Just A Little Something To Think About

I have to get all your attention back on that website, fivethirtyeight.com. I told you it had a lot of interesting polls and tidbits about the election, and I have stumbled upon another. A recent Nickelodeon poll result was posted on the website, and it appears that the children’s vote in the election is extremely tight: Obama 51%, McCain 49%, with about 2.3 million kids voting. The actual projected popular vote right about now, according to the website, is approximately 51.6% for Obama to 46.8% for McCain, with the remaining 1.6% undecided.

So, although not significant, there is an increase in McCain supporters among children. This brings up some interesting ideas, one of which being, are there really more republican kids than adults? Or is it simply the fact that kids are influenced by their parents? I believe that the real solution is this:

The kids’ poll is a poll that is essentially one of their parents. Unless you get some really political little kids, I am inclined to believe that the kids are influenced by the views and opinions by their parents which are placed upon them. The kids then say that they are pulling for whichever candidate their parents are voting for. This is not uncommon. Kids look up to their parents and, whether their parents do or not, they will not look at the issue subjectively, and will be in favor of whoever their parents are regardless of the issues (which I doubt they know anything about anyways).

This would mean that a slight amount of kids, probably about 3%, eventually change their mind and actually shift from a republican point of view to a democratic point of view by the time they are eligible to vote. This also makes sense. Kids start taking political classes in high school and then in college as well, both institutions which (I personally believe) advocate a democratic behavior. Also, the majority of teachers seem to be democrats, and though maybe not overtly, I’m sure they can’t help at times but to inflict their own opinions on their students.

This is all personal speculation, but again just something to think about.