This year’s midterm election was crucial for the Democrats as they were on the verge of losing their power in the House of Representatives and Senate. On November 2, 2010, 82.5 million Americans cast their vote all over the nation. And the results—the Democrats fell short, continuing their reign in the Senate but losing their position in the House of Representatives, 57 to 40 percent.
Many have said that the lack of youth voters who were very prominent in the 2008 presidential election, which helped President Barack Obama win, could have made a difference. It seems that without the help of media, many youth voters are left unaware and the Democratic party who are known to have a huge youth following, has to pay for the price.
Throughout history, the youth have always been seen to be apathetic about politics. Most believe the youth feel that politics doesn’t seem to have much of an impact on their everyday lives. In recent elections, that belief is slowly starting to disappear.
According to The Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement, or CIRCLE, only 20.9% of all eligible young people ages 18-29 voted in this year’s election, a 4.1% decline from the 2006 midterm election. In comparison to the 2008 Presidential election the youth vote rose only a couple of percentage points to 51 percent.
Peter Levine, director of CIRCLE, said to the Huffington Post:
“Arguably, we need a game-changing event or movement to increase turnout to a whole different level. If you were hoping that 2008 was such an event, yesterday’s results may be discouraging. It is time to ask whether the millions of young people who were deeply engaged in the 2008 campaign could have been invited to engage more in governance once the election was over.”
This game-changing event or movement Levine is talking about is probably media influence.
In the 2008 Presidential election, media was a huge influence. MTV, an American network based in New York City, heavily focused on the 2006 presidential election but for this year’s mid-term election they barely touched upon it. Instead, MTV decided to do a modern spin on it by having a pop music election. The election asked for the public to vote in four categories: pop start president, pop star vice-president, senate of pop, and house representatives of pop—Justin Beiber, Katy Perry, Maroon 5, and The Jonas Brothers won the titles.
An MTV News intern stated, “We just wanted to have fun with this election,” she continues, “the presidential election was so overwhelming in so many ways, we decided that 2010 should focus more on music.”
Heather Smith, executive director of Rock the Vote, a non-profit organization whose mission is to engage and build the political power of young people, had a similar statement as Levine: “These young people are willing to participate and be active by nature, but they are not going to show up unless they are invited.”
Based on the MTV’s pop star poll, focusing on pop stars instead of political candidates is misleading. Rather than inviting youth voters to take part in politics, it tells them to stick with pop culture. As a result, this puts pressure on candidates to push harder and make sure their campaigns relate to and reach the youth in a way that will grab their attention. A major attention grabber: Celebrities.
Maegan Carberry from Rock the Vote said, “Plenty of stars have worked with us this cycle; it’s all just much more visible when the country is focused on a major race like the presidency.”
In the 2008 Presidential election, Rock the Vote ran the largest voter registration drive in history. Using a collaboration of online, mobile, and grassroots outreach, Rock the Vote were able to generate more than 2.5 million voter registrations. It can be concluded that the use of celebrities like Christina Aguilera, Anne Hathaway, Samuel L. Jackson, Wyclef, and Jamie Foxx helped influence youth voters to register and vote. In accordance, Rock the Vote leaned more towards the Democratic party than the Republican party so it was no surprise that Rock the Vote had become a sort of campaign for Barack Obama.
According to their website, Rock the Vote’s goal is to “register and turn out millions more in 2010” but fell short for the midterm election as they were only able to register 300,000 new voters.
84% of youth voters who voted in 2008 returned to vote in 2010.
Keli Goff, political analyst, blogger, and author of Party Crashing: How the Hip-Hop Generation Declared Political Independence, states that voter turnouts during the mid-term election is always lower.
“I think the primary difference in this particular election is that more young voters who voted in 2008 were motivated specifically by Obama,” Goff said. “But he wasn’t on the ballot this year so some of them felt less motivated to turn out.”
Adam Michaels, 22, was a returned voter for this year’s mid-term election. Michaels feels strongly about the possible impact he can help make. “Its important to vote, we make the future,” Michaels said. Michaels also voted for President Obama in the 2008 presidential election.
For Samantha Morris, 18, it was her first time voting and already she has a strong opinion about it. “I wanted to help make a positive change to our country,” Morris then adds, “I think it makes a difference in a lot of people’s lives.”
On the other hand, Allen Magnesun, 22, is part of the percentage that did not vote in this year’s mid-term election. Although Magnesun did vote in the 2008 presidential election, stating it’s the “most important election,” he feels that voting doesn’t really make a difference in his life.
Although, Mark Bauerlein, journalist, thinks differently. He stated in his article, “The Youth Vote, 2010” voting should not be an act of inspiration. It should be a mundane duty of citizenship. It is not the responsibility of the government or the media or any other institution to “invite” young people into the voting booth. They are, instead, to be educated on it."
Like Bauerlein described, Michaels is one that spends reading the news online and watching the news everyday. “I’m not going to not express my opinion on who I think should be in charge,” Michael reveals.
So it seems that its not up to the media to get the youth to vote, but rather its up to them.
It’ll be interesting to see how the 2012 presidential election will turn out.
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