The Youth Failed Ron Paul and the Fake "Masses" of Support

Provocative title I know. But it has drawn your attention. No, I will not give some juicy insight onto why Congressman Paul will not be the Republican nominee nor even have a chance against an anemic and soft incumbent. What I will present is the sad state of the voter -- why they have squandered away a perfectly excellent opportunity to turn party politics on its head and how they continue to fail.

To illustrate we look to past voting records; specifically registered voters to actual voters. This is key, regardless of what one thinks of the process. This can be quite impossible since official State numbers haven't been published but we can analyze the data based on historical data and exit polling to come to a stark conclusion. Additionally, since primaries are non-binding elections held specifically by a particular party to ascertain a qualified and well received candidate by said party -- voting demographics are hard to come by.

Historically, overall participation in actual voting (especially when it comes to state primaries) is dismal in comparison to registered voters. Further more, register voters compared to actual eligible (meaning persons over the age of 18) voters compounds the problem even more.

We see it here all the time. Ron Paul has tons of supporters and backers. He has throngs of missionaries and followers that spout his ideals -- in which many this writer agrees with. He continually wins online polls (though such polls hold as much water as any poll my 10 year old son may conduct). Die hard support seems to be the word of the day when it comes to Ron Paul. The question remains -- why has he failed to translate that "infinite" and "definite" support from the Internet, into the real world?

The reason being is the lack of actual participation of the 18-34 year old demographic and the election process. While maintaining a strong showing in the virtual world, Mr. Paul still faces the daunting and overwhelming task of actually drawing out the vote of the young -- facing strong turnout from the 35 and up demographic.

Typically such groups; the 35 and up crowd; vote upwards of 66% of registered voters of the same demographic. These folks actually care about and attempt to engage in the political process to affect some sort of change upon the system

In contrast, the 18-34 demographic shows an anemic 33% of registered voters actually casting their votes. Interesting, the split shows about the same number of people; from state to state; residing within the demographic. Yet the youth vote continues to be non-resistant.

The question remains: Why does youth clamor, moan and complain when they make no attempt to actually affect any change?

reply to post by ownbestenemy


Because its more popular to go to the mall.

reply to post by theBigToe


Or come on an obscure website...only known to a niche of a small populace and proclaim widespread support....

Sad but true unfortunately....

Originally posted by ownbestenemy
The question remains -- why has he failed to translate that "infinite" and "definite" support from the Internet, into the real world?

You know that answer better than most.
The MSM.
If they gave him just equal coverage, no bias needed, just the same air time.
It would be a RP win.
You know that.

Originally posted by Tw0Sides

Originally posted by ownbestenemy
The question remains -- why has he failed to translate that "infinite" and "definite" support from the Internet, into the real world?

You know that answer better than most.
The MSM.
If they gave him just equal coverage, no bias needed, just the same air time.
It would be a RP win.
You know that.

Wait -- so it is the MSM that keeps the youth from actually engaging in and participating in the electoral process? Primaries are not really an election process except for a particular party, but why such a failure from the "youth" that supposedly supports Mr. Paul?

It isn't the MSM sir -- sorry it is lack of interest and thinking that their popular vote come Novemeber will make a difference. The difference is made now. Turn the establishment upside down. Force the Republican Party to take a "non-establishment" (even though Congressman Paul has been a nearly lifelong staple of Washington) candidate as the Republican ticket or force them to show their true colors and pick a non-popular candidate to reside on their ticket.

Instead, the youth wants to whine and complain and do nothing about it.

Well, I am huge RP fan also, but for some reason, youth has really failed to get involved.

Another stat for you is from Facebook. With youth dominating FB, you would think RP would have tons of fans. As of last night, Ron Paul's 2 main pages "Ron Paul" and "Ron Paul 2012" had 800,000 and 300,000 "likes" respectively . So that's 1.2 million between both and I'm sure most of the 300K on RP2012 are also on Ron Paul's main page.

Now, compare that with Ms Sarah Palin who has 3,266,000 fans of her page and she's not even running.

Sure FB is not used by everyone, but that gives you some idea of what people are thinking.

reply to post by freedom12


You make an excellent point -- the numbers aren't there. Facebook or not; the youth in any election is lacking and fails to recognize anything except the popular vote in November.

My stance remains. Now is the time to make a statement, yet they fail to even show up to a primary. I say let them whine and moan for another 4 years of the same asinine governance we have all grown accustomed to over the past few decades.

It's definatley the MSM and brainwashed geriatrics watching too much fox news. I helped a bit with the campaign in SC but when we were doing our phone polling it did not paint a pretty picture.

reply to post by flyingdutchman2112


But you are missing the point; or maybe I am not quite grasping the whole of the situation. You are placing the loss and overall lackluster showing of Ron Paul squarely upon the MSM? -- Oh and the "geriatrics" as you so kindly call them (which would be the 35 years of age and up crowd by the way) for actually taking primaries seriously and understanding that if they want to put forth a new name under the Republican ticket, now is the time.

That is what you want to place the failure of Ron Paul upon? Okay, failure may be a strong word, especially since he (along with other candidates that have already dropped out) at least brought forward issues that matter that are not meaningless in the grand scope of governance. His constant harping on an overreaching military, the over reach of a growing Federal Government (on the precipice of being a full fledged National Government) are victories even if it has only reached a small percentage.

But to say it is because of the media and old people is ignoring that the over-zealous youth -- the very youth that is supposedly behind such a candidate -- has failed to even show up in decent numbers that a mouse squeaking is louder and more effective.

Where is Caesar when you need him? Surely he could save the empire.

First rule you never count the youth vote. The young are always so very passionate but don't have the stamina to deliver of the course of the election cycle and easily distracted by reality tv. Then you have to also consider that to vote in some primaries you are legally bound to vote for the candidate of the party whom you voted in. While typically not enforced they are on the books and can be.

I think the MSM does have a lot to do with it.
The older demographic watches the news and they will say tomorrow the polls open at blah blah.

There's not a whole, whole lot of notice to younger voters- HISTORICALLY- in places they will be, in media that they will be consuming - hey, buddy, it's time to go vote.

Speaking of the maill - why no signs on the doors- Are you registered to vote? Voting is Nov. 6

And the day of...... Hey, Did you vote today? Polls close at 6. To determine your poll location, go to www.dot.put your address in.here

So, IMO it has not HISTORICALLY been a youth friendly informational get out the vote world.

That said - NOW there is twitter, Facebook- voter registration when you get your license.

it's a good thing - it is a very different world than the 70 somethings made. It's not fair for them to rule it when they don't understand it.

reply to post by ownbestenemy


Not youth... Jew.
You probly herd it wrong in a discussion, no biggie.

Originally posted by ownbestenemy

We see it here all the time. Ron Paul has tons of supporters and backers. He has throngs of missionaries and followers that spout his ideals -- in which many this writer agrees with. He continually wins online polls (though such polls hold as much water as any poll my 10 year old son may conduct). Die hard support seems to be the word of the day when it comes to Ron Paul. The question remains -- why has he failed to translate that "infinite" and "definite" support from the Internet, into the real world?

The reason being is the lack of actual participation of the 18-34 year old demographic and the election process. While maintaining a strong showing in the virtual world, Mr. Paul still faces the daunting and overwhelming task of actually drawing out the vote of the young -- facing strong turnout from the 35 and up demographic...
The question remains: Why does youth clamor, moan and complain when they make no attempt to actually affect any change?

Youth voting turnout has always been a puzzle to solve. But, I haven't seen "tons" or "throngs" myself in regards to support for RP overall on the net. Yes, there are a lot of people stating support on various websites but for the most part, those sites are not ones that the average person, young or old, is going to be visiting. Is it possible that people that do actively participate in sites that strongly promote RP are starting to think that the reality of the world around us is accurately reflected in the opinions of the other people that also participate in that particular niche environment?

So many studies have been conducted to find out why youth aren't more actively involved in the election process. One consistent item that pops up is that campaigns are geared towards the 50 and older crowd. Did RP actively court the younger voters? I honestly don't know.

My own personal experiences have shown me that there has been and will probably always be a certain amount of apathy on the part of the younger voters. "What difference does it really make?". I wonder if those particular people eventually get involved when they finally get to an age when local issues start to impact them and they finally realize that their voices are important. Who knows. But, eventually those young registered voters do start to "Rock the Vote".

another thing is his campaign just wasn't fashionable, freedom and ending orwellian wars aren't cool these days. You know what's cool voting for the first black president, he had hot chicks walking around college campuses during his election (maybe less so during the primary tho), hot chicks aren't gonna get themselves all excited over an old man who comes off as a bit goofy at times who's anti abortion (the ratio at the Ron Paul HQ wasn't the best). even if every youth in iowa, SC and NH and FL were to vote in the primary we can't be certain things would turn out differently. Dr. Paul himself said that he didn't expect to be in the White House and he said that before Iowa when it wasn't completely obvious.

Originally posted by eagleeye2
reply to post by ownbestenemy

 

Not youth... Jew.
You probly herd it wrong in a discussion, no biggie.

Excuse me?! Relevant discussions please. If you want to expound on that then lets; but you add nothing of value.

Originally posted by hadriana
I think the MSM does have a lot to do with it.
The older demographic watches the news and they will say tomorrow the polls open at blah blah.

In that aspect yes; but also I believe a bit more than just MSM in the regards. Typically as one gets older and understands that we have more control over our environment than we used to believe (think back when you were young [or if you are already] and how it felt that you had no control) and setting out to exercise your natural and inherent political power becomes a bit more important.

But the problem has deeper roots. Overall interest in elections of the 18-34 year old demographic I would believe is highly concentrated on the large scale elections and probably have no knowledge of just how much power they retain on the smaller and more local levels.

Is it education? Knowledge is virtually everywhere now and with information access at fingertips; not knowing when to vote is a piss-poor excuse in my opinion.

Originally posted by Tw0Sides

Originally posted by ownbestenemy
The question remains -- why has he failed to translate that "infinite" and "definite" support from the Internet, into the real world?

You know that answer better than most.
The MSM.
If they gave him just equal coverage, no bias needed, just the same air time.
It would be a RP win.
You know that.

That is simply not true.

The reason is because his apparent support on the internet is inflated as compared to other candidates.

It would be like taking a poll inside a church on who believes in God...and then claiming that overwhelming majority represents the rest of the world.

The fact is that Ron Paul has a very dedicated, very passionate, and very vocal base. But it is also a very small base as compared to the population of voters.

It doesn't matter how dedicated you are or how passionate you are about your candidate....you still only get one vote.

I am glad that those who have participated here have realized I wasn't knocking Congressman Paul and it is more of a look into how a loud and small vocal Internet following is trying to maintain that Mr. Paul has a large base.

As some has pointed out, most of this support derives from sites that will never give a true cross-section of the overall demographics of the States and the fact that I could go vote 3 different times on some on-line poll for Ron Paul shows his numbers are inflated.

Given that, the lackluster showing by the younger demographics in the primaries shows they have no real intention of affecting change or bringing about a different course in the American political theatre; but rather to whine, complain and then say it just isn't fair.

Here is something to consider: 23% of the U.S. population falls within the "youth" vote that I have been speaking of. That is, ages 18-34; but 35 and up consists of upwards of 50% of the population. Given those numbers it is obvious that older persons will always have the upper hand, but it doesn't mean the youth should sit at home and do nothing.