The New Voters: Independent Political Views
DA Staff on 23 November 2011 By Olivia B.
As the high school seniors turn eighteen, they must begin to consider where they are going politically. With each new generation of voters, different ideas, values, and opinions influence the political world. These new voters were born during the 90s economic boom, yet have experienced an economic recession throughout high school. Recently, there has been dissatisfaction with both the Democratic and Republican parties. Eliot Bacon, a senior, argues that after the Bush administration the unsatisfied voters sided with the sole opposing party with enough support to be elected: the Democratic Party. Yet, the last three years have not met the expectations many Obama supporters had hoped for. So where are high school seniors turning?
Senior Jonah Newman argues that although many Republican ideas are “sane,” it is simply not “cool” to be a conservative, especially in San Francisco. He further argues that Republicans and Democrats do not “compromise.” The Republican Party has been disappointing, yet the Tea Party movement offers a more passionate form of conservative principles. Occupy Wall Street, Eliot argues, is also a radicalized movement, but for liberals. Eliot sees the Republican and Democratic parties becoming more radicalized as the parties “wake up.”
Yet, there are other options for high school seniors besides the traditional two parties. As the Wall Street Journal reports, “Independent voters are now the largest and fastest growing segment of the American electorate.” Senior Pauline Ryan, a student in AP economics, considers herself an Independent. To Pauline, the Republican and Democratic Parties have political platforms that are very similar, and this has driven her to define herself as an Independent. She will be “looking at specific issues that apply to [her]” and voting on them as they present themselves.
The three seniors interviewed were then asked to place themselves on a Nolan chart. Basically, this chart plots one’s personal freedoms against economic freedoms, the bottom left corner being statist and the right upper hand corner anarchy. When Pauline and Eliot placed themselves on the Nolan chart, they found that personal freedoms were more important, which is generally a more liberal position. Pauline explained that most seniors favor personal freedoms over economic freedoms because the economic world is not yet part of their lives. Jonah placed America’s political center very close to Pauline and Eliot’s coordinates, also favoring personal freedoms. However, he also placed a point on the chart indicating where America “should be” — towards the upper right-hand corner, where both personal and economic freedoms are balanced. He also stated that “America hasn’t gotten the perfect balance yet.” The eighteen year olds of today seem to be independent but generally liberal-leaning. So how will this likely change as they grow older?
Many studies have been conducted on the relationship between age and political leaning. The first perspective was well summed up by Winston Churchill: “Show me a young conservative and I’ll show you someone with no heart, show me an old liberal and I’ll show you someone with no brains.” This point of view argues that young people are focused more on civil liberties (freedom of expression, etc.). The other study suggests that a generation is shaped by the events of its time (9/11, the recent recession, the Iraq war, etc.), this theory argues that as the generation ages, it maintains the values it acquired in youth. Only time will tell how this generation’s politics will evolve, but for the upcoming elections Eliot predicts that 2012 will be “nasty.”
