A disturbing trend I've noticed among some Young Democrats in my area

[mrreowwr_kittty]

I was wondering if I'm alone in this. I'm pretty active in local politics here in AZ. As such, I'm frequently around young party activists. On a few occasions I've had conversations with kids between, say, 19 and 25 and come to the disturbing realization that they are anti-choice. Mind you, these are Democratic activists. College Dems and Young Dems. One of them is a candidate in a very important county race. He got endorsed by Right To Life. Not only that, but his answers to the survey indicated some pretty extremist views on a variety of topics including abortion, contraception, stem cell research, and end of life issues. Needless to say, I and many other women are stunned by this and wondering how the hell this young man was able to get so far in the party! You just kind of assume that Dem candidates are at least nominally pro-choice. He's a devout Catholic, as are the other young anti-choice Dem activists I talked to.

What I'm wondering, and I know this is getting conspiracy theory-ish, is if there's some kind of movement in the church to infiltrate the ranks of Young Democrats with anti-choice ideologues. Have any of you noticed this?

[bliss_eternal]

1. I don't have access to many younger Dems...

...so I haven't noticed what you speak of specifically. But what I have noticed(about this age group) may help you understand why they are this way a bit more...

I have a good friend that works for a public university. She's (I think) in her late 50's, and she's seen many age groups come through the campus (including mine--I met her when I started college. She recently expressed concern over how mentally lazy they seem to be. She said most seem to need to be walkeded through the simplest of tasks, and they get frustrated (and very angry) if you don't hold their hand and spoon feed them information. She claims she's never seen any other generation like this one.

I saw a 60 minutes report on this age group around the time of the last election--they attempted to link the access (and excessive use of) technology to this generations various "issues." Having access to so much technology (more than any generation before it) could be in part responsible for why they are this way. They trust and rely on computers to do their thinking, and their parents.

60 minutes said many have grown up w/parents that feel they struggled so much to get things in life, and they wanted to shield their children from that. So the kids were given much of what many of us have had to work to obtain in life.

So maybe it isn't necessarily that religion has targeted them, but more that they are less apt to question religious doctrine, their parents and other "powers that be", and haven't yet figured out they have a right to their own opinions on things (outside of their parents, religion, etc.). :shrug:

[mrreowwr_kittty]

2. Interesting.

You know, I hate to lapse into this "when I was your age..." mentality, but there is a definite sense with young people nowadays that everything should be handed to them.

I also have a theory that all this self esteem psychobabble garbage that kids are pumped up with nonstop leads a lot of them to become insufferable narcissists. I have yet to meet a kid lately who isn't "gifted". How can every child be "gifted"? And let's not even get started on the proliferation of reality shows that give untalented young people 15 minutes of fame and adoration. I really think that this leads naturally to many of them becoming anti-choice because they can't bear to think that they weren't special angels from Gawd from the moment of conception and that their mommies might have considered aborting them. That's the vibe I get from these kids. They rarely have anything approaching a scientific or logical argument. It's emotional plaints like, "But what if my mom felt like that about meeeeee??"

[bliss_eternal]

3. LOL--The "Look at Me" generation....

(...I think a Newsweek article called them that). Of course they feel entitled (and yes, I've noticed it, too).

Do you ever hear parents saying,"...you can do that when you're older"...or wait till you're a grown-up to do..."whatever?
Of course, w/the exception of sex or drinking?

But I digress...;)

I have to agree on all counts. I'm not sure if reality tv is a cause or a symptom of this, but let's toss in MySpace and all the "social networking "crap, too. Every aspect of their lives must be photographed, documented, and discussed on-line. It's like if no one is watching, it's just not worth doing--damn it! I swear we saw someone getting sick at the mall last night, and they were trying to find their phone to photograph it. :crazy::puke:

It's probably worth noting that this is also a generation featuring children conceived w/technology in some cases. Their parents ushered in "in vitro fertilization" and other advances--for those who just had to have a child THEY conceived, that LOOKED just like them. :eyes: So there's no way they can consider the possibility of someone accidentally becoming pregnant and just not wanting to carry to term.

Trust me, if a kid grows up hearing all too frequently from any adult in their life,"...don't EVER have kids--they ruin your life!"...that kid becomes pro-choice.

[ismnotwasm]

4. I just had a conversation with my youngest daughter

Someone had called her "ignorant" because she's nonpolitical. I used abortion as an example of what the political process protects, without lecturing her. This neo hippie festival going, free-spirited, dreadlocked, child (ok, 22) was appalled her right to choose was threatened, and got that look of indignation in her eye I've always loved her for (She's so feisty and honest she's kind of my favorite)

It is NOT a conspiracy theory, I have 4 grown children-all in their 20's now, who have friends, who have friends, and it's amazing the information you can collect. It's not just Catholics, but those disgusting mega churches are all anti choice AND a couple of them use the bible to subjugate women. Mars Hill immediately comes to mind, Saddleback isn't any fucking better.

They emotionalize the fetus, you now fetus = cute little baby, not a parasitic growth of tissue that threatens women's lives when things go wrong. They cherry pick the bible so much I'm surprised they can hold their head up. I read the bible quite a bit out of self defense