progress report for young americans

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi released a Progress Report for Young Americans Wednesday touting the successes of the new Congressional Majority that won on a “new direction” agenda last fall.

“After years of neglect and inaction, much needs to be done. In the first year of this Congress, under new Democratic leadership, we are making progress.” The Speaker’s site says.

Of the 24 accomplishments on the checklist, ten have not yet been signed into law and two were vetoed. The Speaker’s agenda includes many of the things we’ve seen here on FM including college affordability and targeting global warming as the eminent threat young people have worked on for years.

“But there is much more to be done and Republicans are standing in the way,” continued David Hardt (President of the Young Democrats of America). “Democrats understand that young voters – be they college students, those starting in the workforce or beginning families – are focused on what their future looks like. That is why this huge voting block has rejected Republicans in election after election.”

Glancing through this you’ll see that many of these points are simply line items from the Speaker’s New Direction Agenda. I would argue that spinning the same agenda in a youthy way doesn’t necessarily make it youthy. But I don’t want to diminish the great successes Congressional Democrats have seen in their work. These are indeed things that benefit all Americans. The youthy and the wrinkled.

What is encouraging is the page itself. The Speaker – leader of the Congress - has shown an active interest in communicating the democratic agenda to young Americans. We spend a lot of time on FM talking about being ignored because leaders of both parties have been bungling the youth vote, ignoring the power of young voters, neglecting our agenda, and worst of all not taking us seriously. I think this is a good indication that they are at least putting forth some effort.

The issues that they targeted and brought over from the regular everyday agenda are indeed issues that are important to us: global Warming, health care, Iraq… Now, granted they aren’t stopping the war in Iraq, creating universal health care, or stopping global warming (all things we want) but – perhaps that flicker of hope is a light at the end of the tunnel.

In the mean time – newsflash – young people matter enough for Pelosi to make flashy graphics, spin the dem agenda, and do a press event with a pretty banner.

For more on the Youth Agenda you can read below the jump: