Mid-Term Election: Youth Vote

The 2008 Presidential election brought an increase in youth votes by two million, and two years later decreased to numbers even lower than year’s prior. This peak in youth votes, followed by an immediate decline, confirms the disillusionment of the youth concerning politics and the negative repercussions of a generation’s enthusiasm for instant gratification.

While wandering around the East Village the other day, on an unusually warm and calm afternoon, I casually stopped over twelve people appearing youthful to ask them if they voted in the mid-term elections last week. The first ten said no. Each person questioned did qualify as youth, between the ages of 18-24, and each one could not have been less interested in discussing politics. More than half of the youth that I spoke with blamed their voting deficiency on a lack of time and knowledge; however, each one of them had a confident opinion on Obama’s performance in the White House. And all of them, who were of age to vote two years ago, did vote in the presidential elections.
The youth voter turn out was surprisingly bad; there was a predicted drop from many news sources but not quite as significant as the results themselves. The Pew Research Center conducted a poll a week prior to the mid-term elections and found that only 27% of young democrats gave a lot of though to the elections this year, in contrast to the 47% who had given a lot of thought to the elections in 2006. For the election of President Obama in 2008, Americans saw the largest youth voter turn out than they had seen since 1972, the first year that 18 year-olds could vote. Historian Prof. Varon recalls that a the highest number of voters of a specific group comes out when they first get the right to vote, and then numbers decrease with time. This holds true in the cases of women and African Americans. Therefore, since 1972 was such an exception, the youth turn out that Americans saw in the 2008 elections was the highest ranking ever in a typical election year. Then just two years later these passionate youths are nowhere to be found, and the polls are not overcrowded but begging for people to come in. I blame this on the current disillusionment of the youth, a consequence of the instant gratification consumer society of our generation. William John Cox, a philosopher and political analyst, recorded that one third of the youth blame Obama himself for failing to deliver on his promises. This indicates that the youth truly are disillusioned and have misunderstanding of politics in Washington, since the political system of the Untied States prevents that an individual will ever be entirely at fault.
When we compare this years mid-term elections to years prior, the youth voter turn out for these mid-terms are even much lower than the turn out for the mid-term elections in 2006. Mark Bauerlein, a political analyst and writer, remarks that in this mid-term election 20.9% of the youth aged people voted, compared to the 2006 youth vote rate of 25%. An election term that is simply not as exciting and numbers are always lower, the political analyst Keli Goff states. But there were efforts made by the Democrats to involve the youth vote, albeit to no avail. Their included visits to various universities by President Obama, pressing the importance of voting and remaining optimistic for the future; other efforts included several appearances by well-loved democrats, such as Bill Clinton, Vice President Joe Biden and local congress representatives. But as Keli Goff admits, without Obama on the ballot, voting is just far less intriguing. Or as Mark Bauerlein alludes: the youth must be entertained in order to be inspired to vote. Heather Smith of Rock the Vote, an organization created to involve youth in politics through pop-music and culture, said: “These young people are willing to participate and be active by nature, but they are not going to show up unless they are invited.” Rock the Vote’s strategy of reaching the youth and imploring them to vote is by arriving at the youth’s doorstep: music festivals, concerts, movie openings, celebrities cites, sporting events, universities; where the youth is, they are there too.
The youth has the tendency to vote when the political sphere emanates the pop culture sphere. During my walk in the East Village of New York City, I talked to many non-New Yorkers, many ex-patriots, and even a couple who were not yet eligible to vote, and each one of their eyes lit up when I mentioned the word Obama. The expression in their eyes did not originate from complete approval or a solid understanding, this excitement entailed not much more than recognition. I suppose that it simply makes people feel good to share a connection. The president of the Unite States is a celebrity, and how great it is that one can proudly say while they are watching TV, “I voted for that guy.” In many ways it is a form a self-gratification, and especially in regards to the youth’s understanding of politics, the attention is minimally paid to the issues and system themselves.

In a recent Rock the Vote poll, 83 % of them believe they have the power to change our country. So here the contradiction lies: the youth believes in the importance of the vote, but does not vote regularly. They have an opinion, yet no action behind it. This same poll also recorded that 69% of the youth are more cynical than they were two years ago. Throughout my brief interviews on the streets, after the word Obama was mentioned, the words following were far less enthusiastic than the expression upon hearing his name. Most people claimed they were disappointed, or shook their head from side to side, as if to say: “well so, so but I feel badly admitting that I am not all together pleased.” Then, after a bit more inquiry, my interviewee drew a blank when they were asked what exactly about Mr. Obama’s presidency has not met their expectations. I received generic responses, such as: healthcare, the war, and we are still unemployed. All of these are valid issues, but I have a feeling a foreigner could have learned the same thing from the in-flight news crossing the Atlantic.

Gary Meisel, a historian and former active member of youth politics, believes that the youth must either be inspired by tragedy to get involved in politics or have the naive hope for immediate change. Youth has always been somewhat apathetic and when they get involved, they often have a romanticized and unreal vision of what can be accomplished by the American political system, which for a variety of reasons, is an evolutionary and incremental system except in times of extreme danger such as 9/11 or Pearl Harbor or the Civil War which can serve as catalysts for quick action. Younger people are typically more impatient for change and thus more easily "disillusioned".
The disillusionment of the youth is not an entirely new concept. From the late 1960’s to the mid 1970’s the youth was a vital aspect of politics, and changed the apathetic reputation that the youth had in American politics. Prof. Varon explained to me that President Kennedy inspired the youth by his embodiment of youthful energy, and the youth backed him so strongly that they finally became an integral aspect of the voting arena. As positive as this movement was, he still describes it as youthful idealism. The youth focused on the issues, such as social justice and the environment, rather than on a specific party or how the political system functions. This outlook still occurs with the youth today. Gary Meisel notices that the youth do not ground themselves with the root of a party but with an issue, and therefore have the tendency to be either far right or far left than independently in the middle.

The youth can be understood as poorly informed. Said plainly by Mr. Meisel: “Many Americans do not fully appreciate how Washington works and, if they are drawn in by an issue or two, they are frequently disappointed with the way the system works.” The disillusionment is created because the youth are only knowledgeable on the surface level and naively expect immediate change in Washington. The fast pace of the campaign trail demonstrates this prospect. In our society today the political updates are constantly thrown in our faces and almost unmanageable to navigate. Steven Peterson, a professor of politics and public affairs and Penn State University, witnesses the same issue: " Often times people will listen to commentators whose views they agree with, given the fragmentation of cable that means you won't hear other views. Some of us pay attention to info we don't agree with anyhow by being able to choose who you listen to, people are less likely to hear opposing perspectives, less likely to have a full sense of what's at stake of important issues of the day." The youth possess all of the tools to be well informed, and have all of the resources to become involved and knowledgeable, yet they do not seem to be making use of these materials. With all of these new live action media outlets that the youth of today have, the comprehension lacks depth. My sixty something year old uncle remarks: “The problem may be that there is too much of it [political news]. I believe the youth of today has a much more difficult time discerning the truth of all that is available. Probably because it wasn’t being presented in real time, there was a certain amount of verification vetting that occurred with the official news sources of my youth that is not at all present in today’s information. Even the evening news on TV had a more balanced presentation of the “news” than today’s shows that tend to only focus on the sensational.” My uncle has the knowledge of experience and time on his side, such attributes that the youth simply cannot acquire. The youth could potentially acquire accurate resources though, and there is absolutely nothing preventing their engagement to be realistic. That would, however, require the youth to be more serious. And since an MTV intern states: “We just wanted to have fun with this election. The Presidential election was so overwhelming in so many ways, we decided that 2010 should focus more on the music.” I do not foresee that happening anytime soon.