Shortly after the midterm elections took place in November of this year, I talked to a college student who seemed like an educated fresh mind with something to contribute to society. I was shocked to find that he looked as though he had no idea that an important election had just taken place. Not only did he not register, 21-year-old NYU student Reese Blanke looked at me and said that he doesn’t think that his vote matters.
Blanke was not the only eligible youth voter who didn’t contribute on election day, youth voter turnout was especially low this year. In the 2010 midterm elections, only 20.9 percent of eligible youth between the ages of 18 and 29 voted, comprising only 9% of total voters.
In the 2008 presidential election, 68% of American youth took to the polls. Why was there such a drastic difference in the youth turn out rate?
Political analyst William John Cox believes that the youth are discouraged to vote due to their recent experience with the voting process. Young people were motivated to vote in 2008 because they felt that change was evident. Cox states that now the youth feels betrayed because they have not seen what Obama promised, and consequently, “36% of young people said it wouldn’t make a difference who they voted for.”
18-year-old Julie Rosen didn’t vote in the 2010 midterm elections either. She claims that a few of her friends did, but she didn’t feel comfortable doing so because she didn’t know much about it and felt like she would be no help. “I feel like I should have voted, because the Republicans winning made me worry about our country a little. I didn’t know what was going on at the time,” said Rosen.
The result of these midterms includes Obama’s loss of the majority that he gained two years ago. The Republicans are now the majority seats of congress, making it difficult for Obama to utilize any of his plans for the remainder of his presidency. If the youth turn out were higher this year, this may not have been the case. In 2008, the Obama administration utilized all of the unconventional public relation methods that brought politics to young America’s front door.
Obama’s presidential campaign included opening acts by actual rockstars, such as The Decemberists, and Indie Rock band who preceded Obama’s big rally in Oregon. The campaign also used the millions of cell-phone numbers it amassed to create a text-message blast, along with many other media methods such as social network take over. It is safe to say that Obama was literally everywhere in May of 2008. The elections became an event that nobody wanted to miss.
This year, the midterm elections campaigning methods were worlds away from what they were during the presidential election in 2008.
“Because voting rates of young people tend to be relatively low, efforts to get them to vote almost by definition have to be special and not purely conventional,” said David Plotke, professor of Political Science at the New School University.
MTV, an outlet famed for its attention on youth, decided to ignore the idea that they could influence and educate their viewers to make political decisions. MTV created their own version of a race. Their 2010 midterm election candidates included Lady Gaga, Britney Spears, and Justin Bieber. No real candidates were included, it was about the public opinion about which pop stars should be president (the most popular), and vice president. Katy Perry and Justin Bieber were voted into the “house.”
In the 1972 presidential race, there was a prediction that there would be a low youth-voter turnout. “The kids are turned of from politics, they say. Most of ‘em don’t even want to hear about it. All they want to do these days is lie around on waterbeds an’ smoke that goddamn marywanna,” Hunter Thompson wrote in his classic Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail ’72.
President Obama made a few public appearances during the midterms. He rallied on college campuses and headlined November’s issue of Rolling Stone a week before the midterm elections with hope to bring politics into the worlds of the young. But if we listen to what history has shown us, and Hunter Thompson, we’ll see that although capable to completely change the game, the youth are less likely to make it to the polls than adults and seniors.
“The young always receive more political attention than the old, though the old generally shape the elections more than the young. That trend is exaggerated in the midterm elections,” said David Paul Kuhn of RealClearPolitics.
In the 2006 midterm elections the seniors turnout rate was sixty three percent, which was more than twice the youth rate. Polls show that older voters lean more toward Republican candidates, so that could be bad news for Democrats. And this year it was. Did Obama miss the boat with the seniors?
Nine-in-ten local party leaders say that youth political engagement is a serious problem. But we don’t need to hear it from them. We can simply just look around and see that when the youth is missing in action, politics in our country change course.
American youth need to be educated, inspired, and understand that they have the power to change our country simply by getting to the poles.
No comments:
Post a Comment