Last year’s 2008 Presidential election made youth come out in larger numbers than ever before especially during the primary season and even during last November’s General election. However on Tuesday, November 4, 2009, many youth across the nation decided to sit out important elections that will play a critical role in many youth issues. In fact some youth decided not to vote because they didn’t feel connected. It makes me angry to hear some of these lame excuses after seeing so many youth break their necks to argue with friends about last year’s Presidential race but so few of these same youth during an off year election took the time to engage their friends by telling them to go vote this year.
Last year, 23-year-old Rashida Hill watched the presidential debates, visited the college political party meetings and put a Barack Obama bumper sticker on her townhouse door. She voted for Obama because she felt like the election was about "being a part of something." But on Tuesday, the Virginia Commonwealth University student didn't bother voting in the governor's race because, she said, the candidates didn't give her anything to get excited about. "The simple fact is, unless you put it in front of somebody, they're really not going to seek it out," Hill said.
Many of the young, first-time voters who propelled Obama to the presidency stayed home this year, a glaring absence that helped Republicans win governor's races in Virginia and New Jersey. More than 3 million voters who cast ballots in the 2008 presidential election — many of them minorities — failed to show up at the polls in either state. Obama carried Virginia with 52 percent of the vote last year, but only 43 percent of voters surveyed in Associated Press exit polls Tuesday said they had voted for him.
So the reality is that, young people are waiting for candidates to appeal to them but we as young people are more of an unreliable vote than a reliable vote. If we as young people want to feel welcomed or want candidates to reach out to us than we have to appeal to candidates. No matter what race is on the ballot, each election is about the past, present and future and if young people would show up to vote than more elections will be about the future than the past. One of the major reasons why President Obama was so successful in winning the Presidential election last November is because his election made a calculated decision way back in 2007 to go after the youth vote because the traditional Democratic vote was leaning toward Hillary but the youth vote was up for grabs.
That calculated decision paid off but during off year elections such as 2009 and 2010, such calculated decisions have not shown to pay off and time is everything, which is why if youth are waiting for candidates to come after them so aggressively than they can keep waiting. The reality is youth need to find their own sense of belonging in political races. Youth need to figure out where candidates who are running for school board, city council, county commissioners, Mayor, State Senate, State Representative, Governor, U.S. Senate or U.S. Congress stand on youth issues such as education, public safety, after school programs, healthcare, etc. There are so many things that youth need to be concerned about and need to find out when making a vote such taxes especially property taxes since many youth plan to buy homes eventually. It is time for us as youth to stop making excuses for why we didn’t vote and start voting because if we don’t vote than we could continue to see many of the issues that directly as well as indirectly affect us to not get addressed.
Youth know that people dead just so they can have the right to vote, however so few of us take advantage of it. Still youth are not eligible to vote can still play a major role in the political process by encouraging their parents, relatives, and friends who are old enough to vote to vote or to vote for the candidate that appeals to them. It is time for youth to be consistent in how we vote but this starts with us showing up in the 2010 midterm election primaries and general election. No longer can we think that we as youth have did something by just voting in President elections just because that’s when it seems as if the media and other organizations try to appeal to our vote. Imagine how if we as youth voted in large numbers in non-Presidential elections and how we could impact the outcome those elections more so than senior citizens who right now decided non-Presidential elections than any other age group but not more than independent voters.
The youth vote today is more valuable than ever and if we as youth don’t wake up and realize just how important our vote is then no matter what happens in D.C. or in the White House, we as youth can continue to see many problems plaguing us as we do now because we failed to change the policies of local and state politics that plague this war on our youth. All politics are local and that is why until we as youth actively engage our local politics as we did with the national political scene than we will forever see many of the problems affecting us to continue.
It is when the people lead that our leaders will follow but right now, no political leaders on the local or state level in many instances are following us as youth because we are too busy either following them or we are too busy ignoring local elections while paying too much attention to the nation scene. We as young people know we can multi-task because for too many of us, we text on our phone, drive, and eat all at the same time. Then for some of us, we are on our computer, our phone and we are in class trying to pay attention all at the same time. Time and time again, we have multi-tasked on various things but when it comes to multi-tasking on politics by paying attention to local, state and national politics all at the same time, we act as if it is so hard. However we as young people multi-task sports games by watching basketball—NBA and college at the same time as well as football—NFL and college along with other sports. Then for female youth, you all keep up with the latest fashions, your soaps, and all the reality T.V. shows as well as shows like American Idol, America’s Top Model and Dancing with the Stars.
Thus it is clear that until us as youth vote and vote consistently than we will continue to see youth violence to increase, how to educate our youth to be a problem, and a host of other youth issues put on the backburner. Or at worse, bad political policies implemented i.e. “No Child Left Behind” which in turn created a system of teaching our youth to take tests rather than a system that educates them. If we are youth vote than we can control what type of political policies are being implemented on behalf of future generations of youth. When we as youth vote and vote consistently than we can control not only local or state politics but national politics as well. Now is the time for us to win this war on our youth but we can’t do it from those who are 18-24 or even those 18-35 don’t get out and vote for candidates and for issues that are will improve the future rather than allowing the status quo to continue to hold power year in and year out. It is time that we as youth start showing how powerful we are not by simply marching, protesting and complaining but by voting every year than marching, protesting and offering solutions to the problems that exist. This is our time to finally do that and I believe that what happened last Tuesday was simply a matter of us as youth not realizing why local elections are just as important as Presidential elections.
Voting is yet another key to winning this war on our youth and I believe that we can win a few battles that can lead to winning the war by voting for candidates that will address many of the issues that plague our youth. Still voting is just one component but politics alone will not address or solve all the problems plaguing our youth but creating policies aimed at addressing some of the issues plaguing our youth can help in winning this war. So vote must vote no matter what.
SAVE OUR YOUTH!
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