Concerning Young, Virginian Voters

By: progressyouth
Published On: 6/25/2006 12:15:02 AM

Though I was born in downtown DC, I have lived my whole life thus far in the great city of Alexandria, VA. My life as a blogger started two weeks ago, when I met TeacherKen (who posts here frequently) at the Webb campaign in Rosslyn the day of the primary. The following day, I sent TeacherKen an e-mail about young voters and voter apathy (he is a high-school teacher of government, among other classes). He posted his response to my e-mail as a diary post on DailyKos and this site. I was intrigued by his response, and I decided to make the discussion into a blog of its own.

...Thus, I would like to share my opinion, as an 18-year old voter, on how the Webb campaign can utilize younger voters to declare victory over George Allen.

Before I mention anything, let me direct your attention to the fact that this demographic has the fastest growing voter turnout (up 4.6 million between Bush/Gore and Bush/Kerry), and is becoming increasingly liberal (48% Gore - 46% Bush/55% Gore - 44% Bush, Source USA Today).

Here is what I think is important with regards to all young voters:
1. Campaign on the issues that young voters experience on a daily basis. The best one: Education. Rep. Pelosi in the Democratic Weekly Radio Address this week announced the Democratic Party+óGé¼Gäós intent to lower rates on student loans. The Democratic Party now needs to advertise this message to the college-aged demographic.
2. Make Clear to Young Voters the Extent to which the Leaders in Washington are Destroying America for the Next Generation. When my generation reaches maturity, we will wake up to find a big mess, to say the least. Social security will be on its way into bankruptcy or already there, an inconceivable budget deficit will leave our government in huge debt to other nations and entities, and rising global temperatures will threaten the human species like no other challenge in recorded history. These problems are fixable! And they are fixable right now! But they will not be fixed with this conservative Congress, which provides lavish lifestyles for its rich constituents at my expense.

Republicans would say that my approach to young voter apathy is fear-mongering. To this I say that it+óGé¼Gäós about time people my age became afraid, as budget deficits threaten the future wellbeing of the economy and the American government with inexpressible magnitude and global warming has this Earth spiraling headlong towards unprecedented global catastrophe. Youthful intervention is this nation+óGé¼Gäós, indeed this world+óGé¼Gäós, only salvation.

Now, here is my list for young voters of Virginia:

1. Galvanize the Universities: Virginia has some of the best universities in the US, if not the world. The people who attend these institutions are recieving incredible educations, and if any demographic should know the stakes of current national and global political affairs, it should be the college-aged demographic in Virginia. Plus, most of these universities are located within Republican turf. The Democrats need to work with Democratic student leaders within these institutions.

2. Warner!: The political memories of the voters in my demographic is extremely short. Democrats can take advantage of this because average Virginians do not have particularily unfavorable views of Warners governorship. I do not need to emphasize this point, as Warner's voice will be utilized in Webb's campaign. To what extent remains to be seen...

If you would like more discussion about young voters, I encourage you (or shamelessly advertise to you) to visit my blog, www.progressyouth.blogspot.com/

Comments



Youth & Politics (drmontoya - 6/25/2006 2:11:01 AM)
Myspace is a great tool as well in getting youth involved in politics. The Dean & Clark campaigns were first to tap into it in 2004, then Kerry & Edwards followed.

I myself started Wes Clark's Myspace profile, and now a bunch of college kids nationwide are running it with the oversight of the campaign, on his page we have over a thousand friends and well over 5 thousand friends on his myspace group. And it's only been running for about a year now.

I recently started Jim Webb's Myspace Profile.. and that is catching steam as well..

www.myspace.com/jimwebb

So.. IN person is great.. but most of the teens, youth, college students I know are plugged in in some fashion.. we just have to reach them and inspire them.

--Dave



Good Idea (progressyouth - 6/25/2006 10:23:01 AM)
That's a good idea. I know it's catching on because I saw it mentioned on another site (I think). Internet tools, such as blogs, MySpace, Facebook, etc. are also great tools for reaching young voters. I should of mentioned this in this post.


Youth & Politics (drmontoya - 6/26/2006 12:33:20 PM)
But yeah.. we HAVE to get the youth involved if we want to be successful and at least have somewhat of a working democracy.

I have too many friends that don't believe thier vote doesn't make a difference, if that's true what are we all doing here?

I know everyone has friends like this.. so what are you doing to change thier minds?

Think about it.

--Dave



Just got a young GOP to support WEBB! (drmontoya - 6/26/2006 12:45:59 PM)
Yes that's right, a REPUBLICAN that supports Jim Webb.

He is the candidate to bring back people to the Democratic Party. We just have to keep pushing the message.

Onward!

--Dave