Herman Cain gave his own response to the State of the Union at the National Press Club where he talked about how grateful he is with the endorsement from Stephen Colbert because he wants to keep the "youth vote inspired" because

"they're not gonna go and watch the shows that some of us more mature people watch to find out what's going on in the race . . . they're watching The Stephen Colbert . . ."

As Stephen remarks:

"Well said The Herman Cains! The more mature people watch other things. But the more immature youth vote watches this show…"

Then, unfortunately, I realized the only reason I knew about this story was because I was watching The Colbert Report because I don't care about the Tea Party.... DAMN YOU HERMAN CAIN!

The fact is, this isn't about maturity, this is about connectivity. Young voters aren't going to pay attention to people that don't represent their issues or their values, even if the train wreck of their campaign is fascinating and hilarious. I encourage more Tea Party members to go on Colbert - at some point, however, they have to realize that he's just making fun of them thought, right?

Just a few highlights of things that reference the Millennial Generation. Read the whole thing here

• "most daunting challenge can be the cost of college. At a time when Americans owe more in tuition debt than credit card debt"
• "Congress needs to stop the interest rates on student loans from doubling in July"
• "Higher education can’t be a luxury – it’s an economic imperative that every family in America should be able to afford"
• "states also need to do their part, by making higher education a higher priority in their budgets"
• "After all, innovation is what America has always been abt Most new jobs are created in start-ups and small businesses" - true, many by youth

OWS

• "And we've put in place new rules to hold Wall Street accountable, so a crisis like that never happens again."
• "And I will not go back to the days when Wall Street was allowed to play by its own set of rules. The new rules we passed restore what should be any financial system’s core purpose: Getting funding to entrepreneurs with the best ideas, and getting loans to responsible families who want to buy a home, start a business, or send a kid to college.
• So if you're a big bank or financial institution, you are no longer allowed to make risky bets with your customers' deposits. You’re required to write out a "living will" that details exactly how you’ll pay the bills if you fail -- because the rest of us aren’t bailing you out ever again. And if you’re a mortgage lender or a payday lender or a credit card company, the days of signing people up for products they can't afford with confusing forms and deceptive practices are over. Today, American consumers finally have a watchdog in Richard Cordray with one job: To look out for them."

In response, the PIRGs put out a release regarding the impact of the President's speech and potential legislation on higher education:

"“In this economy, we cannot double the student loan interest rate. Without a new plan, millions of students will pay a crushing $5,200 more on their student loan than they otherwise would,” said Rich Williams, Higher Education Advocate for US PIRG. “Students are already weighed down by state budget cuts, struggling family finances and uncertain job prospects. We applaud President Obama for his proposal to keep student loan interest rates low.”

If Congress does nothing, borrowers who will takeout the maximum $23,000 in subsidized student loans will see their interest balloon to an additional $5,200 over a 10-year repayment period and $11,300 over a 20-year repayment period.

In addition to loans, many students work their way through college to keep their debt burden low. However more full time students are becoming full time workers. With the economic down turn, it is getting harder for those students to find and continue employment. Doubling the amount of work-study jobs, as proposed by the President, will help support needy students willing to work hard make it to graduation."

Here is a chart (PDF) from the PIRGs on how students would be impacted if the interest rate on student loans doubled in July.

A great new video that the Illinois Caucus on Adolescent Health youth activists created about how young people need accurate access to information about sex and health to protect themselves.

On last night's Colbert Report columnist David Frum called for an economically inclusive, environmentally responsible and socially modern Republican party. He called out Tea Party activists saying

Frum: "If we could arrange it so that in 2012 only 40% of the American people came out to vote and only a quarter of them were over the age of 65 ..."

Colbert: "Republicans are working on it!"

Frum: "Ok... then the Tea Party idea might work. That's the thing that went wrong in 2010... This is a country of young people. This is a country that is full of people who are worried more about unemployment than about protecting their personal Medicare..." (it continues in the video below)

Frum isn't the only one who noticed that the Tea Party message and the conservative policies of today's GOP doesn't resonate with young voters. Data has shown that Millennials place more trust in the government than older demographics and certainly have less faith in the trust of corporations and the so-called "free market." It's no wonder the Republican Party is having such a hard time bringing in more young people...

If I knew how to navigate pulling FM for the day in solidarity I would... but instead all I can do is post a blog.

SOPA's Scary Facts

Stand up to support the internet, pledge your support, contact your member of Congress at Vote For the Net

Our friends at OUR TIME brought light to an interesting story on their Tumblr this week after the Journal of Pediatrics released data showing that at least 1 in 3 people has been arrested by the age of 23 years old.

According to OUR TIME's post

• By age 23, up to 41% of American adolescents and young adults have been arrested at least once. After an arrest, young people at a higher risk for future criminal activity.
• The United States has less than 5% of the world’s population, and almost 25% of the worlds prisoners.
• The U.S. Congress recently told judges that prison is mainly for punishment, not rehabilitation.
• Cost of keeping a person in prison is approx $30K per year. Public HS Education costs approx $10K per year.

Co-Founder and head of OUR TIME Matthew Segal appeared on MSNBC's Dylan Ratagin last night to shed greater light on the troubling state of young Americans behind bars.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

The memory of Dr. King - preserved through service a civic engagement. Do something today that helps your community, that makes a difference, and moves our society forward. Find an event in your community by clicking here

(h/t Billy and Rebuild the Dream)

I've been reading several stories about Ron Paul following the the successes he's had in the Iowa Caucus and the New Hampshire Primary with young voters. Many of these stories speculate that this somehow speaks to the "message" of the Paul campaign or that Paul's issues are the issues of young voters this election. While some of these assumptions are partly valid, they're leaving out a majority of the information about young voters and the source of their support in the Ron Paul Revolution.

To begin, Paul has consistently received support from young people. But this isn't the first election that we're seeing him as a candidate. Other than former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, Paul is the only candidate in the race who has the benefit of having done this just 4 years ago. And like many candidates, his campaign didn't end after McCain was declared the nominee in 2008. Instead, the "revolution" continued it's efforts in PAC form and has continued to message and mobilize it's supporters around the issues Paul pushes. Most pundits are underestimating this impact. Many campaign experts have commented over the last year that Obama's lack of "campaigning" after the election was over was the reason his policies weren't "sold" to American voters. Hell he even said it at a speech at the University of Maryland. Many of the GOP candidates and campaigns that turned into PACs or Super PACs and never stopped pushing their issues and their brand to their supporters and Ron Paul is one of them.

If you look at the raw numbers of Iowa and New Hampshire for Paul you get a different picture of 2008 vs. 2012. In 2008 there was a youth turnout of 13% over 65,000 young people vs. 2012 when it was 4% over 18,000 young voters (via CIRCLE). In 2008 of the 65,230 young voters 52,580 of the caucused for Democratic candidates. Of those youth who voted in 2008 in the GOP caucus, they supported Huckabee - so the electorate has a track record of supporting a more conservative candidate. In the final ballot in 2008 Paul got 11,841. I wish I had a demographic break down for first ballots by candidate... but I don't.....

For New Hampshire over 72,000 young voters turned out for the primaries in 2008 with nearly 44,000 of those going for Democratic candidates. Ron Paul received 18,308 votes out of 234,851 in New Hampshire in 2008 for 7.8% of the GOP vote share. In 2012 Paul got 56,872 out of 248,293 voters a vote share of 23% - that's actually about 25,000 less than what Mitt Romney got in 2008 as a second place finisher to John McCain in 2008.... Like in Iowa, New Hampshire saw a pretty big drop in youth turnout too. Four years ago young voters participated to the tune of over 84,000 voters. This year... more like just under 30,000.

I wish I had demographic break downs by candidate for 2008 but CIRCLE doesn't have that data and CNN's super helpful data visualizations they've had FOR YEARS are now... gone...

For both 2008 and 2012 Paul excelled when it comes to mobilization, at least as it pertains to young voters. Many candidates dismiss young voters as fickle with less likelihood of turning out than seniors, so they don't do the work. Obama won Iowa in 2008 because he had to win with "unlikely" voters, he had to bring new voters into the equation which meant young people, which is why the Iowa Caucus youth vote tripled. Of the GOP campaigns I've watched over the years, Paul is the only one who seems to mobilize his supporters regardless of age. Perhaps, this is because, like Obama, Paul must garner his support from "unlikely" voters because he knows the establishment voters won't support him. While I'm sure message and issues and the bump coming out of Iowa factor into this equation, underestimating the power of GOTV, especially in a primary or caucus is a mistake.

Like GOTV, Paul speaks TO young voters. His campaign embraces their enthusiasm and highlights it, online especially, and if you attended the 2008 GOP "Un-Convention" you saw a whole heck of a lot of young faces. More traditional establishment campaigns don't do this. It makes a difference in the tone and appearance of a campaign when young voters look around and see more people like them instead of a bunch of old white dudes.

Not being treated as a real candidate matters too. Typically in a campaign you have contrasting negative ads that hit the opposition. Many view Romney as the frontrunner, so they attack him in millions of dollars in advertising. The same is true for Perry and Gingrich. Ron Paul is never really considered a threat - some don't even view him as a viable candidate. He's like the crazy old uncle of the GOP. He'll never win. So no one spends millions of dollars attacking him. Thus... his negatives aren't that high.

Finally, yes, message and issues do matter, but it's hardly the only factor even the driving factor. There's an authenticity with Paul that you don't see with Romney. Paul knows he's not going to win - and I'm not sure he cares if he does or not. He seems to be in the race to raise ideas and create a dialogue about those issues. Some of those ideas (crazy or not) made their way to legislation in the last 4 years and his campaign can count the enthusiasm and support of his voters for continuing to hammer home those issues with their elected officials.

Second about message, young people tend to be independent in their ideology, specifically when it comes to their thoughts about government intrusion in things like marriage and drug policy. I think if many of these young voters knew that Paul wasn't all that libertarian when it comes to equality, marriage, and women's rights their opinion might evolve, but no one considers Paul a threat... so these issues are never brought up, discussed, and he's never questioned or held accountable.

Finally about message, many of the anti-war, pro-drug, anti-Wall Street messages are the ones that indeed hit home with young people. It's the same reason you're seeing other anti-Wall Street candidates do well right now (see Elizabeth Warren... Suzanne Bonamici... etc). In a 30 second pitch these ideas are ones that do speak to young voters and contrast considerably with candidates who want to do ads on "family" and "faith" and whatever other pandering to the GOP electorate they want. This is where that authenticity comes back in. Fold in the lack of accountability, a big GOTV list, and you've got a recipe for success.

There are a lot of factors that are being ignored when it comes to Ron Paul and the youth vote. Never underestimate the power of a GOTV campaign or a non-stop issues campaign that's gone on for the last 4+ years. These are the things that can make a candidate successful, especially in low turnout years when the rest of the field is a joke.

Seriously.

"STOSSEL: I’m not saying we should have a test or something. But this endless cheerleading — let’s go to the rock concerts and register the kids. And the kids aren’t paying attention. And it’s important in a democracy, it’s important to vote. And these are important issues. The people who participate ought to be the ones who pay attention… I’m just saying we shouldn’t have these "Get Out The Vote” campaigns and make these statements: "Everyone has to vote. It’s your patriotic duty!" Well if you’re not paying attention, I think it’s your patriotic duty not to vote."

This explains the GOP's campaign to make it harder for democratic voters to participate in democracy. I mean - really why bother, right? Let's just have a dictatorship. Democracy is too expensive anyway. Or maybe a monarchy - those are fancy right? Maybe John Stossel is just too dumb to vote.

(h/t ThinkProgress)

Do you have health care? Have you been able to stay on your parents' health insurance longer? If you say yes then you're one of the 17 million American youth that could lose that if the Supreme Court overturns the Affordable Care Act, according to a legal brief filed on Thursday.

According to The Hill

"Some 20 million young adults between the ages of 18 and 34 currently don't have insurance, the group argues. When the full benefits of the law kick in in 2014, about 8 million young adults will qualify for Medicaid and another 9 million will become eligible for federal subsidies to buy private insurance on new state health insurance exchanges.

The group's amicus brief argues that the requirement that everyone have insurance — the crux of the legal challenges against the law — "does not impose a significant burden on young adults."

"On the other hand," the brief argues, "eliminating this and other pillars of the [healthcare reform law] would undermine the regulatory scheme and harm the health and
economic well-being of millions of young Americans by denying them access to affordable"

Court cases against the law have been going back and forth in district courts for the better part of the last year and now the Supremes have said they will decide the fate. It's on the docket for March 26, 27 and 28 and The Hill says "a decision is expected in June, before the 2012 presidential election." Given the Supreme Court's affinity to corporations and the fact that the health care industry and insurance companies are behind the law, you'd think they'd support it, right?