News Youth of America: Useless or Undervalued?

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Youth voter turnout in recent elections has remained consistent with levels seen in 2000, despite significant campaigns like "Vote or Die!" aimed at increasing engagement. Many young people express interest in politics but ultimately do not participate in elections, leading to frustration among older generations who view them as apathetic. Critics argue that the campaign encourages irresponsible voting based on trivial issues rather than informed decision-making. While there was a slight increase in the number of young voters, the proportion relative to other demographics did not change significantly. Some discussions highlight that young voters may not overwhelmingly lean towards one party, suggesting a more even split in political preferences. The perception of youth apathy is challenged by anecdotes of increased political engagement on college campuses, though it is noted that many young people may still lack a deep understanding of the voting process and candidates. Overall, the conversation reflects a complex view of youth engagement in politics, emphasizing the need for informed participation rather than mere turnout.
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Despite all the hype, all the celebrities and that ‘Vote of Die!’ campaign, youth voter turnout was about the same as it was in 2000. Those youth…they say they’re interested, they’ll go to all the events and in the end they stay home. The youth of America (non-voters) are useless. I have no faith in them.
 
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I'd agree with you for the most part. However, I don't agree with the "Vote or Die" slogan because I believe it promotes irresponsible voting based on small insignificant issues. I have little faith in the American voters in general. Bush was obviously a poor choice.
 
Maybe if they allowed the youth to text message their votes? I'm sure a stupid MTV Viewers Choice awards show get's more youth votes than a general election. Well, maybe not, but you know...
 
Kerry should of had Britney Spears as VP.
 
Unfortanately Britney thinks everyone should just trust the President and let him do his job, lol. ;)
 
Politics is just not cool, dude. Young people (most of them) are obsessed by what is cool.
 
The youth won't understand the importance of this election for another 20 or 30 years, when they find themselves bemoaning the decisions of the Supreme Court while they are fighting to repeal a constitutional amendment preventing gay marriage, which by then they'll see as a ridiculously outdated, prejudiced view.
 
Generally this country's youth aren't concerned with national politics. And the "Vote or Die!" campaign is about as stupid as it gets. They don't care for the most part. Their parents didn't care at their age either. Its no until their vested interest in the political outcome of elections becomesreadily apparent that they will care.
 
I am happy that the youth did not vote. The majority of them do not even understand the concept of voting; nor the ideology of each candidate. Why vote when you do not know who you are voting for and why?

Passive youths. Stupid them. I give you that. However, whose fault is that?
 
  • #10
dekoi said:
I am happy that the youth did not vote. The majority of them do not even understand the concept of voting; nor the ideology of each candidate. Why vote when you do not know who you are voting for and why?

Passive youths. Stupid them. I give you that. However, whose fault is that?

Genetics and Hormones
 
  • #11
I voted, but I know for one reason why most of my peers did not vote was because they hate Bush AND Kerry. The youth always hate politics because politicians always lie and never care about future Americans.
 
  • #12
THe 18 to 23 demographic did turn out is record number in 2004, but so did all the other demographics, so the proportion of young voters to other voters didn't change from 2000.

And who's to say that if the silent ones had voted they would have gone for Kerry? It's a myth that young people aren't as basically conservative as other aged US citizens are.
 
  • #13
selfAdjoint said:
THe 18 to 23 demographic did turn out is record number in 2004, but so did all the other demographics, so the proportion of young voters to other voters didn't change from 2000.
Right - the perception in the opening post has been fueled by misleading reporting of this subject: http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/11/03/voter.turnout.ap/index.html
An estimated 9 percent of voters Tuesday were 18 to 24, about the same proportion of the electorate as in 2000, exit polls indicated. The youth vote accounted for 17 percent of turnout when broadened to the 18-to-29 age group, also about the same share as in the last presidential race.

Still, the actual number of young voters was up, given that overall voter turnout was higher.
Leave the last sentence out or hear it fast in a news report, and it gives the check's erroneous perception. Ageism in the media? Hmm...
 
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  • #14
russ_watters said:
Leave the last sentence out or hear it fast in a news report, and it gives the check's erroneous perception. Ageism in the media? Hmm...

Oh I know that overall voter turnout was up. I have another thread going about that. The point I'm making is that the margin of young voters is not any higher than it was in 2000. Voter turnout is up, but the proportions remained the same. I think the point of the 'vote or die' campaign and trying to get the youth out to vote was to increase their margin. I guess I should have made that clearer in the opening post.

But thinking about it more, if there was a higher percentage of eligible young voters this election then in previous ones, the campaign was successful. I guess they weren’t counting on all demographics showing increase turnout in the same proportions as the young vote.
 
  • #15
ok to clarify this: Of people 18-29, a higher percentage ofthem voted yesterday than in 2000. Period. They increased by the same proportion as everyone else. Period.

Got it?
 
  • #16
Its funny how every bashes on the youth implying that it is our fault that Bush is still in office. Our votes aren't all for kerry, and I wouldn't be surpised to see about the same amount of votes for either candidate compared with the rest of the country.
 
  • #17
Gza said:
Its funny how every bashes on the youth implying that it is our fault that Bush is still in office. Our votes aren't all for kerry, and I wouldn't be surpised to see about the same amount of votes for either candidate compared with the rest of the country.
This is a great point, I think I've mentioned elsewhere in this forum that it's a myth that the 18-vote is/was overwhelmingly democrat. It's actually fairly evenly split and I think if there are any good, reliable post election studies out there, they may very likely show an even split in voting as well.
I was very proud to have 2 sons voting in their first presidential elections. Unfortunately, or fortunately...depending on you view, I've raised them to think for themselves and I have a feeling that at least one of their votes canceled out mine! :smile: :wink: I didn't think my oldest (who lives in another state now) was actually going to vote, he seemed very apethetic about it..but he called me that night to let me know that he had voted. Of course, he then proceded to tease me by not telling me who for! Argh! Kids! :rolleyes:
 
  • #18
kat said:
This is a great point, I think I've mentioned elsewhere in this forum that it's a myth that the 18-vote is/was overwhelmingly democrat. It's actually fairly evenly split and I think if there are any good, reliable post election studies out there, they may very likely show an even split in voting as well.
I was very proud to have 2 sons voting in their first presidential elections. Unfortunately, or fortunately...depending on you view, I've raised them to think for themselves and I have a feeling that at least one of their votes canceled out mine! :smile: :wink: I didn't think my oldest (who lives in another state now) was actually going to vote, he seemed very apethetic about it..but he called me that night to let me know that he had voted. Of course, he then proceded to tease me by not telling me who for! Argh! Kids! :rolleyes:

I can sympathize. I have three kids voting, now. With two of them voting for Bush, that kind of cancels out my Kerry vote. At least the one kid voting for Kerry lives in Ohio where her vote had a more chance of making a difference than our votes in Colorado (she's my favorite now - at least until next election when I'll bemoan her liberal tendencies, although not so much so, now that she has a kid).
 
  • #19
check said:
Despite all the hype, all the celebrities and that ‘Vote of Die!’ campaign, youth voter turnout was about the same as it was in 2000. Those youth…they say they’re interested, they’ll go to all the events and in the end they stay home. The youth of America (non-voters) are useless. I have no faith in them.

I think the opposite in my enviroment. At UW-Milwaukee, there was a huge interest in the election with lots of youth support. Just about everyone I knew and everyone in my classes were buzzing about the election and had stickers.
 
  • #20
kat said:
This is a great point, I think I've mentioned elsewhere in this forum that it's a myth that the 18-vote is/was overwhelmingly democrat. It's actually fairly evenly split and I think if there are any good, reliable post election studies out there, they may very likely show an even split in voting as well.

I too had fallen for this myth until I saw this yesterday, in the CNN exit polls.

VOTE BY AGE || BUSH || KERRY

TOTAL || 2004 (- 2000) || 2004

18-29 (17%) || 45% (0) || 54%

30-44 (29%) || 53% (+4) || 46%

45-59 (30%) || 51% (+2) || 48%

60 and Older (24%) || 54% (+7) || 46%

There's just a small majority for Kerry among the young 'uns...hardly the overwhelming (2:1 kind) ratio, I had expected to see.

But another thing to note here is how the older republicans made the extra effort to show up this time, compared to 2000 (up 7%).
 
  • #21
I would expect the reason for the bias toward Kerry in the youth vote is that a lot of that voting population are college students. College campuses tend to be liberal havens, even in predominantly conservative states. There are always huge efforts to get the college students registered to vote and out to the polls as it's pretty easy to set up a table at a college campus or go around to classes and hand out voter registration cards. It's a lot harder to target those young people who scatter off to jobs right after high school. I would predict that group would be more conservative than college students. On the other hand young people are also more idealistic, so have dreams of a utopia, and haven't been turned cynical by too many political races yet. So, it probably splits the vote similarly to the rest of the population. Some of those young people are also still overly influenced by their parents' views rather than making decisions for themselves. So, it's quite possible that if all of the youth eligible to vote got out and voted, Bush may have won by an even greater margin. If someone is really apathetic about politics, I think it's fine that they don't vote so long as they don't plan on complaining about the country they live in and whoever does get elected to office. Afterall, if they can't be bothered to learn about the candidates and issues, we don't need coin toss voting.
 

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