Voters under 30: What do you think?

[PonderInc]

This question goes out to voters under the age of 30. (All us old geezers will try, for once, to do more listening and less spouting off in this thread.)

For many years, I've notieced that younger people seem to have "checked out" of the political process.  (In many cases, this includes people my own age...which is on the young side of middle age.)  

It's almost like young folks have seen politics as something separate from their lives.  They are busy with school, first jobs/early careers, dealing with debt, falling in love, deciding on kids.... And, of course, college students are often residing on campuses far away from their voting booths back home.  But I haven't felt that young people get that excited about voting in elections.

I think this explains why our culture as a whole is more liberal than our politicians and their policies.  Young people help shape the culture, but, typically, not the vote...or the policies that result.

My question(s) for people under the age of 30: Does the Obama campaign change your feelings about voting?  
Do you believe that more young people will vote this year?  
Have more young people registered to vote?  
Do your friends say that they are excited about voting for the first time?  
Do you think your voice matters more when younger candidates run for office?

Just curious.  Please educate me.  (And remember, geezers, I'm asking for the input of the young, not just the young at heart!) []

[TURobY]

quote:Does the Obama campaign change your feelings about voting?

No more than any other candidate. In fact, I'm starting to find a lot of people who are behind him strictly for the "popularity" factor. It's a dangerous phenomenon.

quote:Do you believe that more young people will vote this year?

Yes. Should some of those people vote? I don't think so. Again, there seems to be a surge of "cool" candidates. I'm not debating their policies, just that it all feels a little too much like Robin Williams' movie "Man of the Year".

quote:Have more young people registered to vote?

I don't know.

quote:
Do your friends say that they are excited about voting for the first time?

Most of my friends have been voting for a while.

quote:
Do you think your voice matters more when younger candidates run for office?

Absolutely. A politician from your birth cohort will more likely care and respond to the same issues as yourself. I think it is a shame though that us younger folks are not given a chance, due to the 35 year age restriction on the presidency. I guess, though, there are other offices available.

[Mana Tahaie]

Before I go into your questions, I feel like I have to defend my generation a bit. Admittedly young people are typically less politically "plugged in" than their older counterparts — but so much of that has to do with the disenchantment that we feel about the political process. Of the six elections I've lived through, the most memorable have been the controversial ones — not due to their outcomes, but to what appears to be an obsolete process in which the same select people's special interests are represented. It's difficult to be raised with the American democratic myth (think elementary school civics) and then be so disillusioned by the reality of the process, where partisanship and special interest reigns supreme, rather than the falsely revered vote. Add to that the voting controversies of the last two national elections, and the ways in which citizens' individual rights have been steamrolled in recent years, and it's easy to see why young people have checked out of the political process. It's exhaustion, not ennui.

I realize I may be simplifying a very complex situation — but remember too that our perspective is limited; we don't have the benefit of history to look back on and reassure ourselves. The immediate past is our history, and it's a bleak one. I've met many, many bright, tuned-in young people who have simply resigned themselves to the idea that their vote and their voice doesn't matter.

I'm not sure I agree with your correlation of the liberalism of our culture and the lifestyles of young people, but it is an interesting assessment.

Now to your questions:

quote: Does the Obama campaign change your feelings about voting?  

As Rob said, not more than any other campaign — but voting is important for me for different reasons than most; as the first American-born member of my family, it's a right that I value acutely.

quote: Do you believe that more young people will vote this year?  

Obama has stirred a lot of people, but I also think that frustration and dissatisfaction with the current state of American policy and the world in general has does so as well. The primaries seem to reflect that, but again, we've been so disenchanted by the process that it's possible that something between now and November will reinforce that. I hope not.

quote: Have more young people registered to vote?  

According to news reports, yes, but that was documented in 2004 as well. I wouldn't rush to attribute it directly to Obamamania, although I do agree that he's mobilizing young people more effectively than any other candidate. That could have as much to do with the fact that he's actually talking to us though.

quote: Do you think your voice matters more when younger candidates run for office?

Perhaps, in that the younger the candidate, the better they recall the concerns of our generation and thus speak to them more directly.

Thanks for the questions!

[PonderInc]

Thanks for your thoughtful replies!  I guess we need to up the age range, to learn more.  

Folks under the age of 45...what do you think?!

[cannon_fodder]

quote:My question(s) for people under the age of 30:

Does the Obama campaign change your feelings about voting?

No.  I find he an amazing speaker and earning respect as a cult of personality - a charisma I have not seen in a politician.  But he has not changed my feeling on voting.

quote:Do you believe that more young people will vote this year?

No.  Unless Barrack is in it I think they (we) will go back to our not caring.  Both McCain and Hillary are old guard and offer nothing of particular interest to the youth.

quote:Have more young people registered to vote?

I think the statistics bare that out, but I do not know.

quote:Do your friends say that they are excited about voting for the first time?

I recall vague excitement, but overt excitement in only a couple of instances.

quote:Do you think your voice matters more when younger candidates run for office?

I think more young people participate, but a vote is a vote.  The "youth vote" is constantly touted and constantly fails whatever candidate it is behind.  College kids have the time and talent to make a large presence, but at the end of the ballot day job-blow America casts far more ballots than the few activist college kids that make all the noise.

[deinstein]

"Does the Obama campaign change your feelings about voting?"

Yes.

"Do you believe that more young people will vote this year?"

If Obama gets the nod, then yes.

"Have more young people registered to vote?"

I'm not sure, hopefully so.

"Do your friends say that they are excited about voting for the first time?"

Yes.

"Do you think your voice matters more when younger candidates run for office?"

Yes.