Where is the love?
Last Wednesday, David Segal wrote an article in the Washington Post lamenting the lack of passion and political engagement from young people today. He dismissed young voters as inarticulate, uninterested in the world around them, and lacking in intellectual curiosity when compared with the student protestors that threw Nazi flags and pitchers of water on foreign ambassadors in 1968.
This has got to stop.
Despite the surge in voter turnout among 18-29 year olds in 2004, 2006, and the 2008 primaries, many analysts and members of the media have stuck by their assertion that young people are apathetic, uninformed, and unwilling to participate in the political process. Perhaps this willing ignorance to the facts is rooted in the lack of visible protest and unrest in the Millennial Generation that Segal points out.
However, just because young people aren’t burning effigies of political leaders in the street doesn’t make them less interested in or informed about the world – it just means they’re not interested in refighting the culture wars of the 60s. Student protests of the Johnson and Nixon era, while radical and attention-grabbing, didn’t affect much actual change. In fact, they caused a backlash from a majority of Americans and elected officials that deemed them unpatriotic and ungrateful.
Do young people today think things in this country have gotten off track? You bet. In the latest RTV poll of 18-29 year olds, a full three-quarters of respondents said they thought the country was moving in the wrong direction. But, they’re not taking their anger out by trying to avoid or destroy “the system.” The Millennial Generation has learned the power of playing by the rules of the game – in their own way.
They stay informed through a variety of formats – they watch TV, read internet news sites and blogs, share articles and videos with each other on Facebook and MySpace, and organize events via text message. They spend their weekends registering voters, knocking on doors for their favorite candidates, and talking to their family and friends about the issues they care about. And, most importantly?
This has got to stop.
Despite the surge in voter turnout among 18-29 year olds in 2004, 2006, and the 2008 primaries, many analysts and members of the media have stuck by their assertion that young people are apathetic, uninformed, and unwilling to participate in the political process. Perhaps this willing ignorance to the facts is rooted in the lack of visible protest and unrest in the Millennial Generation that Segal points out.
However, just because young people aren’t burning effigies of political leaders in the street doesn’t make them less interested in or informed about the world – it just means they’re not interested in refighting the culture wars of the 60s. Student protests of the Johnson and Nixon era, while radical and attention-grabbing, didn’t affect much actual change. In fact, they caused a backlash from a majority of Americans and elected officials that deemed them unpatriotic and ungrateful.
Do young people today think things in this country have gotten off track? You bet. In the latest RTV poll of 18-29 year olds, a full three-quarters of respondents said they thought the country was moving in the wrong direction. But, they’re not taking their anger out by trying to avoid or destroy “the system.” The Millennial Generation has learned the power of playing by the rules of the game – in their own way.
They stay informed through a variety of formats – they watch TV, read internet news sites and blogs, share articles and videos with each other on Facebook and MySpace, and organize events via text message. They spend their weekends registering voters, knocking on doors for their favorite candidates, and talking to their family and friends about the issues they care about. And, most importantly?
They vote.
Keep rockin’, people. We’ll show ‘em in November.
Labels: millennial generation, poll, Washington Post, young voters
posted by Justine at 3:55 PM
1 Comments:
I love this blog.
young people today don't vote just because they may be uminformed, but because they know the United States in going in the wrong direction on many issues.
I for one am very excited about voting. I believe that it is an incredible right that as an american i am privaledged to have unlike in many countries.
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