Barack Obama is pretty cool and young people love him, right? But did they actually go out to vote in greater numbers this year because of Obama's historic candidacy?
Yes -- but there's a caveat. The increase in youth turnout matches the increase in overall turnout this year. Young adults did not make up a much greater proportion of the voting public. In 2004, Americans aged 18-29 made up 17 percent of the electorate. Tuesday, they made up 18 percent -- only the slightest of gains. Compared to senior citizens, young people are still voting in numbers lower than their percentage of the population at large.
What's more significant is how much more support Obama won from young people than John Kerry did in 2004. Kerry had 54 percent support among 18-29 year olds. Obama won them with 66 percent. That's a huge change, and obviously progressives are hoping Generation Y will align themselves with the Democratic Party in the same way Gen X identified with the Reagan Revolution. If that's going to happen, Obama and Dems will have to channel young people's enthusiasm for Obama as a symbol into a commitment to progressive public policy and support for the two signature Democratic goals: a more aggressive social welfare state and a foreign policy based around diplomacy, peace, and human rights.
--Dana Goldstein