Political_Participation__Difference_Between_2008_and_2012_Election

Political Participation: What changed between 2004 and 2008 elections There are many factors that changed the way voters saw the government as well as reasons some voting habits changed. One of which was the fact that in 2008 President Obama had a much more diverse and in some cases younger support group. Another major reason the elections where completely different was aslo due to the ongoing global war on terrorism and where the two wars were headed. One difference between the 2004 election and the 2008 election is youth voting. There was roughly 23 million youth voters under the age of 30 during the 2008 election. This is a 3.5 million increase from 2004. Obama received his strongest support from the 18-to-29 year-old voting. The young voters are a much more diverse group of voters than the majority of elderly voters. Although there were voters with and without college experience who had different views, but one view they all had in common was they showed lots of support for the Democratic candidate Obama. This was due to the fact that Obama targeted youth voters and President Bush did not as much in 2004. [1] There was also a large rise in the voting by the African American population, to the tune of about a 5 percent increase. A rise in the Asian voting as well by seven percent. While the Caucasian voting percentage stayed steady to within one percent. This allowed Obama to access voters in all race and sexual groups successfully winning his election. [2] There was also the ongoing global war on terrorism with ongoing operations in Afghanistan as well as Iraq. Many people had wide spread views and feelings on why we were there, how much longer would we remain in Iraq, as well when would there be a concrete plan for withdrawal. The two parties had different views on the wars as well as how to handle the situation at hand. Ultimately the United States and the government were just in two completely different stages in between that four year span. Resources: 


1. http://www.civicyouth.org/PopUps/FactSheets/FS_08_exit_polls.pdf 2. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/21/us/politics/21vote.html