You often hear folks talk about how party identification has swung sharply in favor of the Democrats, particularly among young voters, but I didn't really have a sense for how profound the trend is till I dug around in this Pew Poll. First, here's party identification by cohort:
Impressive stuff. There's a durable advantage in party identification that's most apparent among the young. But then, that's always true, right? Well, according to Pew, no. Here's the same graph from 1992:
Back then, the young were a contested, and closely split, bloc. Now they're overwhelmingly Democratic. Dems had their biggest advantage among folks around age 60, and did worst with voters in their 30s. Now, the Democratic advantage runs straight through the electorate and is most sharply pronounced among young voters. On a substantive level, this'll have some impact on the party's rhetoric, which you can expect to be less about the preservation and expansion of programs like Social Security and Medicare, which is a message that appels to folks in the 50s and 60s, and more focused on new programs that'll be of enduring relevance to young voters.
Impressive stuff. There's a durable advantage in party identification that's most apparent among the young. But then, that's always true, right? Well, according to Pew, no. Here's the same graph from 1992:Back then, the young were a contested, and closely split, bloc. Now they're overwhelmingly Democratic. Dems had their biggest advantage among folks around age 60, and did worst with voters in their 30s. Now, the Democratic advantage runs straight through the electorate and is most sharply pronounced among young voters. On a substantive level, this'll have some impact on the party's rhetoric, which you can expect to be less about the preservation and expansion of programs like Social Security and Medicare, which is a message that appels to folks in the 50s and 60s, and more focused on new programs that'll be of enduring relevance to young voters. 
