Thursday, June 03, 2004
Getting the Youth to Vote
I think the solution is not making political platforms more attractive to young people per say. Anyway, this is very hard to do and still run an effective election campaign. There are some very large generational gaps opening up (e.g., gay marriage) and in so long as the under 45 crowd shows up in far fewer numbers than the over 45 crowd, the political parties have no choice but to pander to that older demographic. What I think needs to be changed is the answers people give to the
question “why vote”? Indeed, I do not think that we as a society have come up with compelling response to great numbers of young people who say that they find none of the parties appealing and so they are not voting. I think the only answer we can give is this: it is not so much who you vote for but rather that you vote. If young people start voting in greater numbers, the parties will start building the platforms around them.
Some people how they are tired of all the candidates being 55 year old plus white males. Although I must second this, my response is, well, get off your ass. While the problem is, of course, wrapped in low voting turnouts among the younger generation, this problem is far less intractable. Young people should take a page from the book of many minority groups, join parties on mass and nominate the candidate of their choosing.
I think the solution is not making political platforms more attractive to young people per say. Anyway, this is very hard to do and still run an effective election campaign. There are some very large generational gaps opening up (e.g., gay marriage) and in so long as the under 45 crowd shows up in far fewer numbers than the over 45 crowd, the political parties have no choice but to pander to that older demographic. What I think needs to be changed is the answers people give to the
question “why vote”? Indeed, I do not think that we as a society have come up with compelling response to great numbers of young people who say that they find none of the parties appealing and so they are not voting. I think the only answer we can give is this: it is not so much who you vote for but rather that you vote. If young people start voting in greater numbers, the parties will start building the platforms around them.
Some people how they are tired of all the candidates being 55 year old plus white males. Although I must second this, my response is, well, get off your ass. While the problem is, of course, wrapped in low voting turnouts among the younger generation, this problem is far less intractable. Young people should take a page from the book of many minority groups, join parties on mass and nominate the candidate of their choosing.
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