Daily Kos

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  •  Ironic (none / 0)

    I wonder how many Naderites will eventually become conservative Republicans. Many of them remind me of their forefathers, the radicals of the New Left. I am thinking about the types who protested and rioted in the late 1960s and early 1970. I think of David Horowitz.

    Anyway I really wonder about many of the young far left folks who voted for Nader. If the statistics are to be believed Nader's strongest support was from college age students who were white and well-off. College students who have yet to deal with the pressures of the "real world".

    Horowitz was once involved with radical groups. He was out to the far, far left. In the Reagan years he shifted to the far right, where he is today.

    What I think may happen with many of these fringe types is that once they get out of school, once they start working, their views will change. When they have to start paying taxes, when they have to start paying bills, and worrying about crime, their left-wing radicalism will abate.

    In time they will eventually move to the suburbs, settle down, have kinds. Like the forefathers, who turned to the right in the late 1970s and 1980s, they will make the same transition.

    This author's conversion doesn't really suprise me. There is lots of precedent for it.

    by jiacinto on Sun Feb 27, 2005 at 06:04:41 PM PDT

    •  if the last election was any guide (none / 0)

      we managed to talk a great deal of them back into the democratic party. on my campus at least, a great number of the volunteers for the dean and later kerry campaigns were former nader voters, who were upset at the corporatization of the democratic party under the guidence of the DLC, but who no longer believed nader's canard that "there was no difference between the parties." nationally, the under-30 vote shifted from being equally divided between bush and gore in 2000 to 55-45 for kerry in 2004, with a 10% higher turnout. that shift has got to be in large part due to the nader voters coming home. you can denigrate them as "fringe groups," but they made the difference in several races, and were probably what kept the dems from getting blown out in the last election.

      surf putah, your friendly neighborhood central valley samizdat

      by wu ming on Sun Feb 27, 2005 at 06:58:44 PM PDT

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      •  55-45 was the breakdown among (none / 0)

        under 30 voters.  The 24 and under voters were even more strongly Democratic, one poll I've seen puts it around 60-40.

        John McCain's Something for Everyone Plan: Military draft for youth, SS benefit cuts for elderly, Middle Class destruction, stock market plunge for wealthy.

        by IhateBush on Sun Feb 27, 2005 at 10:08:33 PM PDT

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