Written by: Future Majority Editors and Contributors
It gets tiring correcting our elders since they "know what's best for us" and it is really hard not being completely sarcastic in this response.
Hill.com published a story titled "Running Idol Style" which describes yet another out of touch story and ridiculous attempt by Hollywood and Washington insiders to persuade young people to vote.
Maybe they didn't get the memo, but young people are voting and it is not because of gimmicks. Young people are voting in record numbers, and voting for Democrats overwhelmingly, because there is real money being invested in programs that work and politicians as well as youth groups are doing the unfathomable, asking for our generation's vote.
When young people are treated as real voters who can help a candidate win, they turn out to vote. Just ask Montana Senator Jon Tester, Arizona Representative Harry Mitchell or Connecticut Representative Joe Courtney. They all won with the youth vote.
Donors are finally giving to youth voting programs and investing in candidates who target young people. The increase in youth voting is not because of a reality show, it's because young people are taking responsibility for our generation and creating innovative programs to get our peers to the polls (as a side note to the American Idol bitters, this was already attempted in 2004 by Showtime and didn't really go anywhere so you might want to take a look at the show "American Candidate" before dumping millions).
The creators of the show M. Allen Wilson and Akili West say they came up with the idea for their Idol-like show titled "Voice Your Choice America" because young people are not excited about politics and "candidates don't connect with the youth of America."
Oh really?
In a recent poll conducted by Celinda Lake, a respected pollster and strategist who looks at the numbers and trends rather than sitting in a room blaming young people for not voting, reported that over 58% of young people are paying close attention to the Presidential races (we might add that is more than the 53% of adults that are paying attention according to a Pew poll). This is an increase of 23 points from 2004. Eligible young voters will reach 50 million by the 2008 cycle and we are voting for Democrats overwhelmingly (56% Democratic to 36% Republican).
So while I know Wilson wants the show to engage and "entertain" us, we are not interested.
We want candidates to talk to us about what they are going to do about Iraq, we want to hear real solutions to the fact that young people under 35 are the largest group of the uninsured and we want to know that if we do straddle ourselves with the huge debt of going to college that there will actually be jobs that can support our growing families. We get enough entertainment with the American Idol try out sessions.
If you are a Baby Boomer who "hates on us" for organizing online instead of the streets, or a Washington Insider who removes us from walk and mail lists because you still think we don't vote or an Entertainment Exec who wants to engage us, you may want to check out some real ways to get young people to vote. You can read up on youth groups' tactics like Pledge Cards and Trick or Vote activities on a blog all about youth voting, www.futuremajority.com.
Even better, if you really want to help us systematically change elections and increase the number of folks engaged in politics than put your money behind things like national same-day registration (which increases young voter participation by at least 12%), full public financing at all levels, independent non-partisan redistricting and Electoral College reform. We would dare say that not only would more young people vote, more people of all ages would vote. We even bet that more young people and regular folks would run for office as well so the halls of Congress can look more like America than the men's bathroom at a country club.
We don't need a reality show to find the next political version of Kelly Clarkson, we simply want politicians to pay attention to us and ask us for our vote.
