Doing More With Less: YDA Weighs In

Over at The Pace, Young Democrats Executive Director Alexandra Acker responds to the post I wrote about "doing more with less" and the shortage of funding in youth organizing this year.

There are great lessons to be learned from 1992. In 1992, Bill Clinton won on the heels of the youth vote and then never talked to young voters again. He didn’t address the issues they cared about (beyond general economic stewardship) and he didn’t court their vote in 1996. It doesn’t take a genius to then guess that young people didn’t turn out in 1996 – they didn’t. And not only did we lose those young 1992 voters in 1996, we lost them, period.

This is my huge fear about this election. There is huge potential to capitalize on enthusiasm among young voters for Obama in this election. But there’s also an even greater danger of a cult of personality movement. The downsides are obvious if we lose – young people may become disillusioned altogether and weaker youth organizations, who could not maximize their potential in the Year of the Youth Vote, won’t have the capacity to re-energize them for issue advocacy work and future elections. But, if we win, Obama will then have to carry the mantle while also nurturing competing interests (and if you think young people’s power at the ballot box is still weak relative to older generations, our power of persuasion – organized by us, for us – is nearly non-existent). He will also inevitably disappoint all or some of his supporters, as no one’s star can shine that bright forever (even his).

Young voters will have to hold Obama, and others elected on our heels, accountable. But how can we do that in an only Obama-led movement? How can we try to move an agenda that may be at odds with the Administration’s priorities? How can we win primary challenges or have more young people run for office against older, safer, more seemingly reliable incumbents?

Great points all. Al's point about Clinton and the youth vote in the 90s is spot on, and a parallel can also be drawn between today and the Republicans of the 1980s. Conservatives have invested heavily in leadership building and voter registration. As a result, we got Reagan, Rove, Grover Norquist and Bush Sr. Then they stopped investing in voter registration and turnout and we got Clinton. Youth voted heavily for Kerry and now we're voting Democratic 2 - 1.

Things seem great, but they won't always be. The progressive movement is about to make the same mistake the Republicans did and assume that because the youth vote is in the bag this election cycle it will always be that way. How soon we forget.