Field Work and Substance, Not Hipness, is Key to Youth Vote

I don't mean to pick on a friend here, but this is a meme that deserved a quick death well over a decade ago, and lies at the root of many bad stereotypes and even worse campaign decisions about reaching young voters. From Tech President (emphasis mine):

We're a bit late in the game on this, given that happened way back last week, but the Republican New Media Caucus has gone and gotten itself a starter website. The GOP is eager to not let new media get away from it like blogs did. They want to win on Twitter, win on Facebook, win on YouTube. The added bonus is that being savvy on those mediums comes across to voters as being somewhat hip and with it, which isn't a bad thing for Republicans as they attempt to win young voters and build a youth base for a party that is worried about its next generation.

Somewhere along the way - probably in the mid 1990s, well after Madonna helped Rock the Vote make a splash in the political arena but during a period in which they all but stopped doing any field outreach - the idea arose that reaching young people for political purposes required being hip. That in turn forced a focus on celebrity culture as a key to youth organizing.

There is zero data supporting the claim that hipness or celebrity equates to effective youth outreach and party building. On the contrary, all the evidence suggests that it is traditional field work, complemented by new media, and a substantive approach to youth issues that matter most in building youth support.

Yes, Obama had celebrity, but he also had a solid youth outreach operation and spoke consistently to the concerns of young people. The quicker activists, organizers, candidates, staffers, and political committees realize this, the more success they will have with young voters and the healthier our Democracy will be.