Questionable Poll Finds Kids Are Liberal. Duh.

The NYTimes has a poll they say reveals that late-teen early-20s folks are growing more liberal. (story here; poll results here) I'm having trouble finding that result in the numbers. Is an answer that Iraq is the biggest issue facing the country a sign that they're more liberal? Of course not; I think it (the larger issue of the war on terror, actually) is the biggest issue.

But if there's' a sign they're more liberal, it's in this question:

13. Do you think your generation will be better off, worse off, or about the same as your parents' generation?
Better off 25 Worse off 48 Same 25 DK/NA 2

The world of liberals is a world of hopelessness and despair. You have to think everything's on the way down tubes that are well lubricated to ensure a fast fall; otherwise, you would consider solutions other than massive government intervention.

And they do support massive government intervention:

• By 62 percent for to 26 percent against, they favor government-funded job training. Why? Can't they do it themselves like we did?
• By 60 to 28 percent, they want government to provide health insurance to those who can't get it together to afford it (not the exact wording of the question, unfortunately)
• By 63 to 27 percent, they think government should be involved in fixing gas prices
• By 62 to 32 percent, they favor a big new government health care system
  

Their negative views of the future have been molded by their hysteric and socialistic teachers. Global warming as been portrayed to youngsters since elementary school as a terror on the verge of overrunning the world. They've been taught that they're not independent and free, but rather a part of the village that needs the help of the village.

And as they've progressed through liberal academia, they've been smacked with disaster after disaster: population, energy and, of course, Bush is the "worst president ever."

It is clear, as expected, that they are more liberal, and more likely to vote Democratic, than older Americans they're compared to -- but since when is that new. Heartless if you're conservative when young, stupid if you're liberal when old. But in some areas, they're quite conservative: An even split on abortion, and very interestingly, 68 percent favoring some or heavy restrictions on immigration, and only 30 percent favoring open borders.

Only 20 percent never attend church, and 47 percent attend with frequency.

Here's the clinker in the data: Only 659 people nationwide were contacted. That's a very small sample for a national poll, and it's biased because the calling pool started with numbers that had responded to previous polls.

Since costly options are required to screen calls, and because people who don't work tend to be home more and have time to take polls, telephone polling tends to reach a lower skew on the affluence scale -- and that translates as more calls for government intervention.

So, to summarize: It's a weak poll that basically shows kids will be kids. But more sinister, it serves its liberal sponsors -- NYT, CBS and MTV -- some tasty fodder for their "we're all liberal, aren't we" grist mill.

hat-tip: memeorandum