youth voters

In a total perversion of John F. Kennedy's call to patriotism, Martha Irvine of the Associated Press has scolding rebuke to young Obama voters, telling them that a select few are looking at their "20-something peers sitting back and letting the president do the work for them." Ask not what Obama can do for you, Generation Y, ask what you can do for Obama.

For shame, young Obamanauts, you who were sent over the moon at the election of Barack Obama last November. Have you so quickly forgotten your call to service, your devotion and obedience to Hope and Change? Your Dear Leader is in trouble, and you are ignoring the promise you made to stop the rise of the oceans and the changing of the seasons, as well as your pledge to support the government requiring you to purchase health insurance or be fined hundreds of dollars.

But Ms. Irvine isn't just scolding the youth of America. She also boldly dares to suggest to the President that he could be doing more to reach out to his young followers, and helpfully quotes a political science professor at La Salle University who fondly and wistfully recalls the fall of 2008, when students harangued non-believers into attending rallies (she calls the practice "dorm-storming") and when they danced in the streets after the election. The lamenting of the elders fairly leaps off the page. If only The One would turn his benevolent and loving eye towards Youth once more, then the army of the idealistic that failed to change society in the '60's could see their fight won by the next generation.

And what of the consequences should the next generation fail? Irvine warns ominously that college graduates are about to encounter all of the real world problems they've been avoiding by not fully supporting Change to the best of their abilities. She seems to be suggesting that if the kids don't want to be homeless, sick, and living in six inches of seawater from global warming that it's time they go from being mere voters to "responsible citizen"(s).

Yes, apparently the idea of responsible citizenship now extends towards blindly supporting the person you voted for, which I don't recall being the case back when Dubya was in the White House. I guess it's just one of those funny things that happen when liberals return to power.

What Irvine and the others forget is that "Generation Y" didn't vote for Obama because they have blind devotion, they voted for him because he's cool. The cool factor doesn't go nearly as far when it comes to policy activism. Just look at the Tea Party movement. There's a lot of passion and dedication, but (it has to be said)there's a definite lack of hipster cool. If Irvine is lamenting the fact that the Glenn Beck crowd is turning out by the tens of thousands, while young supporters of the President are slacking, she may want to think about this: many in the Tea Party movement feel that Glenn Beck does a good job of speaking for them, while many young supporters of President Obama feel he does a good job of speaking to them. It's the difference between an activist mob and an adoring public.

As a so-called "young voter" in the 18-29 age bracket, I have long been skeptical of Barack Obama's supposedly massive advantage with voters my age – an advantage that the mainstream media's hype would have you believe to be exceedingly insurmountable for John McCain.

Well, today's InsiderAdvantage poll confirms that my skepticism has been warranted:

So where exactly is Obama's big lead here? Quite frankly, his lead is negligible, if not non-existant.  In fact, factoring in both the margin of error and the 7 perecent of undecided voters, it is entirely conceivable that McCain could actually tie or even outperform Obama among voters age 18-29.

Recently, Joe Trippi argued that a large turnout of young voters could serve as a tie-breaking factor in favor of Obama.  As much as Democrats like Trippi and the mainstream media want you to believe that young folks such as myself are flocking to Barack Obama – please, don't count us out yet.

Aaron Marks is President of Three Group, LLC, a Pittsburgh-based new media firm that focuses on providing technology-based solutions for Republican candidates and organizations, and in particular has built Web 2.0 campaign management software called Mission Control.  Aaron also worked in new media and voter outreach on Senator Rick Santorum's 2006 re-election campaign.

Okay, so I'll admit that my generation - those twentysomethings and other idealists supporting Obama seem to care little about what he stands for, but rather focus on the inspiration he's offering the country.

Working on campaigns for several years, I can't count the number of times I've been excited and inspired by particular moments and various candidates. But I'm beginning to wonder if any of this flowing inspiration really has an impact on the nation or the people in it ... that is, after election season ends.

The comparisons between Obama and JFK have been numerous, but I feel like JFK had a call and a purpose for the people of that time -- "ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country". Okay, there's the call to action. What can you give back? That one phrase has been quoted again and again over the years. What is Obama's? "Let's change this country...we are the ones we've been waiting for...we can end the partisan divide...hope will bring us together and lift us up..."

What I've heard in the platitudes and promises from an Obama Administration veer much more to "this is what government will do for you" if I'm elected. Yeah, some young voters are pumped up, excited, and perhaps more inspired than they've ever been before. But I don't see how that carries on post-November 5th. The excitement will fizzle, Democrats will settle into power (if they win) and Obama's most dedicated fans will sit back and expect the government and Obama to deliver all those juicy, enticing promises.

Lately, it seems certain narratives about the youth vote and digital media have been coming up time and time again, without much analysis of how useful these things actually are, so I thought I would hit on a few issues with the youth vote and new media as a college conservative.
 

Facebook doesn’t work. This kills me. Facebook constantly comes up in discussions about the digital age and it’s still pretty useless. While the importance of social networking cannot be overlooked in terms of keeping in contact with those you might not otherwise and cementing ties from introductions and the like, Facebook still isn’t a platform for political discussion or information retrieval (unless it’s photos from last weekend). The candidates’ pages are largely like comment-enabled static web pages—sort of useless, unless you’re looking for a fight. A candidate who actually made a Facebook page, replete with favorite movies, their former college networks, and a candid photo album or two might be an interesting experiment, though.

Where Facebook does hold a lot of potential is in its corporate and outside applications. Facebook's privacy policy is a nightmare; information never leaves its servers, even if you deactivate, it remains there. In terms of micro-targeting and data collection on voters, Facebook may be extremely useful if it can be utilized properly, but I don't get the sense that it's being used to its fullest on either the data side or the interactive approach to actually contact and motivate people.

(promoted by Soren - love to see grassroots groups come up with new ideas. Excellent stuff)

Left to the media it would be standard operating knowledge that the median age of the GOP is about 104.  The reality is there are a lot of really engaged College Republicans and young republicans out there.

We are working hard illustrate that this party is about young people too.

One thing we're doing is the Where is the Red Roadtrip.  Its the quintessential college experience with a cool Republican twist.  Mash that up with some cool new online tricks a la David All Group and we are doing something innovative and interesting that the world can watch (and hopefully donate to).

Now, I know what you're asking yourself: is this post just a shameless plug?  Yes it is, but it comes with a cool video, so enjoy.