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Abstract
Barack Obama's 66-point margin of victory in 2008, among voters under the age of thirty, should prompt political scientists again to review whether there are any distinctive traits in terms of the ideology, partisanship or general voting habits of this age demographic. Scholars have sometimes been hesitant to investigate age as an independent variable, because of the notorious difficulties in untangling life-cycle, period and generational / cohort effects. I compare survey data from the past three young generations of Americans (Baby Boomers, Generation X, Millennials), arguing that if a similar finding can be demonstrated across all three of these cohorts, it is more evidence for a true life-cycle relationship between youth and politics. I argue that contrary to some accounts, youth indeed possess a "limited liberalism" in both some cultural and economic disputes. Younger voters also appear capable of making ideological distinctions between candidates for President, and across three generations tend to place themselves as closer ideologically to the Democratic candidates. Finally, while patterns of partisanship do vary somewhat by generation, younger independents show more constancy over time, in particular independents who say they "feel closer" to the Republican party; such voters are less warm to and loyal to the Republican party than are older "independent leaners." Finally, all the above findings are unlikely to be solely the product of differential patterns in mobilization and targeting by the two major parties, as a case example drawn from the 2004 presidential contest suggests.
