I’m still, slowly, reading The Howard Factor – printed by The Australian for the 10th anniversary of John Howard’s Prime Ministership. (I read one chapter a time on the occasion night before bed).
Nearing the end is a chapter by Caroline Overington on Howard’s South Park Conservatives. It looks at the voting trend of the youth.
The trend has obviously been toward Howard with, by 2004, less than 50% of young voters supporting Left candidates. This is particularly true of young males in the 18-24 bracket with 49% voting Liberal (remember generally conservative here is Oz) compared to 28% for the Labor Party (becoming more and more trendy and progressive). In the 25-30 year old age group, 62% voted for Howard. Our country's youngest voters are now the second biggest block of conservative support after the over 50s.
If I was writing something more detailed I would look at demographics, economics etc etc much more becuase it's not just Howard that is swinging them Right. But here is a fantastic quote from Overington: “Howard’s new constituency, the ‘young fogies’, adore him the way their parents loved to smoke dope.”
Howard’s policies are stereotyped to suit young people, young people are adapting to the world as it is today. They welcome the creation of more jobs and agree with much of Howard’s social conservatism. Even a Democrat survey showed that family was the most important issue to young people.
The Labor Party has missed the boat completely. Here is an example. In the middle of the 2004 election campaign star recruit Peter Garrett was brought to the Uni Bar at Adelaide University. Despite advertising (and the fact that people were going to be in the bar anyway), he only attracted 50 students and many of us were there to stir.
Goes to show the old saying – If you’re not a Socialist at twenty you have no heart, but if you still a socialist at forty you have no brain – is well and truly in its grave.
PS. Who first coined that phrase? I'm led to believe Churchill used it but wasn't the original.
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I have heard that Churchill used it in its form as you quote it, but I've also read that it originated with John Adams, third President of the US. A dinner guest after conversation with Adams and his sons said, "Sir, I perceive you have one son who is a democrat and one who is not." Adams replied, "Any man who is not a democrat at twenty has no heart, any man who is still a democrat at thirty has no brain."
When was John Adams? I've never done US History.
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