Study Shows Young People Prefer Traditional Values in Politics
A recent Gallup poll released last Thursday revealed a surge in the percentage of young adults who said the government should promote traditional values.
In an utter reversal of Gallup’s historical patterns, Americans between the ages of 18 and 34 are now more likely than older Americans to say government should promote traditional values.
“When young people say they are looking for traditional, they are really looking for familiarity,” Adam Fletcher, director of Free Child Project, a youth political advocacy group told The Christian Post.
In their most recent survey, Gallup asked 1,017 Americans age 18 and older this question: “Some people think the government should promote traditional values in our society. Others think the government should not favor any particular set of values. Which comes closer to your own view?”
The results said that 48 percent of Americans thought the government should promote traditional values and 46 percent responded saying they thought the government should not favor any particular set of values.
“Young people attach to the vision of what America is and not to what the political parties represent it to be,” said Fletcher who has worked with 10,000 young people a year for the last 12 years.
According to Fletcher, young people today wanted the American dream in an authentic democracy. They aren’t looking at political parties but rather the future-oriented issues that America stands for.
“Traditional values are fully inclusive, meaning that young people have roles in society as active partners not as passive recipients, “ said Fletcher who said his role as the group’s director was to reinvent roles for young people throughout society.
Because of the recent rise in the percentage of young adults who thought the government should promote traditional values, Gallup suggested that the overall trend in this view might be only temporary.
“The trends by age raise questions about how permanent the shift in the overall trend is, with younger adults showing a recent surge in preference for advancing traditional values,” said Gallup’s analysis. “Normally the views of young people are on the leading edge of social change.”
The Free Child Project provides training for schools, non-profits and government agencies interested in using engagement all around the country.
Fletcher told CP, “Young people want togetherness, acceptance and a real sense of belonging. They want to be engaged. The traditional values that they are looking for are values that really looks at the future as being promising.”
The percentage saying they thought the government should promote traditional values peaked twice at 59 percent, first in January 1996 and then again in October 2001.
