get promoted because of their color; they’ll drift right. Happened to me. From what you’ve shared, it seems like it happened to you too, Rick.

The future of the Republican Party can be seen as a set of false teeth in a bedside water glass. The capacity of the Democrats to be their own worst enemy is boundless, but as long as the GOP and their geriatric base is determined to defeat The President With A Funny Name at any cost as opposed to being an opposition party that offers appealing alternatives attractive to people not yet eligible for Medicare and Social Security, it will face electoral disaster in November and 2012.

The numbers do not lie.

You are wrong about this November. Unless the economy shows signs of life, at the very least the GOP will make substantial - 25-35 seats - gains in the House. A stalk of celery would beat a Democrat in some of these competitive districts. Dramatically decreased turnout at mid terms will doom the Democrats to big losses - perhaps even a GOP takeover of the House if things are bad enough or the Republicans actually come up with a decent agenda.

I agree about 2012. I don’t see anyone challenging Obama unless he really screws things up. Even then, perhaps only Romney might be competitive. And some of those gains made in 2010 are likely to fall by the wayside unless the GOP actually, you know, like governs for the next two years. How a party that hates government so much can actually do something about governing will be quite entertaining to watch.

ed.

The participation of the youth vote in 2008 was an emotive outburst. The emotion has been taken and spent and the emoters feel taken. The youth vote is like fish, handle and prepare it well, use it quickly or it will perish. The conservative base is much less fickle and perishable.

Look at the post apocalyptic movies, people are scared in a slow, deep keep your powder dry and distrust strangers sort of way. People who thought of themselves as sensible liberals are now stocking ammunition. This is not a rushing movement but a slow creep of low grade pervasive fear that the idiots in power are worse than usual and this time it matters.

The happy hopey changy crowd will stay home, they were betrayed. The white male vote goes republican or stays home.

Urban areas are now fearing becoming Detroit-e-fied as the policy of buying off race and ethnicity is coming home to roost. Rural areas are tired of being slammed smeared and taxed for urban benifit.

“Bunch of Hick farmers don’t know how to be good organic enviromentalists gotta shut them down”

They might not hear exactly those words yet but they are not stupid and they know they are coming. Collectivization is a word farmers are not fond of.

Anyway, put your ear to the ground of the old wisdom outsie of the trendy hip crowd and you may hear that train a coming.

The majority of eligible voters in 2022 will have no functional memory of the presidency of Ronald Reagan. The GOP has 12 years to come up with an alternative to 80s nostalgia.

“If you’re not a liberal at 20, you have no heart. If you’re not a conservative at 40, you have no brain.”

Steve: The Greatest Generation and the Boomers conspired to screw this country into the mess it’s now in. Two generations of whiny, needy, greedy, heedless, entitled, self-centered egotists. Very, very much including the execrable Mr. Cheney. And you’re going with that older, wiser bullshit? Really?

Go take a good, long look at the national debt. See all those zeroes? Now you tell me how many of them came from the apolitical kids who just want to watch MTV and Tweet all day. And how many of them came from self-important, narcissistic gasbags like you, me, and Rick.

Here is the skinny:

Except for statistically negligible numbers most young people are Apolitical. They do things that are cool, not things that are politically sound. The Democrats are not cool any more so they have lost their youth base. The republicans will NEVER be cool.

The left will lose because they are not fun anymore. Rebulicans don’t need to be fun because that is not thier base.

Republicans look stupid when they try to be hip or cool. Republicans are the colder, older wiser heads.

The left always apeals to emotion and heart strings over clarity and logic. Look at the disriptions of Cheny:
Mean
Grumpy
Evil
Old

The left doesn’t understand non emotional judgement. They even assume its that we don’t “LIKE” Obama or we can’t see how much he “CARES”. You here phrases like CARE for the planet. They do not understand cold hard adults running the numbers and walking into the cold wind because it is the right thing to do after a liftime of experience and knowlege. Cheny’s an old man and not cool but he may be right.

Don’t need or want the extreme youth vote, that they stay home and watch MTV or twitter the latest fad is all we need.

The “skinny” is that from 1978 until 1996, a majority of those 18-29 identified themselves as “conservative.” And in 2008, that age group increased their participation by more than 1/3 and went overwhelmingly Democratic.

You can’t go around believing you can abandon entire sections of the country (the northeast, New England), and whole age groups and think you are going to win many elections. That’s nutzo. You don’t win by subtracting but by adding to your numbers. I’d hate to have us learn this lesson the hard way.

ed.

Until the last election young voters weren’t too interested in politics since the late 60’s when they were facing conscription during a time of war.

The last national election motivated young voters based on Obungle’s media manufactured “hipness” factor, his flashy graphic campaign and his shallow promise of hope and change. Since their hope and change bubble has burst most will likely stay away from the ballot box in disgust. They will instead immerse themselves in social networking on their $400 iPhones wearing $300 designer jeans, drinking $15 cosmopolatini’s and eating $20 arugula salads at their local trendy urban nightspots. IF they are still employed.

My two very leftist and very outspoken early twenty-something nieces recently confided in me at Christmas how wrong they were to believe in and vote for Swami Obungle. They explained how both now feel betrayed by his insincerity and ineptitude along with his lack of leadership and guts. They are smart enough to comprehend precisely what the government takeover of their personal healthcare means, what it will eventually cost and that truly frightens them. Odd how that the reality of socialism hitting them square in the wallet can change idealistic young minds isn’t it?

For the GOP to compromise conservative ideals in order to attract fickle time-poor young moderns who require instant gratification would be a mistake.