On Tuesday, I heard Michael Connery speak at Demos about his new book, Youth to Power: How Today’s Young Voters are Building Tomorrow’s Progressive Majority. Over the last few months, a lot of attention has been paid to Obama’s ability to turn out youth voters in unprecedented numbers. Connery used his talk to try and dispel the notion that the increase in youth turnout is entirely due to Obama (although he acknowledges that Obama has pushed the youth vote up more than anyone expected).

In his talk, as in his book, Connery catalogued the reasons why youth voting and political activism have increased since 2000. (As the title indicates, Connery is focused on the progressive youth vote and progressive youth activism.) He credits these increases to three major changes: a shift in the make-up of the electorate; new infrastructure available to turn out the youth vote; and development of best practices for turning out the youth vote.

Connery explains that the last two changes are the result of an explosion of new organizations focused on youth organizing between 2003 and 2004. During this time, the Left began putting money into programs that focused on youth turnout, youth leadership development, and wining youth over to the Democratic Party. These new organizations developed the infrastructure and best practices to turn out the youth vote.

All of this meant that youth turnout went up in 2004, 2006, and again in the 2008 primaries. Obama has had a huge affect on the youth vote, but the groundwork had already been laid. Connery pointed out that Obama’s success with the youth vote is a bit of a double-edged sword. The campaign has sucked a lot of funding away from youth vote organizations, which will leave them weaker in 2010 and make it harder for them to push back when politicians take positions that are bad for youth.

The build up of infrastructure and development of best practices were important, but arguably not as important as the change in the demographics of the electorate. In 2000, the Millennial Generation, defined by Connery as voters born between 1978 and 1996, began to vote. Millennials are the biggest generation. In 2008, 50 million of us will be eligible to vote; by 2016 we will make up 36% of the electorate, more than Baby Boomers ever did. We are also the most diverse and most tolerant generation ever. Polls show that we believe we can affect change as individuals and believe in government. From the outset, our generation is more disposed to vote than those famously apathetic Gen-Xers. In fact, Connery subscribes to a theory of generations that says as a generation, we have the most in common with the Greatest Generation (who were born from about 1901 through 1924, and were young adults during World War II).

Connery believes that a series of events, including the Florida Recount, September 11, the Iraq War, and Hurricane Katrina inspired Millennials to take action. However, he does not talk about the economic conditions that Millennials face. Millennials may share personality traits with the Greatest Generation, but the world we live in is radically different. We do not have access to affordable college education, government-backed home loans, or workplaces with lifelong career ladders and benefits. Surveys consistently show that economic concerns are a top priority for young voters.

Although it is missing this economic analysis, which I think is important to understanding why Millennials have taken action, Youth to Power is an incredibly well researched book. It is a great resource for anyone trying to understand the youth sector of the political landscape.