Somewhat lost in the attention being paid to race and gender in this historic presidential election campaign is the issue of generational change. According to Morley Winograd and Michael D. Hais, authors of Millennial Makeover: My Space, YouTube, & the Future of American Politics, Millennial voters will drive:

a tectonic realignment of the sort that occurs about every four decades, leading to a fundamental shift in policy priorities and voter coalitions. ... [and that] the party capturing the White House in 2008 has “a historic opportunity to become the majority party for at least four more decades,” and that the rising generation of Millennials (born between 1982 and 2003) will imprint the coming national discourse with its own temperament and predilections, washing away “the current politics of polarization and ideological deadlock” and putting in its place “a new landscape of collective purpose and national consensus that involves individuals and communities in solving the nation’s problems.” (Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times)

One key difference between Millennials and their elders is that they are far less concerned with race and gender identity issues:

In contrast to older generations that are sharply divided by sex and race in their ideology and party identification Millennials are united in their political leanings, a fact that serves to enhance the potential decisiveness of this powerful new generation.

Possibly this is because of changes such as the diversity and achievements of their generation. "40 percent of them are people of color" and girls now graduate at higher rates than boys.

According to Martha Irvine, given the growing racial diversity they have grown up with, race as a factor in voting decisions is much less an issues for younger voters. And Jocelyn Noveck finds that, in contrast to some older female supporters of Hillary Clinton, despite her loss, younger women viewed Clinton's candidacy to be a source of optimism and one of the many reasons why they were energized and enthusiastic about politics.

The Millennial generation is also large - the largest generational cohort in American history - they number about 100 million. And the impact and shift of this "biggest" generation is already visible. For the first time since the voting age was lowered to 18, youth turnout has increased in three successive political cycles. Young voters are also impressively engaged. In Oregon, for example, Betsy Hammond notes:

Each year, The Oregonian surveys the top Academic Achievers at all public and private high schools in a five-county metro area. This year's survey of nearly 500 valedictorians and top-achieving students at 100 schools found they love to follow politics, can't wait to vote and are ready to use their collective political clout to better the world.

"People my age . . . can bring in a fresh point of view and really help decide our country's future," says Marissa Connolly, a valedictorian at Hillsboro's Liberty High.

Unlike the inward-looking Gen X grads of a decade ago who have shown record-low voter participation, this year's scholars are part of a civic-minded, all-hands-on-deck generation hungry to take part in politics and government.

Young voters mostly identify themselves as Democrats and overwhelmingly support Barack Obama.  Despite a reputation for not showing up to vote, their participation and turnout has steadily increased and reached record levels. Only time will tell if indeed they will usher in an era of progressive politics but what is certain now is that young voters are a force that should not be ignored and will be fascinating to watch.

Related Reading:

Roger Cohen, writing in The New York Times, posits that it is the current era of social networks and connectivity that is driving support for Obama as well as creating a framework for understanding global politics.

Carla Marinucci of The San Francisco Chronicle says that the Millennial Generation is set to rock the vote.

sonnypi67 at junkdrawer67 is concerned that the book perhaps diminishes the contributions of Generation X to political change in favor of Millennials:

I found the premise of this book to be both encouraging and vexing. Encouraging because it seemed to suggest a major shift in politics in this country and God knows we need that. And vexing because, well, it seemed to be crediting such a change to the Millennial generation. It touched a GenX nerve. It’s happening already, I thought. The Millennials are coming! The Millennials are coming! And they’re going to get all the fucking credit and Generation X is going to get pushed to the back of the bus, if not off of it entirely.

Joyce Schwarz at Hollywood 2020 has a podcast interview with the authors.

Sara Robinson welcomes the authors to the Firedoglake Book Salon.

Judy Woodruff interviewed the authors on PBS' News Hour. You can read a transcript or view the video.

Young Democrats of America have gathered statistics to support their claim that young voters are the new Democratic base.

CIRCLE, the Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning & Engagement, has data on the "dramatic increase in youth voter turnout" in the 2008 primaries.

"Future Majority is a blog dedicated to covering the involvement of young voters in progressive politics."

Data showing evidence that young voters in Connecticut are increasingly Democratic and overwhelmingly supportive of Obama.

BlogHer CE Maria Niles admires the politics of young people at her blog PopConsumer