While wandering around the East Village the other day, on an unusually warm and calm afternoon, I casually stopped to talk to over 12 people appearing youthful to ask them if they voted in the mid-term elections last week. The first 10 said no. More than half blamed their voting deficiency on a lack of time and knowledge; however, each one of them had an assured 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.
Especially in comparison to the impressive turn out of youth voters in the 2008 presidential election, the 2010 mid term elections resulted in a disappointingly low number of youth votes. The center for Information & Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE), a website that researches the youth’s political activity, recorded a youth vote rate of 51% for the 2008 Presidential election. Then just two years later these passionate youths are nowhere to be found: CIRCLE reported that only 22.8% of the youth voted in the 2010 mid-term election. President Obama and other well-loved democrats, such as Bill Clinton and Vice President Biden, made appearances at various universities to impress the importance of voting. Although, as the political analysts Keli Goff suggests, voting is just far less intriguing without Obama on the ballot.
William John Cox, a philosopher and political analyst, recorded from a poll done by the Pew Research Center in 2009 that one third of the people between the ages of 18 and 29 blame Obama himself for failing to deliver on his promises. Promises he made on the campaign trail spoke of things such as hope, change, and new kind of Washington. These words immediately enchanted many young Americans. According to William John Cox, the youth’s quick support for and then blaming of one specific person indicates that the youth are disillusioned. He states this because the political system of the United States is structured in such a way that one person is not responsible for all of Washington, and a person who understands this system would also understand current political problems are not entirely President Obama’s fault.
The disillusionment of the youth is not an entirely new concept. Professor Varon, a historian at The New School University, 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. CIRCLE recorded that just over 52% of the youth voted in 1972. This year was the first year 18-year-olds could vote and the record high of youth voter turnout. However, as positive as this movement was, Professor Varon 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. It is idealistic to focus on an issue because then the issue is viewed separate from the political system, rather than as an aspect of politics that must work with the system in order to change.
The first step to understand a system is typically becoming involved with the system. So there are organizations, like Rock the Vote, who encourage the youth to vote by showing up wherever the youth already are: such as music festivals, TV shows, and sporting events. And if engagement leads to political awareness and eventual comprehension of the system as a whole, it seems to be working. During my walk in the East Village of New York City, I talked to many non-New Yorkers, many immigrants, 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.
In a recent Rock the Vote poll 83 % of the youth believed that they have the power to change our country. So here the contradiction lies: the youth believes in the importance of the vote, but do not vote regularly. They have an opinion, yet they put 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. Then, after a bit more inquiry, my interviewees 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 young people must either be inspired by tragedy to get involved in politics or have the naive hope for immediate change. He explains that the 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. He pinpoints two recent events where the youth felt extreme danger that served as a catalyst for their sudden engagement, Pearl Harbor and 9/11. Gary Meisel claims simply that younger people are typically more impatient for change and thus more easily "disillusioned.”
In our society today the political updates and news is constantly thrown in our faces and at such a high volume, it is almost unmanageable to navigate. Steven Peterson, a professor of politics and public affairs and Penn State University, remarks on this 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.” Steven Peterson continues to explain that with all of the news options available today, people are less likely to even hear opposing views because they can so specifically choose their news source. This leads to some disillusionment because then the people have a one sided perspective on the issues, rather than a complete sense of what is truly at stake.
With all of the new live action media outlets like live bogging, on-the-scene international reporting, mobile updates and live news feeds, it is easily assumed that the youth today have all of the tools necessary to be well informed. So perhaps the issue is that they are not making good use of these materials. My sixty something year old uncle remarks: “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.”
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. I believe that the issue is simply a lack of understanding the details of what happens in Washington. Presidential election years are not only more exciting but also more attainable: you vote for one person as the president of our country. Presidential election years seem to also be some of country’s most exciting, so whether or not you are paying close attention to the news and representatives in your neighborhood, you likely know the few people running for Oval Office.
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 this though, and there is absolutely nothing preventing their engagement from being consistent. For me at least, there is just so much news out there, I do not know where to jump in. It is challenging to figure out who is doing what and why; especially when there are so many contradictory sources offering me the answers.
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