Why We Don't Care

In 2004 “students went to bed November 2 not knowing who the next president would be.” (Arizona Daily) And while John Kerry was actually victorious among those same 18-24 year olds, they only constituted 9% of the voting population, much less than would be required to get their presidential hopeful into office (Arizona Daily). [The age bracket 18-29 was actually the only bracket that Kerry won.] So why with such a potential for impact and obviously unique political views, do we see such disinterest among the younger demographic? There seems to exist an apathy stemming mainly from the fact that political “hot spots”, especially in the current presidential election, seem to have little direct effect on our adolescent lives. In short we don’t vote because politicians don’t speak to us. Politicians don’t speak to us because we don’t vote. Can you say Catch-22?

Despite efforts by youth-targeted organizations, like MTV’s Rock the Vote campaign, voter turnout in the younger generation has continued to remain the lowest in the nation. This, in a nation where only 54% of the voting age population (infoplease) votes in presidential elections, with an even lower percentage in midterm elections. This dismal percentage places US voter turnout at the bottom of the international scale of democracies, ranking only slightly above Poland and Switzerland (California Progress Report). In Los Angeles Country alone in 2006, out of 3.8 million registered voters, only 1 million showed up at the polls (California Progress Report). So to say that the youngest age bracket of the voting age population has the lowest turnout in our country is comparing them to the low of the low as far as voter turnout demographics is concerned.

Stimulating the younger demographic to vote in US elections continues to be an ongoing issue because in short, we simply don’t care enough. With current presidential debates centering on issues like Iraq, foreign relations, and a declining economy, I find myself flipping from televised debates to the much more exciting Lost season premier. I fail to be interested in the fact that average wages are at an all time low because frankly school is, and will be for the next couple of years, my primary focus. Furthermore, studying for an upcoming exam ranks much higher on my agenda than does researching the increasingly complex propositions so that I can knowledgeably vote on them.

Whether or not this apathy is substantiated is debatable. After all in two short years I will be searching for a job in our currently depleting job market and looking to obtain a reasonable salary in this declining economy. But two years is not right now, and we have been raised in a society that values instant gratification (Can you say drive thru Starbucks?) Right now, I want someone to address the fact that I’m paying close to a quarter of a million dollars for college, four short years of higher education that without, I’m most likely resigned to the bottom tier of the workplace hierarchy. I want to know why I’m weary to commit to any function over 20 miles away because I don’t want to pay $50+ dollars for a single tank of gas. I’m worried about the world that my parents are leaving my children and me; I want to hear about solutions to global warming, not sidestepped answers and more strategies on how to exit the Middle East. It would seem that I’m currently disproving my previous argument of apathetic young adults. Obviously I do care about some current issues, they are just different from the ones that politicians tend to elaborate on.

So how will the next president of the United States affect my life? Will a republican or democrat be more conducive to my attending and paying for college? Who will improve the economy to the point that in two years when I am scouring the job market for a career I will find something I want to do and get paid well for it? While these questions are debatable, presidential candidates fail to spend much of their time actually debating them. The few candidates who do campaign at universities obviously structure their speeches briefly toward issues that the average college student would be interested in, but these issues tend to fly out the window during important, televised debates. This brings us back to the Catch 22 – with limited on-air time the presidential candidates need to focus on older age brackets because they will be the majority of the voters. Just as 10 years ago, paying for a college education was a major issue for the large Baby Boomer generation, this election Universal Healthcare and Social Security are frontrunners, programs that frankly I have little faith will be around by the time I am ready to take advantage of them. So while candidates continue to appeal to the older and larger age brackets, I continue to grow dissatisfied with their platforms.

Other than policy and lifestyle differences, the younger demographic has to cope with the fact that many of them attend school or have started new careers away from their hometown. As I sit here ready to slam my peers for not having the foresight to vote absentee, I realize that I, myself am unsure of how to vote. As a typical college student, I procrastinated applying for a mail-in ballot and now have the option of not voting or attempting to brave rush hour traffic to get home to San Diego and vote at the polls. While the two-hour drive seems like nothing compared to what the forefathers of our nation did to create this democracy, I see how it would pose as a legitimate barrier to many of my peers. Our voting process takes effort, and in elections involving “choosing between two evils” and an array of public policies that will probably not affect my life at college, is it worth it? Will my one vote make the difference between Barack Obama getting the democratic nomination over Hillary Clinton? Probably not. And I’m not alone in my thinking. College students have been quoted saying that they didn’t vote because they just “never got around to it.” (Arizona Daily Wildcat) On a college campus where everything moves at a hundred miles a second and most of us don’t have Mom or Dad holding our hands and telling us to be active citizens, voting just isn’t a priority. Couple this with the common viewpoint that one vote doesn’t make a difference in our complicated voting system, and voila – dismally low voter turnout. This cynicism is further reinforced by the past two presidential elections. The Florida scandal and ballot recount in the 2000 election and again with the difference between the popular vote and the Electoral College in the 2004 election.

Joe Lieberman gives additional reasons for the cynicism that has become inherent among our younger voting population in his book, In Praise of the Public Life. He says that cynicism is a “by-product of sensational politics”. In reference to this he mentions his fellow democrat, Bill Clinton, and the Lewinsky scandal that captured our nation’s attention for so long. With the amount of campaign fundraising and spending that occurs, and accusations that candidates sling at each other, politics has become similar to action movies – fake, expensive, and nasty. Another reason he gives for the marked disinterest in politics is the exaggerated partisan aspect of our current political scene. (Newshour Extra) This can best be seen in Congress during Bush’s last State of the Union address. (The Whitehouse) When you repeatedly see only one side of the aisle standing and clapping at his proclamations, it is apparent that fundamental differences reside in Congress, differences that are impeding any real betterment of our nation. Instead of cooperating, the republicans are struggling to get everything done they can to cement their policy favorites before they are voted out. Likewise the democrats are just sitting and biding their time until they can undo all the measures that the republicans are trying so fervently to get passed. With such a divided political system, it seems almost impossible that we could ever present a united front on issues like education and foreign relations.

It is an undeniable fact that US voter turnout is at an all-time low, which can't be good in any representative democracy. Furthermore, voting among the younger generation remains consistently behind the averages in other age brackets. While this is the result of a multitude of characteristics of current politics, including the fact that most young adults attend school away from their hometown, the obvious disinterest is mainly due to the fact that candidates and public policies tend to cater to older generations because they are guaranteed voters. It would frankly be suicide for any politician to focus too much time and energy on us because undoubtedly our turnout would remain low. The main message? We have to vote if we want to get noticed and respected. Only once we start voting, will politicians start creating platforms that we can appreciate as well.

This need for change on the political scene is embodied best by the man all about "change we can believe in"- Barack Obama. And it is obvious the younger generation has seen this potential for change as across the nation students have been grass roots campaigning for Obama. It will be interesting to see if the voter turnout numbers increase with this presidential election. I believe that simply by increasing the number of voters who go to the polls on election day, we will see a drastic improvement in our government and national pride.