Marc Ambinder over at the Atlantic Monthly showed a chart suggesting a future re-alignment of voting patterns toward the Democratic party and away from the Republican party. His chart reinforces the idea that it is not naiveté on the part of young voters in supporting Obama’s Presidential candidacy, it is rather that there has been a marked shift within party politics for the Gen-Y voters.

This bodes well for Democrats if they can keep themselves from imploding in the run-up to the November election.

The interesting thing to note about Ambinder’s chart is it shows a gradual shift in party affiliation among 18-29 year olds in the 16 years from 1992-2008. It is not a wholesale shift that can be attributed solely to the Bush Administration or the War in Iraq. This is a real generational gap that bodes well for the future of the Democratic party.

My take on this is that the Republicans overreached after they gained control of the house in 1994. The Republican Party began to be dominated by social and foreign policy conservatives in a way that reduced their appeal amongst this next generation. Young fiscal conservatives and moderates had no where to go except the Democratic party.

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