Pennsylvania primary analyses show a clear divide: not only in Pennsylvania>, but in most states, older voters favor Clinton, younger voters favor Obama. Is it possible that the most telling demographic factor in the Democratic nominating process may not be gender, or race, but age?
All three are historic. Hillary Clinton would be the first woman candidate for president, Barack Obama the first black candidate, and the electorate would include its first viral constituency.
It takes on a science fiction aura. Out there in space somewhere, or in mySpace, are tens of thousands of young people who constitute the first generation of humans in history to be born and reared in the digital age. They are called the Millennials. “They’re so well connected that, if an employer doesn’t match those expectations, they can tell thousands of their cohorts with one click of the mouse,” says Claire Raines, a consultant specializing in generations in the workplace.
Or, if a candidate doesn’t match their expectations – or does – they can mobilize instantly with one click of the mouse. This is an unprecedented sort of power, in an environment where voter support until now has been drummed up one face at a time behind a screen door, or one voice on a telephone. If a viral constituency favors one candidate, or disfavors another, it must mean potentially that the favored candidate could flash a signal at his Website at noon, and have the viral constituency on the move toward the polling places by 12:15.
In stories from Pennsylvania, voters have acknowledged their age and experience – and hers – as factors in their choosing to support Clinton. “It’s not that I don’t like Barack,” one voter told The New York Times, “I just don’t think he’s seasoned enough.” Said another: “Barack Obama has no experience and no plans. He just works on emotions, and this is why young people like him. People who are more mature analyze things. They’re wiser.”
Marketers struggle with ideas for reaching the Millennials, who are indifferent to traditional media and are completely fragmented by their Internet environment. The only way to reach them en masse is not by going out to them, but finding some button to push that galvanizes them to connect and come in. Once that button is pushed, it only takes a click of a mouse.
These people are barely in their 20s, but they don’t fit the old American mold of kids who are better seen but not heard. They are described as eager for challenges, seriously self-confident, goal-oriented, optimistic, active in their communities, champions of diversity, environment-conscious, reality-based, conscious of their positions in a post-9/11 world, and advocates for change.
And they are totally connected. You can almost see one of them reading the comments of a more mature, wiser Pennsylvania voter, and saying, “Analyze this!” and reaching for the mouse.