In recent months, many speculators have attributed the extraordinary level of youth activism on behalf of Sen. Barack Obama to the increase in the left-leaning college demographic over previous generations. This may be true, but it seems to me that the more important reason students support Obama so overwhelmingly is that they tend to be less ideological and more pragmatic than older voters.It is not simply that students prefer the doctrine of the Democratic Party. Students want less partisan bickering, more cooperation and less ideological rigidity from their government. The Daily Athenaeum, the student newspaper of swing-state school West Virginia University, published an endorsement of Obama in which it pleaded, "The editorial board asks that whoever wins the presidency extend their administrations beyond party lines and see the nation's interest before their own." It then added, "It is our opinion that Obama would be the best person to do this."

Part of Obama's support seems to stem from impatience among the youth with the divisive ideology of the Christian right, which ascended to a position of great influence in the 1980s. Hot-button cultural issues that used to resonate with voters are no longer at the forefront. Once extremely controversial issues-such as immigration and abortion-no longer appear to be major sources of contention.

In this modern age, young voters are more cosmopolitan and globally conscious than they used to be, and so are less ideologically rigid and more accepting of cultural differences. One fascinating example is the student backlash against the whisper campaign that Obama is a secret Muslim, an untrue claim based on an irrational fear of his unusual background. The New York Times reported over the summer that thousands of students had changed their names on Facebook to include the middle name Hussein in solidarity with Obama.

"I am sick of Republicans pronouncing Barack Obama's name like it was some sort of cuss word," said Jeff Strabone, a student interviewed by The New York Times.

Colin Powell, in his recent Obama endorsement, spoke about the exclusive anti-Muslim rhetoric of many party Republicans. In McCain's campaign, he blasted the acceptability of saying, "Well, you know that Mr. Obama is a Muslim."

Said Powell, "Well, the correct answer is, he is not a Muslim, he's a Christian. . But the really right answer is, what if he is? Is there something wrong with being a Muslim in this country? . I have heard senior members of my own party drop the suggestion, 'He's a Muslim and he might be associated [with] terrorists.' This is not the way we should be doing it in America." Our generation is too practical and sensible to reject a candidate out of paranoia and fear of the unknown; the fact that Obama has a foreign-sounding name and an exotic background does not mean that he is somehow "un-American."

McCain's campaign has become more and more divisive, using an us-against-them rhetoric that's most obvious when, for example, Sarah Palin speaks of "the pro-America" parts of the country or a McCain spokesperson labels the southern part of Virginia, which leans toward McCain, the "real Virginia".

The Tufts Daily also endorsed Obama. It wrote, "We have been dismayed by McCain's identification of 'real Americans.'" What students long for across the country is a government that is inclusive and tolerant and that will adhere to what the Duke Chronicle called in its Obama endorsement, "this country's central political value: the willingness to overcome and to progress."

Obama is popular because he runs on a platform of change, of ending the partisan squabbling of our current government. He is applauded as a forward thinker who inspires a sense of optimism and progress. According to the same article by Duke University's student newspaper, "He values consensus over division, talent over party and honesty over convenience."

Of course, many McCain backers have legitimate and sound reasons to support him and have nothing to do with the campaign's brand of fearmongering and narrow-mindedness. Perhaps if McCain had not allowed his campaign to become so influenced by the hard-liners of the right and had lived up to his maverick title, he might have fared better among the youth.