The College Fix

The predictions were true: Republicans took the House, and the youth stayed home.

Republicans have so far gained 60 seats in the House of Representatives, six Senate seats and seven governorships. While Democrats maintained their majority in the Senate, Republicans also won at least 16 state legislative bodies.

According to exit polls, only 11 percent of voters were ages 18 to 29. In 2008, young voters made up 18 percent of the electorate. It’s even less than 2006, when the youth vote comprised 12 percent of the electorate.

“It reminds me a lot of 1994 when Republicans took Congress,” said Vanderbilt sophomore Nicole Burdakin, a self-identified Republican. “I think if Obama moves to the center like Clinton did, it will be a good thing for the government.”

Youth voters broke for Democrats 56-40 percent, which is similar to 2004-2006 levels during the Bush White House. In 2008, Obama carried 68 percent of those under 30.

Recent weeks have seen President Obama making a heavy push for youth voter turnout, including appearances on MTV and the Daily Show, and campuses all over the country. But polling showed Obama’s approval rating had sunk with youth voters — a recent Harvard Institute of Politics poll put Millennial support for Obama under 50 percent for the first time.

Early exit polls showed approval for Obama to only be at 45 percent among voters — similar approval numbers to voters in 1994 (44 percent approval for Clinton), and 2006 (43 percent for Bush).

“If this president is truly smart, he will read the handwriting on the wall and move towards the center. There he will meet the American people,” Carol Swain, a Vanderbilt law professor, wrote this morning on Facebook.

“It amazes me how anyone with a brain could see racism in the election results,” she added. “It’s not racist for the electorate to reputiate the president’s policies, programs, appointees, czars, spending patterns, and support for special-interest cronies.”

Junior, registered Democrat and resident of Tennessee Matthew Taylor said he was focused on the positive aspects of the election despite a clear Republican victory nationwide.

“As of 8:08 tonight, I am thankful that Democrats won New York, that Christine O’Donnell was defeated and that Joe Manchin was able to hold onto the late Robert Byrd’s seat,” Taylor said.

According to Professor of Political Science Marc Hetherington, minority party gains in Congress should not come as a surprise in an environment with 10 percent unemployment.

“Democrats will apparently also have something to be happy about. They’ll likely hold the Senate, based on some early wins in the East,” Hetherington said. “In sum, it appears to be a good night for Republicans, but it is not quite as good as some had forecast.”

Senior and Vanderbilt College Democrat President Naveed Nanjee said he was thankful for the students who voted in the election but also expressed his concerns about the next two years.

“I also hope that the Republicans will work with the president instead of only repealing previous bills that Obama has signed,” Nanjee said. “What is worrisome is the ideas of some of the Tea Party candidates, like privatizing social security, or worse eliminating Medicare.”

According to Hetherington, the chances of Republicans working with the president are slim.

“With the partisan divided government that will apparently emerge from this election combined with a political environment as polarized as this one, the next couple years could be pretty ugly,” Hetherington said. “Don’t hold your breath to see much in the way of major legislative accomplishments. I suspect that we’ll see very little cooperation in the months and years to come.”

“We make a great mistake if we believe that these results are somehow an embrace of the Republican Party,” Senator-elect Marco Rubio said in his victory speech. “What they are is a second chance — a second chance for Republicans to be what they said they were going to be not so long ago.”

Kyle Blaine is the news editor of the Vanderbilt Hustler. He is a member of the Student Free Press Association.

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