I usually try to rent a car when we go to Northern California. It's still pretty cheap and I keep from putting 1,000 miles on one of my cars. One perk that comes with a lot of rental cars today is satellite radio. My wife and I usually listen to the 70's station since that's the music of our high school days and young adulthood.
On weekends the 70's channel sometimes replays broadcasts of America's Top 40, the weekly show that was hosted for years by Casey Kasem. This morning they were playing the show from April 15, 1972 (for the record that was just five days after I got my driver's license and the #1 song was "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" by Roberta Flack). I found a couple of things interesting about that show.
For one thing, three of the top 12 songs were remakes of 50's hits. "Puppy Love" by a very young sounding Donny Osmond, "Rockin' Robin" by an even younger sounding Michael Jackson, and "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" by somebody whose name I don't remember. It was also interesting to hear songs that were big enough to make the top 40 at that time but have never been heard since. Flash in the pan stuff. Other songs, like the #2 song "A Horse With No Name" by America, became a 70's classic.
What really caught my ear was a short PSA that Kasem did regarding the youth vote. He mentioned how 18-24 year old voters would be very important in the upcoming 1972 presidential election (in which Nixon won 49 states), and how only 30% of that age group had even bothered to register. Kasem implored his young listeners to register and vote.
As I listened I realized I had heard that same refrain during every presidential cycle since then, and I'm sure if I looked I could find the same story in elections prior to 1972. The fact is, voters 18-24 simply don't take politics seriously in large numbers - never have, never will. Every effort from MTV's "Rock the Vote" to P. Diddy's "Vote or Die" to anything the parties have done has been wasted. The numbers of youth voters have been nearly unchanged in every election cycle, including 2008 when everyone thought the youth vote would flock to rainbows and unicorns.
They didn't. About 30-35% register and 20-25% actually vote.
The young folks are busy trying to finish college, start their careers and maybe even their families. They haven't earned enough money or paid enough taxes yet to realize how much politics really matters to them. Perhaps that's why seniors vote in such big numbers - they've had years of experience dealing with the system and they know that the question of who represents them in Washington is not something to take lightly.
Meanwhile, let's just quite obsessing about the youth vote. Efforts to spend money by political parties or other organizations to get youth voters to the polls is wasted. Most of them just aren't going to respond until they get a little older. It's been that way for at least 40 years, and probably long before that. It'll be that way in 2012 and on into the future as well.
Monday, April 19, 2010
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1 comment:
Excellent post, Rick and food for though.
Coincidentally I was watching some episodes of the West Wing this weekend. As you know, that show did a nice job of showcasing interesting political ideas and issues. One episode featured middle schoolers lobbying for lowering the voting age so kids could have a say in how tax money is spent. After all, they said, why shouldn't they have a vote when so many decisions effect the debt and problems they will one day inherit.
Of course, that thought was especially poignant to me as I reflected on the passage of Obamacare and our crushing national debt.
I think kids shouldn't have to worry about such things because society should be guardians of their interests and protector of their futures. Sadly, we tend to think about the now and leave the problems to somebody else.
To your point, I think it's true that many young adults just don't care about how their vote ultimately impacts them. Heck, I know a lot of older adults who feel that way. If you do vote, there is a certain level of responsibility that is assumed with that right - that you'll educate yourself to make an informed choice. There are a lot of people who don't want to be troubled to figure out what a candidate's positions are. They can't reason clearly enough to think beyond soundbites.
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