Dr. Anonymous and Friends
I've got a bone to pick with the monger and sean...seems they have a problem with youth voters and Eminem. I thought the fact that 50m young Americans didn't have landlines and could not be polled was a fascinating stat. It's is too bad I wasn't using Dr. Monger's amazing "20/20 hindsight machine" to see that the democrats would lose and that the youth vote would not matter when I was writing that on election day.

Now for their dislike of Eminem: from Sean's diatribe, I think he means rap as well...which is fine, because I have never met anyone over 40 who actually understands/cares about rap. Some of this is covert racism (rap being a black art form), and sometimes it because older people (by that I mean pre Gen X) never grew up listening to rap...just like how older generations didn't understand rock 'n roll when it first appeared.

Our Dr. Monger (Anonymous, yet he wants us to know his qualifications) decides to weigh in on the youth vote:

A Massive Youth Turnout! Cell-phone Users and Bruce Springsteen Fans!! Omigod!!!

- Ha. Ha Ha Double-Ha. I knew this would be B.S. from the beginning
And the buzz about the nasty anti-Bush Eminem video, motivating an army of angry 20-somethings to the polls? Excuse me while I laugh my a** off. Eminem fans, in aggregate, have an IQ in the mid two figures. Most of them could probably not figure out an Arby's menu, let alone a presidential ballot. Anyone who can't pull his pants up all the way and doesn't know which way a ballcap should sit on the head is not going to be a deciding factor in a Presidential race. Ha Ha HAAAAAAAAAAAA. "Youth vote". Snicker.

*Ouch*, so much snickering. I'm glad that the doctor declared his 'lack of fear' from the beginning about how sure he was the youth vote was going to stay home. Oh wait, he never did: Not one previous posting about this "absolute BS", as he puts it. What a fearless prediction from our anonymous poster! The day after the election he tells us that from the beginning he never feared these 'idiots', nor Eminem. Hell they shouldn't even have a vote, nevermind be taken seriously. Oh, except this tidbit from a few days before:

It's noon on the Wet Coast. I am now convinced that Kerry will win a narrow but convincing majority of the electoral college and a very narrow but unshakeable plurality of the popular vote.

Oooops! Doesn't sound so sure of the vote 'youth' there, does he? And the only constituency that could have won it, would have been the youth. Oh, but he knew they wouldn't show. Right.

Okay reader, you'd think: who would take this kind of thing seriously, right? Sean from Polspy decides its his time to join this dogpile:

I find nothing here to argue with. Running into Eminem fans on Edmonton’s transit system is something of a regular occurrence. Let’s face it — most of them will never have their own vehicle unless they steal it. They also can’t afford decent headphones — I can hear every cruddy Eminem lyric from the other end of the bus.

I try to keep an entire bus between myself and the Eminem fans as I don’t want them drooling on me. They’re even worse than Wal-mart employees are for that.

Too funny! Look how poor they are! They take public transit! They are young, poor and stupid! Oh wait. Sean: aren't you riding the same transit system? Is it possible they think the same of you? (Minus the 'young' part, of course.)

What would convince you that Eminem is worth listening too? An older business man in a suit busting out Slim Shady tunes on an expensive IPOD? Oh, then he's *dope*. He's *relevant*. He has something to say now. ...And what's this? You defer to authority in an argument? "I don't have to listen to you because you are beneath my socio-economic class. Leave my sight, Walmart workers."--->That really reeks of something, but I'll leave it up to you decide what it is.

I'm glad that 'who makes the most money?' thing never came into play when you were arguing with Kinsella over at All Things Canadian. By your own standards, you would not be able to win against him because of his wealth: "Oh that Sean at Polspy, he doesn't have fat cash. I don't have to listen to him."

PS: Without looking it up- quote an Eminem lyric. I dare you.

Update #1: No word on the Eminem quotes from Sean nor the Monger. Flynn, however found out at least a large portion of the youth vote did turn out:

Start with the numbers. According to professor William Galston at the University of Maryland, at least 20.9 million Americans under 30 voted on Tuesday. That is an increase of 4.6 million voters from 2000. Four years ago, just 42.3 percent of young people voted. This year more than 51.6 percent did.

Hmmm, seems those rates are higher than usual, aren't they? Wonder why that is?

Update #2:
MTV supports the youth vote figures:

According to CBS News analysis of exit polls, more than 21 million of you [the youth] voted, the highest number in more than a decade. In key battleground states like Ohio and Florida, one in every five voters was under the age of 30. Overall, nearly 52 percent of all eligible 18- to 30-year-olds in 2004 pulled the levers and punched the cards, compared to just 42 percent in the 2000 election.

Just a quick reminder: I am not really that concerned with how the youth vote went down, but I am interested in participation as a whole...And if Eminem or P. Diddy or anybody else got the youth vote out, that can only be seen as a good thing.

One other thing: this percentage (52%)is on par for the previous overall average voting participation rate in the US (1996, 1992, etc..).