• 

Here is the third and final part to our series [Part oneand two here] and from Ypulse Insights president Dan Coates dedicated to covering the Millennials Event that took place in Washington, DC on Wednesday at the Newseum to review and comment on recent data published by the Pew Research Center.

Pew Research Center: Millennials, Midterms and Beyond

Panel Three examined how Millennials are reshaping the political landscape. Based on Pew data that was co-presented by Michael Dimock, Associate Director, Pew Research Center for the People & the Press and Scott Keeter, Director of Survey Research at the Pew Research Center, and the commentary of political experts: Matt Bai, Contributing Politics Writer for The New York Times Magazine, Eli Pariser, Board President for MoveOn.org and Reihan Salam, Fellow at the New America Foundation.

The analysis of Pew data showed Millennials to be much more aligned with the Democratic party with very positive feelings about Barack Obama, the Democratic presidential candidate. According to Keeter, “It’s no secret that Millennials made a big splash in 2008,” and while there is no shortage of those claiming Obama’s victory to be as a result of their support, many political analysts feel that the youth vote was not only pivotal in the outcome, but instrumental in migrating Obama’s early, college campus-based campaign to the rest of the interconnected family structure that gives Millennials an equal (if not disproportionate large) say in household decision-making.

However, Keeter showed evidence of party affiliation and support for John Kerry in 2004 that shows this generation to be liberal in their political perspective and better aligned with the Democratic party. In his Op-Ed piece in the Washington Post, EJ Dionne declared Millennials to be “The Next New Dealers.” Moreover, the very high levels of engagement in politics exhibited by Millennials in 2008 were cited as an important distinguishing feature of this generation, with voter turnout among those under 30 years of age rising from 40% to 49% in 2004 and from 49% to 51% in 2008. This rise in voter turnout among Millennials was accentuated by a reduction in voter turnout among those 30 and over, shrinking the gap of 25 percentage points in the 2000 election to 16 percentage points in 2008.

Millennials were actively engaged by the Obama campaign. The campaign’s use of online technologies and social networking features fit well with the communication styles of Millennials. While Millennials appreciated the Obama campaign, it has been difficult to sustain their campaign engagement into ongoing support for the Democratic party due to the impact of the economy and the rise of unemployment cited in Wednesday’s post. Dimock cited stats showing identification with the Democrats outweighed identification with the Republicans by two to one (62% versus 30%). The central question for the upcoming midterms is whether the engagement and party affiliation of the Millennial generation can be counted on beyond 2008 and in the words of Dimock, Millennials have cooled “for Obama and his message of change, for the Democratic Party and, quite possibly, for politics itself.” They liked the campaign way more than they like the administration.

Matt Bai typified Obama (a member of Generation X) as being currently surrounded by older members of the Baby Boomers, who have constrained the Obama administration with the ongoing culture war between red and blue. If this is the case, only the passage of time will liberate Obama from his own party. As the assembled pundits prognosticated on the possibilities for this fall, they agreed upon one thing: the absence of George W. Bush from the political landscape may prove to be demotivating to Millennials who felt almost a visceral desire to drive him and his administration from office. While much will hinge on the state of the economy this November, the ability for Democrats to reconnect and reinvigorate this generation will be decisive.

About Dan

Dan brings two decades of experience in technology and survey research to the Ypulse team. Based in New York, Dan is a veteran within the online research space. Prior to joining the Ypulse team, Dan was co-founder of SurveyU, drove exceptional growth as Vice President of Sales & Marketing at Polimetrix (acquired in December 2006 by YouGov PLC), served as Vice President of Surveys and Samples at SPSS and was a co-founder of PlanetFeedback.com, an ASP-based consumer affairs portal that rewrote the rules of consumer to business interaction. (PlanetFeedback was merged with Intelliseek and subsequently acquired in January 2006 by Nielsen Buzzmetrics). Dan spent the first decade of his career developing cutting edge research practices and methods on behalf of Burke Marketing, Millward Brown Interactive and the Angus Reid Group, enabling companies to develop online marketing insight.

• 

Categorized under: Collegians

You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site. If you are a Facebook user, comment using your Facebook account.