youth vote draft #1

The outcome of the 2008 Presidential election made history, changed history, and gave “hope” to many young Americans. Barack Obama was elected the first African- American president on November 4, 2008. On January 20, 2009 Obama would be sworn in taking over for George W. Bush, and as I watched on TV along with billions of other people, I breathed a sigh of relief. It was a sigh that finally someone would change the fate of our country that has fallen apart, finally someone who knows what he is doing. Over the next two years the man who once captured the hearts of the American people with his eloquent speaking and dedication to the people has come to resemble an eloquent teleprompter and the promises he made have fallen short of what he pledged.

The 2008 Presidential election had a record number of voters, the youth vote being one of the Democratic majorities. Obama connected with young adults. The youth demographic being ages 18-29, he gave the generation of youth hope and a chance for change, his slogan being the inspirational “yes we can.”

Obama was so popular that parents dressed their children in clothes with his face, bumper stickers lined cars, and many even missed school to witness the making of history with his inauguration. The man was so charismatic mom’s would camp out to get the chance to have Obama hold their babies, reminiscent of the days of presidential celebrity like John F. Kennedy.

But within the two long years that have passed from when young adults rushed out to vote making sure that Palin and McCain did not stand a chance at winning, youth has fallen silent during the recent Midterm elections. A once Democratic majority, the Republicans won the House with 239 seats while the Democrats still hold the Senate population with 51 seats to the Republicans 46.

“Keep in mind that most youth are generally apathetic about mainstream politics since it doesn’t seem to have much of an impact on their everyday lives” wrote Gary Meisel, who worked on the Hubert Humphrey campaign, in an email correspondence.

However Rock The Vote, a non-profit organization, registered 300,000 new voters in time for the Midterm elections this year, a huge increase compared to 2006. Although Obama’s supporters have begun to give up hope, historically Midterm elections always bring in less support then Presidential elections or major election cycles. CIRCLE (Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement) performed a pole and the results stated that, “an estimated 20.4 percent of young Americans under the age of 30 voted in the midterm elections, compared to 23.5 percent in the last midterm election (2006).”

Not only has there been a significant decline in the youth vote but the visibility and encouragement of the youth vote has decreased as well. Campaigning for the Midterm elections fell short of the visibility the 2008 presidential elections produced not only with in enthusiasm but through a gap in leadership as well.

William John Cox, a writer and analyst stated that it is, “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.”

Today social media outlets might be the most important aspects of campaigning because 97% of youth uses social media websites. A study conducted by Reuter Institute for the Study of Journalism reports that, “18-24 year olds receive most of their political information online and rarely read a printed newspaper or listen to radio for information.” #Election was a trending topic on Twitter, FourSquare provided an iVoted check in badge, and Facebook has an IVoted button that many users pressed even if they did not vote. iPhones even had apps created by The New York Times and Wall Street Journal that monitored the elections live.

During the presidential elections Saturday Night Live had a sketch where Tina Fey impersonated Palin while Amy Phoeler played Hillary Clinton. The skit quickly became one of the most famous and most viewed on YouTube in history. For this years midterm elections the skits were far less publicized, talked about, viewed, and were not as memorable.

MTV used their Midterm election time slot to do a mock election with celebrities as the candidates such as Justin Beiber for Vice President of Pop, Maroon 5 for Senate of Pop, and the Jonas Brothers for Reps of Pop. An intern from MTV even stated, “we just wanted to have fun with this election, we decided the 2010 should focus more on the music.” Giving a clear shot to all the speculation that young voters are uninterested in politics and don’t know much about policies unless they are big issues.

Candidates of the Midterm elections seldom did anything to make them appear to the youth demographic like Obama achieved in 2008.

Deva Woodley, a professor at the New School, said, “A certain energy is infused when youth is involved. It creates a cultural movement. Obama created a cultural movement. He was used as a figurehead.”



However one candidate, Congressman Tim Bishop, took some steps in motivating democratic youth by visiting universities in an attempt to rally the students to vote for him. Former president Bill Clinton joined Bishop at Stony Brook University urging students to share the message with their friends on Facebook, Twitter, on YouTube, and through emails.

Heather Smith of Rock the Vote 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.”

Cox agreed with Smith stating that the Democratic Party “should recognize that young voters are the best hope for the future of democracy. Democrats should take the advice from Rock the Vote’s Smith and invite young people to the party.”