We should have seen this coming back in 1996 when a diverse group of marijuana advocates held a rally for Kemp.
I’d like to see this breakdown on more issues.
On which issues do young republicans and young democrats strongly disagree?
How do most members of my generation pick their party, if not by the popular-headline issues and positions the party claims to stand for?
I say give the young Republicans their weed, and plenty of it. Especially around election time.
Considering both issues are - with reasoning capacity - a very clear “yes”, but by social mores, have often been a “no”… interesting study which says something about a good chunk of the population lacking the capacity for independent thinking… including the difficulty of processing “new” social mores.
Sadly, says the most about the “silent” generation Republicans. “Conservative” for them apparently means they are stuck in the bigotry and narrow mindedness of the past, with zero hope of escaping their neandrathralian condition.
And these are a good chunk of the people running the country.
Yay for their high rate of heart disease.
Shortest beer lines? Best Molly? I don’t know, I haven’t been to a young persons party in a while. 
Yeah as I have noticed that things like Pot, Gay Marriage, etc, to the kids just seem to be like why this is an issue? Hopefully I will live long enough to see it become a non-issue. And no offense to the nice ones and I heard it first from my mom who is a member of that generation but the sooner they are all gone the better.
That was a harsh statement of mine that bordered the line on good taste. Mostly was just thinking of real hardened folks that really believe in this kind of thing, though it effects them zilch.
Little reference there for me, as my family are all social chameleons. They blend in, but don’t buy in.
I’d be more cautious about saying stuff like that. Every successive generation views the preceding one(s) as culturally/socially backward. Your children will likely look down on you for your outmoded views and likewise wish for your death.
Oh I am sure. And I am sure some part of their generation will turn into whiny white old men who are afraid of women and gays and whoever having power instead of the boys club or something like that. Just probably a lot less of of them. Now get off my lawn. 
Well, I meant that each generational change also alters the popular conception of what it means to be progressive. I think a lot of people that my generation (i.e. Millennials) would call bigoted probably don’t view themselves as such. They may actually consider themselves pretty forward-thinking compared to their parents. I can seen this happening in my own family, and I don’t doubt that my kids (should I ever have any) will regard me as quite conservative.
It doesn’t really matter what they want. Young Republicans don’t matter squat to their party, The Republican Party has painted itself into a corner, such that anybody showing even a modicum of sanity is sympathizing with the enemy. And that’s just on modest issues like whether or not the US should default on its debt, If they can’t tolerate reason on a question like that, how the hell are they going to let their kids smoke weed?
In related news, CPAC again excludes Gay Conservatives from its annual event.
Demographic changes are going to force the GOP to become less awful. Voter ID laws and gerrymandering can only take it so far, and I have a hard time imagining that a politician would put their their (often terrible) principles ahead of getting elected. Anyway, Young Republicans will eventually become decrepit Republicans, so I figure weed’ll be legal within one generation.
And they’ll be right to.
I would agree with the first half of that sentence but disagree with the second. I don’t know if generational change is the only way to make social progress. I certainly hope not.
Here’s the graph from another Pew research thing:
Look at that generation gap for Obama. The two graphs are a little misleading, the generation gap in voting continued in 2012 - young people who vote are strong democrat.
But yeah, I wonder too. What makes young people who are pro gay marriage and weed legalization think of themselves as republicans? Obviously there are other issues, but I wonder how they connect with the party? Is it the small government (for men, huge totalitarian government for women) message? Are they waiting to take their positions as the new old people who run everything?
Libertarian-leaning young people (e.g. some of the ones that go into the tech industry) would probably vote Republican but still remain progressive on certain issues. Being well-off and white, they can afford to be magnanimous.
Maybe there is hope. Even as individuals fight tooth and claw against evolution, it may be working its non-magic on their descendants.
I just wish it didn’t take so long. Think of all the things we, as a species, could get done if the troglodytes would only come out of the caves and join us.
