Political Cortex: Brain Food for the Body Politic

From Reuters:

Young Americans voted in the largest numbers in at least 20 years in congressional elections, energized by the Iraq war and giving a boost to Democrats, pollsters said on Wednesday.

About 24 percent of Americans under the age of 30, or at least 10 million young voters, cast ballots in Tuesday's elections that saw Democrats make big gains in Congress. That was up 4 percentage points from the last mid-term elections in 2002.

"This looks like the highest in 20 years," said Mark Lopez, research director of the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement, which compiled the data based on exit polls...

Rock the Vote, a youth-and-civics group, said young voters favored Democrats by a 22-point margin, nearly three times the margin Democrats earned among other age groups and dealing a potentially decisive blow to Republicans in tight races.

YAY ROCK THE VOTE! They do good work!

And let's not forget that many college age people were manning those MoveOn.org phonebanks.

THE JEWISH VOTE:

Then there is the Jewish vote. Jews are supposed to be voting Republican more and more, right? Nope. That isn't true either. In fact, Jews are even more avid Democrats than the youth vote. From the National Jewish Democratic Council:

With results from yesterday's election still rolling in, three things are for sure:

1. America wants a change.
   
2. Democrats are in control of the House and probably the Senate too.
   
3. American Jews remain OVERWHELMINGLY DEMOCRATIC!

In 2004, major U.S. networks and media outlets jointly fund the National Election Pool, providing the most reliable and up-to-date election results information.

This year's National Election Pool Exit Poll show that American voted Democratic by a whopping margin of 87% to 12%!

Jewish Republicans are fond of saying that George W. Bush received 24% of the Jewish vote in 2004. Well, after a million dollar ad campaign filled with misleading statements and absolute lies, it appears that Jewish Republicans managed to cut the number of Jews supporting their party in half.

Yesterday, American Jews said no to the failed efforts of Jewish Republicans who tried to use Israel as a partisan wedge issue. We said yes - with a proud and loud voice - that both Democrats and Republicans support Israel.

American Jews said no to corruption and no to the Radical Right's stranglehold on Congress' public policy agenda.

We said yes to stem cell research, religious plurality, and social and economic justice.

American Jews said goodbye to divisive and insensitive Republicans such as Rick Santorum, J.D. Hayworth, Katherine Harris.

We said hello to at least six (maybe, seven!) new Jewish Democratic Members of the House of Representatives (Gabrielle Giffords in Arizona, Steve Cohen in Tennessee, Steve Kagen in Wisconsin, Ron Klein in Florida, Paul Hodes in New Hampshire, John Yarmuth in Kentucky, and maybe Gary Trauner in Wyoming) and two new Jewish Democratic Senators (Ben Cardin in Maryland and Bernie Sanders in Vermont).

NJDC's BLOG and CNN have both posted the results of the National Election Pool Exit Poll.

I should note that Bernie Sanders is not a Democrat, but rather an Independent. But that is a minor point since he pretty much sides with the Democrats most of the time. I think one thing that we need to remember about Jews and Israel: not even Ariel Sharon liked Bush or thought the invasion of Iraq was helping Israel in any way. Israel may be trigger happy in the face of constant tensions with all its neighbots, but Israelis DON'T like instability in the Middle East and most Jews know that Bush has destabilized the area insanely.

UPDATE: THE ASIAN AMERICAN VOTE TOO! After my first version of this diary I found the following from the Asian-American Legal Defense and Education Fund:

Asian American voters in eight states continued a decade-long shift to support Democratic candidates, with 79% of those polled favoring Democrats in Tuesday's congressional and state elections. According to preliminary results of a nonpartisan, multilingual exit poll of over 4,600 Asian American voters, released today by the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund (AALDEF), Democratic candidates in closely-watched races in Virginia, New Jersey and other states were consistently buoyed by Asian American voter turnout.

And while we are discussing particular interest groups in America, I would like to take this opportunity to welcome the sixteen newly elected Democratic Native Americans. From the Indiginous Democratic Network (INDN):

Tulsa, OK Nov 08, 2006-- At least 16 INDN candidates were victorious last night in their bids for seats in state legislatures across the nation, including six Indians who had never before been elected to public office. (One race in WA remains too close to call, while another in PA is separated by 19 votes and is going to a recount). Their victories will bring new Indian officials to eight.) INDN's List supported 22 candidates in 10 states for the general election and we are proud to have helped elect dedicated public servants to office in seven states across the nation. That is a 76% win-record for last night and our first election cycle...

INDN's List contributed to several significant races. Claudia Kauffman and Carol Juneau became the first Indian women to be elected to their state senates in Washington and Montana, respectively. Like our other candidates, Claudia and Carol broke down barriers in their communities by showing they share the interests, ideas, and aspirations of all families across America. And in Oklahoma, INDN's List added 5 more Indians to the state legislature, three in the house and two in the senate. Finally, in Pennsylvania our candidate Barbara McIlvaine Smith is behind by only 19 votes and the recount process has begun. A victory there will give Democrats control of the state house.
Candidates winning races last night are:

• Scott BigHorse, Sean Burrage, Chuck Hoskin, and John Sparks for seats in the Oklahoma legislature

• Norma Bixby and Carol Juneau for seats in the Montana State House and Senate respectively

• Albert Hale and Albert Tom for seats in the Arizona State Senate and House, respectively

• John McCoy and Claudia Kauffman for seats in the Washington legislature. Results in the Don Barlow election remain too close to call.

• Theresa Two Bulls and Thomas Van Norman for seats in the South Dakota State Senate and House, respectively

• Lyman Hoffman and Woodie Salmon for seats in the Alaska State Senate and House, respectively

• W. Patrick Goggles for the Wyoming State House...

But let's remember one thing in all this. America is proud that we had such high voter turnout this year...and yet we didn't even break 40%. That is sad. Still, I am glad that it is the Democratic Party that remains the party of diversity. Even if I have had some choice words to say about racial cluelessness among liberal whites, the Democratic Party remains the party with the widest range of ideas, religious beliefs, and minority representation.