HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY…YOUNG VOTERS!
According to a New York Times/CBS News/MTV Poll, young Americans ages 17-29 are paying more attention to the 2008 election than ever before and out of the current field of candidates – they’re looking to Senators Hillary Clinton and Barrack Obama to represent them. Is it because younger Americans are more open to elected a woman or African American to the presidency? Is it because they lean more Democrat than Republican? Or is it that both candidates have found ways to bring their candidacy to where young American’s are – the Internet and have found a technology wave that they can both ride. Intricacies and policies aside – it makes them appear connected or should I say “plugged” in to the next generation of voters.
As I wrote in a piece two weeks ago “YouControl.com: A Brave New Political World” http://www.gather.com/viewArticle.jsp?articleId=281474977032868, it was “Students for Barrack Obama” who started a grassroots effort to recruit the Senator back in the Summer of ’06 to run for President by using Facebook to connect with other students and to spread the word about this “new guy” from Chicago. Because of that once small but strong Facebook community, when the Senator decided to run for president, he and his staff decided to bring this Facebook community along for an electoral ride. You can find links to Facebook, You Tube, MySpace, PartyBuilder, Eventful and Flickr on his website as well as a blog for the young American community. His team’s instinct to use the Internet coupled with their savvy approach to content has become a structure on which other candidates are competing. Debuting on his website just recently are mobile messaging options, wallpapers and original ringtones. http://www.barackobama.com/mobile/ it is revolutionary and it is connecting Senator Obama to dorm rooms, apartments, library’s, bars and sporting events around the country as well as anyone within ear shot!
Then there is Senator Clinton, no stranger to the MTV generation (remember the famous MTV Townhall “Boxer or Briefs” question to her husband in ’92)? The Senator announced her candidacy on the web in January and continued to empower her web based community to choose her campaign song and premiered in the famous video starring herself and her husband ala the Soprano finale to announce the winning song. Now that the “Soprano Strategy” worked so well, this week her campaign is premiering the “HillCam” http://hillaryclinton.com/feature/hillcam/?sc=8 which will follow her and her husband behind the scenes throughout their week in Iowa offering a never before glimpse of a “candid candidacy.” If you go to the previous link – you’ll be greeted with a Hollywood trailer seducing you to sign up for the HillCam and get a peak into what’s happening when they’re off the stage! Let’s face it – reality shows are all the rage with this same demographic she’s targeting!
But it’s one thing to reach out to the young American generation and another to build it into a voting population and that’s where my new favorite NON-partisan website and mission comes in! “Declare Yourself” www.DeclareYourself.com was founded by Norman Lear as a national nonpartisan, nonprofit initiative to register every eligible young voter to...vote! They premiered over 20 video spots by young A list celebrities encouraging voter registration – check out their website, play a few and email to your friends. They are shot with incredible quality, hilarious humor and an indispensable message.
The Baby Boomer kids, called “Echo Boomers” are eligible to vote in 2008. This means up to an additional 16 million people ages 18-22 could register to vote and play a role in this historical Presidential Election. So in celebration of the Fourth of July let’s celebrate our honor, our privilege and our right to VOTE. If you have kids 18-22 yrs. old, have friends with these kids that age or just know of someone not registered but yet eligible to vote – send them to WWW.DECLAREYOURSELF.COM and they’ll find everything they need to go to the polls come election day.
Please, check out Declare Yourself and the sites of Senators Clinton and Obama and tell me what you think of the value being placed among the almighty vote of the young American!
Happy Fourth of July and thank you for joining in the conversation!
Laura
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Comments: 25
I hope you get to sign someone up to register! And you have to check out the site and watch a coupleof videos - they're by the guys from Reno 911 - really great job!
Happy Fourth!
Thanks!
Fire the Grid
Thanks for commenting on our Independence your point on the fact on non-partisanship is a good one. I often wonder how many or what Republicans who view Senator Hillary Clinton unfavorably for example would think of her after blindly reading her voting record and policy proposals. Would the unfavorable rating drop? These days I do not know whether unfavorable ratings are based on party affiliation or personas? Is it partisanship that drives us away from an otherwise qualified candidate or is it their personalities?
There is something I refer to as party parity – in other wards identifying with one party through and through and party disparity – the fact that although you may have at one time agreed with the foundation of a political party you find yourself drifting away from some of the policies or some of the voices. That is where the beauty of "non-partisanship" comes in – I think of it as looking at a resume without the name included and then making a hire. Because after all – we hire them and as with any job – they have to impress me with what they will do – not just what they say!
Thanks so much for commenting and Happy Fourth!
Laura
What a positive suggestions! Voting should is a grand affair!
After all, our ancestors actually fought and many died for it – it is truly and honor and privilege to exercise our right to vote! And it is one of those very special occasions that deserve a camera and celebration no matter who is the winner – it's the exercise of Democracy that we can make as citizens and individuals that we should revere and look forward to. I was in Ghana, Africa with Former President Clinton for the creation of micro-lending loan programs to the Ghanaians through the Clinton Foundation in 2003. I met the most amazing citizens there – they were eager, happy and excited about their right to vote. They stand in line for hours to days to cast their vote – their vote is who they are and want to be as participants in society and the world. They received the right to vote in the 50's and even though we've enjoyed the vote much longer than they – I hope that in 2008 we see more citizens approach it with the same diligence and anticipation as the Ghanaians. I believe many of us do – and with all of your help, many more of us will!
Thank you Viv! Go round up those new voters!
Laura
You always have great original comments!
I look back to 1993 when I could first vote in a Presidential election. I realized that I more identified with the Democratic Party on social issues, domestic priorities and their policies to address them and on foreign policy – how we present our face as America to the world. I was excited though I didn't pay much attention to the primaries (I was in Wisconsin at the time and the candidate was pretty much chosen prior to our primary) though I did like this new guy from Arkansas – he seemed to connect with my generation- something I did not feel from President George H. Bush. I was happy with Gov. Bill Clinton as a candidate and as I very slowly started to pay attention I found my self becoming so much more aware of what was at stake and that I had this new found responsibility to vote.
My parents took me to the polls as a kid – I would walk in that booth with them and watch them pull the levers – I was excited to pull the levers on my own. But when I was first eligible to vote I realized it wasn't just about pulling a lever but it was about me and my future, my parents future. Whether domestic, foreign or social issues I suddenly found that I had a stake and responsibility in choosing who our next President would be. Knowing that my vote would be counted just as much as my parent's and grandparent's encouraged me to find out what I could about all three candidates (yes, I even looked at Perot) and related that to who I am. I watched the debates, I talked with my friends, I talked with my family. That's how I became a proud voter.
I definitely was a crazy kid but at the same time I was a kid excited about the opportunity to exercise my democracy.
I declared myself and I hope to encourage many others to declare themselves!
Thank you and Happy 4th of July!
Laura
What I would love is to have a candidate that inspired me the way John Kennedy did. I would love to go into the voting booth again and vote "for" someone rather than holding my nose and voting for the lesser of two evils.
I believe our current system is broken and the winner is the person with the most money and the best campaign rather than the person who would do the best job. We are more into flash than substance. I would really love to hear political candidates actually answer questions and offer solutions rather than playing political games.
Seems to be a self-fulfilling prophesy.
How do we get Sen. Obama and Sen. Clinton to represent those of us who are Conservative Democrats? Both seem to be courting the Left in an unbalanced, unhealthy (in regards to winning the White House) way. Since most of the voters are somewhere in the Center, why not go after those voters in a big way? Being from Illinois, I'm especially worried about Mr. Obama's extremely Liberal views. Is anyone counseling him back toward the Center?
We saw that President Clinton did well when he positioned himself as a Moderate Democrat, but we've also seen those who've done poorly when they positioned themselves as Left Wing Democrats............such as Ned Lamont.
Thanks for joining the conversation!
Thanks for the article Laura and thanks to the folks at Declare Yourself!
-A
It's not just about getting young Americans interested and registered it's also about turning them out on election day. They have increased their turn out in the last election but we need to be all hands on deck to get them to the actual polls!
Thank you!
I found 1 19yr old (friend's kid) and talked to them about voting yesterday and she didn't seem to get the process that you have to register - I gave her the site name - and she emailed me this morning to say that she printed out the form and is Declaring Herself!
Thanks for the good links!
I first became excited about politics when I was in high school and volunteered to work on Bobby Kennedy's campaign. One of the high points of my life was getting to shake the man's hand. The tragic end of his odyssey, likewise, effectively killed any interest I might have otherwise had in becoming engaged in the political process for the next three decades plus.
On a somewhat less serious note, your article provoked a burning question in my mind about Hillary: Boxers or briefs? Will we ever know? And I think that her campaign song campaign would have been a whole lot funnier if, instead of having the menacing mobster-actor guy scowling at the Clintons, they'd recruited Monica for the part. I'm sure she could use the work.
Yes. Congress is bought and sold by special interests, but we can change even that. Vote them all out. Do it again and again until they decide that they'd sooner answer to us than to those who pay for their votes. We pay their salaries and give them the job in the first place.
On the other hand, if you actually talk to some people and realize how uninterested and uninformed they are you might ask why on earth you'd want them in a ballot booth.
And thank you for sharing your story about Bobby Kennedy - what an amazing experience and life changing for you. Do you think that any of these candidates from either side of the aisle have that same ability to make such and impact like Bobby Kennedy?
So glad you joined the conversation!
Laura
Thanks for your comment - you raise a good point!
You can throw all kinds of information at people but whether or not they digest it and vote on it is another reason. Just like the old saying that "An Educated Consumer is Your Best Customer" the same thing could be said that "An Educated Voter is Your Best Voter!"
Thanks again for hoping in the discussion!
Laura
And to answer your question Laura, I am intrigued by Barack Obama's personal appeal (charisma) and idealism. He seems to have the same kind of ability to appeal to "the better angels of our nature", in Lincoln's words, that Bobby Kennedy did. What remains to be seen is, will he be able to formulate, and communicate, a vision that addresses issues of substance in a practical, achievable way? I am hoping that he will.