About community organizers, mockery, and the youth vote

As mentioned before, Sarah Palin's speech was heavy on the mockery of Obama, including his self-evidently ludicrous role as a "community organizer." As a data point, I received this email just now from someone whose identity I know -- in his late 20s, religious, works in the US national security establishment, not necessarily part of the liberal base. He makes a point that rings true to me, about the generational as opposed to strictly partisan implications of the mocking pose:

I have been following the conventions. I think the GOP ridiculing of the Obama's "community organizer" experience will resonate poorly with many in the under-35 crowd.  If they continue that attack line they will likely lose a large number of young voters (which they are struggling with anyways).  Conservative and liberal Generation X/Y and millennials generally respect those who sacrifice who devote careers to community service.  In my mind the GOP showed the real elitism on this particular issue.  We'll see if they keep this up but it really riled me up.
 

This article available online at:

http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2008/09/about-community-organizers-mockery-and-the-youth-vote/8790/