ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews the major evidence from the 2008-2014 periods that is relevant to the point. In 2014, turnout fell across the nation to its lowest level in over 70 years, with just 36 percent of citizens participating in the crucial elections that yielded republican majorities in the chambers of Congress for the first time in the Obama era. The chapter discusses the excitement of the 2008 campaign young Americans were not regular consumers of political information. It shows young people were still in last place in the turnout competition throughout the Obama era. It then shows, young Americans in the age of Obama continued to lack the resources that could boost their electoral participation rates, namely a regular interest in politics. Among senior citizens in Iowa, the interest generated by these elections yielded laudable turnout rates of 79 percent in 2012 and 71 percent in 2014.
