Gallup: Sharp increase in supporting gov’t promotion of traditional values among younger voters
posted at 2:05 pm on October 7, 2011 by Ed Morrissey
While social conservatives gather in Washington DC for the Values Voters Summit, a new Gallup poll shows that they may be gaining traction among younger voters. Overall, voters are narrowly split on whether government should promote traditional values at 48/46, down from a high of 59/39 in 2002 in the wake of the 9/11 attacks. However, when it comes to voters between 18 and 34 years of age, the trend is dramatically different:
Americans’ once-prevailing view that government should do what it can to promote traditional values in society has weakened in the past decade. Today 48% hold that view, while nearly as many, 46%, say government should not favor any particular set of values. …
The recent decline in support for government advancement of traditional values in society comes primarily from Republicans. While Republicans remain more supportive of this policy position than are independents and Democrats, their support has dropped by more than 10 percentage points since 2008, from 71% to 59%. By contrast, Democrats’ support for it has held steady at about 40%, while independents’ has been more variable.
But look at this chart demonstrating trend lines by age:
Gallup can’t quite figure out how to explain this:
The reason for these shifts in views by age is unclear. They neither track with changes in respondents’ overall political ideology — the percentages of each group labeling themselves “conservative” have held fairly steady over the same period — nor do they parallel approval of the president. Presidential job approval rose sharply in 2009 among all groups when President Barack Obama replaced George W. Bush, and that might have been responsible for the increased support for government action with respect to traditional values the same year. However, approval of Obama has since declined among young adults as well as among older age groups, while young adults’ support for government’s promoting of traditional values has continued to rise.
CNS News wonders why no one seems to have picked up on this counterintuitive finding:
While a Lexis-Nexis search indicates that U.S. newspapers and wire services included in that database published 291 stories yesterday and today citing the vaguely defined, left-wing Occupy Wall Street movement, not one of them mentioned a Gallup poll quietly released yesterday that documented a trend Gallup itself cannot explain: a “recent surge” in the percentage of young adults who say government should “promote traditional values.”
Why “counterintuitive”? Young voters tend towards libertarianism or progressivism, or at least they have in the past. Both of those philosophies reject government sponsorship of social values, and the latter rejects many of those values entirely. These voters generally are enthusiastic Democratic Party voters, and Ron Paul’s brand of libertarianism is especially attractive to younger non-progressives.
So why the sudden dramatic change over the last three years? Perhaps the failure of Obama and the Democrats have younger voters — who face the most difficult job market in 30 years — questioning the entire progressive agenda and moving back towards traditional values as a result. We’ll see what this means in practical terms when it comes to elections in November 2012, certainly.
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I’d like to see the Male / Female breakout on this.
HondaV65 on October 7, 2011 at 2:09 PM
Just shrink government. “Values” are none of the government’s business. The government should be so small it’s irrelevant to values and to almost everything else.
Kohath on October 7, 2011 at 2:14 PM
As if kids today have any concept of what “traditional values” are. My guess is their concept of “traditional values” bears no resemblance to earlier generations “values”.
If kids today expect that they are entitled to anything they can think of, of course they would agree that the gubbamint should promote, and provide, them.
BobMbx on October 7, 2011 at 2:17 PM
Less Government = Better Life
That’s my traditional value
ignatzk on October 7, 2011 at 2:18 PM
So get to those polls and vote youngins
cmsinaz on October 7, 2011 at 2:18 PM
This is why Ron Paul is so popular with the yoof vote!
MeatHeadinCA on October 7, 2011 at 2:18 PM
Oh look a black ball of Romney’s speech, why am I not surprized?
petunia on October 7, 2011 at 2:20 PM
Maybe it’s the Roe Effect.
obladioblada on October 7, 2011 at 2:20 PM
How do they define “traditional values”? To some of them it could mean redistribute wealth from the rich to the poor cause that’s what Jesus would do.
I want the government to promote American history, culture and traditions, teach American-Exceptionalism, emphasizing the melting pot, rejecting multi-culturalism and so forth – as part of our educational system. Beyond that I don’t know how much I want the government to be involved in promoting “values”. Both of the Obama’s promote their values. No sale.
Buy Danish on October 7, 2011 at 2:21 PM
Explaination…….The government is currently promoting the opposite of traditonal values.
Liberatarians do not “oppose government sponsoring traditional values” Only a neo libertarian from the 60’s believes that.
“traditional VALUES” are not “political” in their mere nature and are not just believed because they have existed for the longest time. They are in fact essential to human existence and the promotion of liberty.
For instance “tradiditonal marriage” (in fact the only marriage) is based on the families desire to be cohesive ,, not on sexual desires.
The notion of “rights” garnered from sexual desires is idiotic.
The Youth are the ones with the most to lose .
LeeSeneca on October 7, 2011 at 2:22 PM
No need to leap to conclusions. Very little is posted at Hot Air at this time of day. Ed’s at the VV summit and Allah’s shift hasn’t started yet.
Buy Danish on October 7, 2011 at 2:23 PM
I can see a higher emphasis on familial ties and being pro life among people my age, so this doesn’t surprise me much. We understand that our progressive boomer parents failed, and we want to go a different way.
However, younger people are also wildly accepting of gay marriage. The way we see it, yes, more families should stay together, parents ought to instill more traditional discipline in their children, and abortion is a really horrible thing. We’re totally fine with that family involving two men or two women, but most of the “traditional values” concept remains intact.
ernesto on October 7, 2011 at 2:27 PM
While I disagree that it is the government’s job to push values, but instead the Job of the Church; this is nice to see.
E L Frederick (Sniper One) on October 7, 2011 at 2:28 PM
The back lash has begun…
katy on October 7, 2011 at 2:28 PM
The “Law of Unintended Consequences”…
… You just have to love it.
Seven Percent Solution on October 7, 2011 at 2:29 PM
If I designed a poll I would not ask such a vague question as this. This poll should be treated as completely meaningless as “traditional values” is more like a Rorschach test than a meaningful word for younger voters.
I strongly doubt that the kids are thinking of the type of traditional values which value summit voters would approve. The best case for the value summit voters would that the kids are registering their opposition to teenage pregnancy, or at least that my best stab at reading the tea leaves here.
thuja on October 7, 2011 at 2:31 PM
ernesto on October 7, 2011 at 2:27 PM
ditto on this.
IR-MN on October 7, 2011 at 2:32 PM
A great traditional value is thrift: not being a spendthrift.
Do not spend more than you take in.
A penny saved isn’t very much but you get to keep your earning of it.
Get government out of my bedroom.
Get government out of my house.
Get government out of my life and assume I am law abiding until proven otherwise.
And get off of my lawn!
Kids see the yawning chasm of debt that they are being pushed into by the ‘No Child Left Behind, Every Child Must Go To College’ crowd and seeing that this is way too costly and doesn’t mean anything as they are not taught the critical thinking skills to handle life, they are just ‘educated’. And they have already had enough of that to that point in time to see how pointless it is.
And the great enabler of this pushing of more authority over your life? Government.
The one putting the regulations in place to reward the bad actors and the spiraling cost of everything? Government.
How about government learn to live within its means, first, before promising the Earth, Moon and Sky and then delivering only the shackles to be enslaved to it? Don’t make promises you can’t keep and government has been making scads of those and now is shown that it can’t keep them even if it wanted to.
Yeah, I see a whole bunch of traditional values that make great sense now to kids based on what we have let government do to them.
Perhaps we can start changing our attitude towards government away from ‘good managers’ to ‘hey, is this really necessary?’ sorts of people. If the young break from Leftism, then the game is up and done at the roots of it. And then things really get interesting.
ajacksonian on October 7, 2011 at 2:33 PM
I would also add that this is most certainly a social phenomenon: this has everything to do with the repudiation of our parents’ social tendencies, rather than a particular set of politics. I think Ed’s reaching a bit with that final quip.
ernesto on October 7, 2011 at 2:36 PM
Yup. Things like murder are irrelevant. All that matters is money & property. Right?
itsnotaboutme on October 7, 2011 at 2:42 PM
I know a lot of teens that are shunning Facebook and now playing football in the street; skateboarding and hanging in the park. Without cell phones. My kid wants me to disconnect his cell phone and gave me back my laptop.
I won’t disconnect the cell but I’m glad he’s off Facebook. Oh, and they all HATE that show Glee. With a vengeance.
Key West Reader on October 7, 2011 at 2:42 PM
Caution! I think more information is needed here. It would be interesting to know what these young voters consider “traditional” values. Remember, these are not members of the Greatest or Boomer Generations.
matthewbit07 on October 7, 2011 at 2:42 PM
Finally, the One Percent speak out. Maybe the youth are listening.
http://themorningspew.com/2011/10/07/the-one-percent-speaks-out/
bloggless on October 7, 2011 at 2:43 PM
Good. Maybe we can get back to marriage is for life. There is no such thing as a legal abortion. If you kill a child in the womb, it is murder. The one I think the new generation seems to have a problem with is that gays should be in the closet as a traditional value.
Well, here is for hoping that we can actually get some traditional values put back into place. I really think the marriage is for life would take care of much of the problems.
It would also be nice to have the traditional value of each person is responsible for their own life, from the age of majority until death. Getting rid of the generational theft would go a large part of the rest of the way to helping repair the nation.
astonerii on October 7, 2011 at 2:46 PM
Doesn’t Occam’s razor suggest that the likely explanation is an error in the poll?
Rational Thought on October 7, 2011 at 2:50 PM
Why are you complaining? The less people see of Romney the more they like him. The more they see him the more they hate him.
He’s been comfortable with flying under the radar so far – why switch it up now?
HondaV65 on October 7, 2011 at 2:53 PM
I have always been torn on this. “Promote” really needs to be defined. I hate the idea of social engineering that is done by congress, because someone feels fatty foods or smoking is wrong.
I don’t have a problem if we put up don’t do drugs posters, but don’t start giving subsidies to solar energy because coal is “evil”.
jeffn21 on October 7, 2011 at 2:54 PM
You’re delusional. You only have to look at places that kind of HAVE “marriage for life” to see that it causes more problems than it solves.
Like … Iran.
Utter misery … which leads to inventive “solutions” in order to get out of a marriage – such as false allegations of adultery followed by stoning.
Then again – perhaps you consider stoning a traditional value.
And … by the way – weren’t you OPPOSED vociferously to Perry’s Gardasil EO? Didn’t you say that EO had the threat of government guns behind it?
Hyperbole aside – how then do you justify “mandating” a marriage for life? And what do you propose to do with people who refuse to obide by your mandate?
Lock them up?
HondaV65 on October 7, 2011 at 2:57 PM
“Shut up, get back in school or I’ll cut off your allowance”
BobMbx on October 7, 2011 at 3:05 PM
An Islamic male merely has to say “I divorce you”, and he’s single.
A female, much like a mule that doesn’t want to pull a plow, doesn’t have that option.
BobMbx on October 7, 2011 at 3:07 PM
Today’s young had been raised on that “there is only the right way of thinking” since kindergarten till college (and beyond).
That young people supporting this, I have no doubt, but I am weary of this result.
What does “a gubmint promoting tradition values” mean?
Sir Napsalot on October 7, 2011 at 3:10 PM
So no marriage for live in Iran huh?
Why in the hell then, would we implement an extremist solution here in America that even the extremists in Iran won’t?
HondaV65 on October 7, 2011 at 3:10 PM
So, The United States of America up until 1950’s was a miserable place that was backwards moving and had no happiness in it? Marriage back then was extremely difficult to get out of. It required you to prove that the marriage was irreconcilable.
You are a citizen of this country right?
astonerii on October 7, 2011 at 3:18 PM
Like you always argue about things, such as gay marriage. You do not have to participate in it.
Funny how no matter what facts change your position is always the same.
But I understand how you might find marriage for life to be a problem. It would completely destroy your gay marriage dreams.
astonerii on October 7, 2011 at 3:21 PM
One’s answer to that question depends entirely on race.
ernesto on October 7, 2011 at 3:27 PM
Philosophically, property alone is sufficient as the umbrella. Money is a certificate placing a quantified value of your property. Murder is the most direct violation of your property.
anuts on October 7, 2011 at 3:35 PM
I would guess that a) younger voters have a different idea of what comprises “traditional values” and b) many of them were too young to remember the embarrassments of the Larry Craig set. That would also explain why voters age 35-54’s support has precipitously dropped.
RightOFLeft on October 7, 2011 at 3:45 PM
You really think that blacks had a worse time back in the 1950’s than they do today? Far higher percentage of blacks had their own business back then. A far higher percentage had jobs that paid good wages. A far higher percentage had an education. They just simply traded one form of discrimination for another. Before it was discrimination on the outside towards superficial aspects. Now it is internalized discrimination that eats away at their souls to the point that they themselves do not treat themselves as human.
astonerii on October 7, 2011 at 3:55 PM
This.
Get the hell out of my back pocket.
Get the hell out of my bedroom.
Get the hell out. Period.
nukemhill on October 7, 2011 at 4:03 PM
Can’t get out of your pocket. We do need defense, justice, executive branch, legislative branch, and judicial branches of government to be paid for. So, it is not going to happen.
Imagining what kind of morals you personally have, I would imagine that staying out of your pockets would be pretty impossible as well. Those who have non traditional values are those you see sitting at home or out on the street from 12AM until 11:59:59.99999999PM and never at work. People with traditional values would do no such thing, it is against their nature and their values. You hate of values shows that what you really want is the government to be in your pocket.
So, the government is in your bedroom? Please, tell me what aspect the government is in your bedroom? Do you like to lie and exaggerate and make things up? That would certainly be one of those non traditional values things, no wonder traditional values scare you so much. Who is in your bedroom pray tell?
Wow, get out. period. Now that is quite the argument. Soulds like you want no government. You must imagine yourself one of those super villains in film that can take on all the good guys and run things, maybe like the joker perhaps? There are options for people like you. Find a few friends, arm yourselves up, and head south into Central and South America and find yourself a small area to call your own. I am sure you can either negotiate a few hundred thousands acres to be purchased for you to have to yourselves, and rule yourselves. Or you could just take over an area through armed force and then disband what ever commanding officers you had so you can have an area void of government. A total free for all state.
astonerii on October 7, 2011 at 7:28 PM