Why is Support for Bush Higher Among College Students?

You're right...and wrong. I am on campus right now and i can tell you it is really pro bush for a university.

But i think this stems not out of a love for fascism, but rather complete and total apathy. Ever since i became really interested in military history and politics i have noticed how my peers don't give a *#*#*#*#. Nevermind these are the people that make very important descions in their lives. They really just dont care.

So in conclusion, don't be worried about a resurgent Fascist movement, rather be very worried that democracy is being taken for granted in this fine nation. I can tell you i was the only one on my floor to vote in the election that decided our governor. (damn you Blagojevic).

The Dems swept every state election there was, but was i disillisioned with democracy? hell no. I plan on voting in 2004 and i can't gurantee it's going to be Bush.

 

> So in conclusion, don't be worried about a
> resurgent Fascist movement

Damn.

 

one word - apathy.

 

wrong...

wrong again

this part easily could make the most sense however i'd slap it right under broad generalization. paying attention or caring about the news isn't exactly the first step to an over all understanding of somthing like politics would be reading books/articles. most all of my interest came from my teachers(proving one point wrong) and alot of books/my parents. the news if anything has become so negative and redundant that it's pretty much the worst thing you could get someone started on half the time. i'd blame the lack of youth interest mostly on their parents than i would the youth. true, most kids irregardless would rather get drunk than sit around and discuss world events, but at home myself and manny used to get together on the weekends and shoot the *#*#*#*# all the time.

 

Oh yes because, of course, the youth of world history have always tended to be fascists.

 

Re: Re: Why is Support for Bush Higher Among College Students?

Will you atleast try to read every post?

 

I agree with the apathy answer.

Try curbing drinking or removing parking on a campus and see what happens though.

 

Another reason might be economic status.

I would think that kids going to college would tend to come from families that are better off financially, which is historically a more Republican constituency.

 

There are a lot more kids from lower-income families going to college today than there were 35 years ago, yet college campuses are far more conservative than they were then.

 

Re: Re: Re: Re: Why is Support for Bush Higher Among College Students?

Ha ha ha !!! . Well, he has to protect himself from the mind controlling beams that come from the liberal media over there.

I think ElJefe and those who mention apathy are probably accurate. People here in British universities are apathetic about politics as well. They see a decieving government, a shambolic, self destructive opposition party (the Conservatives), and a third party that still hasn't quite broken the hold of the two party system (Lib Dems).

 

I think 35 years ago was probably more the abboration than the norm. Prior to the 60's colleges probably were more conservative than the general population.

The Vietnam war made the left the more vocal voice from the campuses, but I would guess there was still a large portion of silent conservatives. When I went to college, the liberals were still the "loudest" voice, but the Business and Engineering departments that I was in were basically conservatives but who had no interest politics.

Now that there is no galvanizing issue for the liberals to rally behind, we are probably more back to "normal". Of course when the issue of raising tuition comes up, the entire campus can become quite liberal.

 

Maybe kids are just smarter than we think they are? Sounds about right.

 

Yep, I went to CU-Boulder, home to all those infamous drinking riots in the 1990's. It was weird, because the school had really cracked down on drinking after being featured on Dateline NBC with a wild frat party, and receiving a $500,000 grant from the federal government specifically to fight underage and binge drinking on campus. It was like a police state for the first couple of weekends of the semester (one night I saw an entire line of policemen walking up an alley, shoulder to shoulder, all the way across the alley, approaching a party to break it up, it was weird...) Eventually, people just lost it. Without hijacking the thread too much, it illustrates a point, that college students want to fight for something, believe in something, and they really don't know what it is anymore, so they lash out and you get dumb riots about drinking, sports championships, whatever...

Vietnam galvanized a generation. College students cared then because their buddies, people they had gone to high school with, grown up with, were dying in Vietnam. They had something to care about and believe in, and they acted.

Unfortunately, since the Vietnam war, we have had political scandal, followed by political scandal. Watergate and Iran/Contra pretty much jaded anyone on politics between the ages (now) of 25 and 45. I was reading some Hunter S. Thompson a couple of weeks ago, his letters during the time leading up to the 1988 presidential campaign and during the Iran/Contra hearings. Regardless of his political leanings, he said something very prophetic. Paraphrasing, he said that "we are in danger of losing an entire generation to the political process. They will watch Iran/Contra and see the corruption, see leaders sell our country and get away with it, they will become jaded. They will not care to get involved in the political process." He said that in 1987 and I can't think of a better way to describe basically an entire generation born from 1965 through 1985.

I don't know if it's our affluence, the corruption and dishonesty we have witnessed in politics, our lack of sacrifice. Probably a combination of them all, but political apathy doesn't even begin to describe the majority of this generation. I hope this changes. Or maybe we're just pissed off at our parents....

 

And what exactly is the problem with Political apathy?

Is it so bad that college students might focus more on studying and enjoying themselves, than on political protests?

When I was in college the fraternities partied hard, but they were also very active in charity events.

Maybe the fact that our government is such a stable democracy has something to do with the apathy.

When you have to point to bugging a political opponent, and selling weapons to our allies as the terrible acts of our elected leaders, it isn't suprising that young people don't get excited about it.

 

Being selfish is cool. That's why you get so many Republicans on the campus.

 

Yes, taking classes so that you can learn science and business so that you can lead a productive life is selfish. Better you spend your time chanting no war for oil.

 

And chanting "Lesbians against Bush!"

Are you for real? Where have all of these "conservative" professors come from? It seems that only a month ago the conservatives where decrying the "liberal" professors in America and listing papers dealing with death to America and Americans that have been written by the professors.

I only ask that people make up their minds. Are the majority of America's college students being taught by liberals, conservatives, or misc.?

 

The majority of students are being taught math, science, computer programming and such, so the political affiliation of their professors is meaningless.

Face it, most people in this country just don't care as much about politics as people on this board do. Which is probably good, because the quickest thing to get people involved would be something bad like thousands of people being killed by terrorists, or in a war.

 

Are you really so simple as to believe the pursuit of a 'productive life' and a politically engaged life are exclusive of each other?

 

No, but I don't believe that just because one is not politically engaged they are selfish, as another poster suggested.

And for those who major in some of the demanding scientific fields or have to pay their own way through school with part time jobs, it is easy to understand why they might want to spend the limited free time they have relaxing instead of being politically active.

 

Somehow I think the so called 'life' is a constant with regards to human population. If human X's life is getting better, human Y's life will be getting worse. If you have a good life, your complements will have a worse life. This is so because the resource of this world is a constant. Therefore there's no such thing called free productivity or betterments. High education is a way for the Haves to establish themselves into a position for resourses so that they can drive a Vovlo, their fellow members of the society can drive a Hyundai.

Yeah, these college republicans are thinking about their first Volvo, or BMW, and they are damn proud of themselves in such a point in life.

I wish them bad luck (so they will become democrats later in life)