Political Piece

Lula Brown

Introductory Journalism

Heather Chapman

21 November 2010

“The 2010 Midterm Elections and the Youth Vote”

After the G.O.P. swept the house in the 2010 midterm elections, U.S. citizens throughout the nation were left scratching their heads. One of the most prominent topics on everyone’s mind was the impact of the youth vote, and whether it really made a difference or not.

It is certain that the youth vote did in fact make a difference, since the turnout for the 2008 presidential elections was 51.1% of eligible youth ages 18-29, whereas the turnout for the 2010 midterms was 20.9%. Since young people gravitate towards the Democratic Party, if they do not come out to vote this greatly affects the chances of the Democrats dominating. Obama was a key factor in the 2008 presidential elections, since so many youth were inspired by his ambitious goals to revive our country economically, politically and socially:

“I’m asking you to believe. Not just in my ability to bring about real change in Washington … I’m asking you to believe in yours.” (President Obama)

Obama’s tone in itself was very promising and inspirational, leading the youth to loyally rally in his favor in hopes that he would reform areas that affected them such as education systems. However, Obama appears to have taken on too large a burden, and the youth became defeated when they realized he was not fulfilling all his promises.

Maegan Carberry, “Rock the Vote” communications director, stated that “In 2008 we registered 2.5 million new youth voters which was a new record for the organization and we look to match the number for the next presidential election.”

This shows that Obama was wildly popular in 2008, bringing out a huge number of brand new voters. Since 2008, Obama’s popularity has significantly decreased. William John Cox, political analyst, stated that

“One third of the young people came to blame Obama himself for failing to deliver on his promises … the economy sucked, jobs evaporated, college tuition increased, coal slurry continued to spill into mountain streams and oil gushed into the Gulf of Mexico.”

Although the youth were dissatisfied with Obama, midterm elections are just as important as presidential elections, and the youth must get involved in order for the government to fully represent our society as a whole. Since the youth is provided with so much varying information, it is hard to inspire them to zero in on their own views unless they feel there is a strong possibility that new legislation could meet their specific needs if enough youth vote. This makes the job of campaigners and youth vote activists difficult, but pertinent to our country.

The youth vote is very important because older voters, who make up the majority, statistically tend to split up their votes between the Republican and Democratic parties, whereas youth voters are more likely to vote solid Democrat. Therefore, if youth voters do not come out, the Democrats are sure to suffer severely, as we saw in the 2010 midterms.

Heather Smith of “Rock the Vote” agreed with the importance of rallying for the youth: “These young people are willing to participate and be active by nature, but they are not going to show up unless they are invited.” The youth need to feel “invited” since most of them have so much on their plate and so many obligations to fulfill in order to set the stage for their futures. For this reason, it is important for politicians and their campaigners to specifically target the youth in a way that will be attractive to them.

An example of the importance of young people actually turning out was summed up by Keli Goff, political activist and author of Party Crashing, in five words: “Florida in the 2000 election.” The 2000 presidential race between George W. Bush and Al Gore was the closest election since 1876, and if more youth had voted in Florida the election probably would have gone in favor of Gore. This just shows us that every vote truly does count.

This puts pressure on candidates to make sure their campaigns relate to and reach the youth in an attention-grabbing way. Cox agreed that “the Democratic party should recognize that young voters are the best hope for the future of democracy.”

The history of the youth vote and the actual definition of “youth” are significant aspects to consider when examining the shift in the youth vote. Reuven Kahane discusses the early history of the youth in his book “The Origins of Postmodern Youth: Informal Youth Movements:”

“In ancient Rome, youth was considered an age of crisis, a transitional, stormy period that required control and guidance (Eyben, 1993: 11-15). The Roman system regarded the freedom and independence of youth as a serious danger to society, and constructed the world of youth so as to correspond to that society. Some degree of freedom was permitted, but with the expectation that it would enhance future conformity.”

The youth have always been an integral part of our political structure since they are essentially blank slates with fresh views. Older generations are concerned with the youth because they impact the vote in such a heavily Democratic way, and sometimes are not fully educated as to the affect they are really having on our society. This is why it is important to educate the youth, making them less of a danger since they will make educated decisions if they are aware of current issues in a non-biased light. As Jesse, a 22-year-old student and intern from Los Angeles stated, “I find that the youth vote is active, but not accurate. They don’t understand what they are voting for, it’s very much on the surface.” If even youth themselves agree that they do not understand what they are voting for, we know it is an issue that must be addressed by organizations such as “Rock the Vote” and other political groups concerned with the youth.

Although it is important to vie for the attention of the youth, it is a solemn truth that is extremely hard to catch their interest. Gary Meisel, a former Harvard University student circa 1972 who worked on the Hubert Humphrey campaign stated that:

“… Most youth are generally apathetic about mainstream politics since it doesn’t seem to have much of an impact on their everyday lives. To the extent youth do get involved, they are typically more left or right than in the middle since those that get attracted at that age are generally caught up on the basis of an issue.”

Although the youth may be highly biased and easily influenced by certain issues and the way they are presented, their impact is unavoidable. Although they may cloud the accuracy of the vote, they can impact it significantly when lead in the right direction. This is why youth need to be presented with clear, unbiased information in order to expand the voter turnout in a fair way and give us a true picture of the their views as a demographic. It could be difficult to achieve this goal, but with proper campaigning it is accessible.

With 97% of the youth are using social media tools such as Facebook, Twitter and FourSquare, this has become the prime way to reach them on a practical level. Social media allows the youth to communicate with each other, rather than fall victim to the propaganda often involved in corporate media:

“Most important, with their ability to instantly communicate with each other using the Internet, text messaging and social networks, young people are less vulnerable to being manipulated by the corporate media.” William John Cox said.

This aggregation of relevant and relatable political information makes knowledge easily accessible to this generation, leading them to make more practical, educated decisions than earlier generations. With the right information and proper campaigning, it is possible to persuade the youth to come out and vote, and doing so is pertinent to the political evolution of our country.