Last week I was listening to an NPR program about getting out the vote, and how difficult it is to get young people to engage. We're talking about a generation more connected and with more access to information resources than ever before. News travels quickly across Twitter and Facebook, and many kids are able to keep up with a dizzying number of "Indy artists", yet a huge number of them can't name the vice-president.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1368482/How-ignorant-Americans-An-alarming-number-U-S-citizens-dont-know-basic-facts-country.html
As a young person, I know that most of my peers are completely uninformed and un-involved with current politics. Given the opportunity however they will express outrage about the politics surrounding so-called reproductive rights, healthcare legislation, or voter id. These people can rarely name a candidate outside of a presidential election.
It's obvious top me why, but what I wonder is why should they? Why is it so important that they vote? It's an act of minimum commitment, requires no prior knowledge, and is as Kevin Williamson states, "power without responsibility". If a college student is too intellectually challenged to get himself registered, and to a poll without being prodded and begged to do so, should they really be casting a vote at all? Is this the participation we want from young people?
Many would argue that these questions are regressive, that it's important that all people have a voice, but I'm not sure I agree anymore. The youth should not be encouraged to vote unless they are first educated and become involved in process in some more meaningful way. The act of voting alone implies no real participation or awareness. An uniformed vote is not better than no vote at all.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1368482/How-ignorant-Americans-An-alarming-number-U-S-citizens-dont-know-basic-facts-country.html
As a young person, I know that most of my peers are completely uninformed and un-involved with current politics. Given the opportunity however they will express outrage about the politics surrounding so-called reproductive rights, healthcare legislation, or voter id. These people can rarely name a candidate outside of a presidential election.
It's obvious top me why, but what I wonder is why should they? Why is it so important that they vote? It's an act of minimum commitment, requires no prior knowledge, and is as Kevin Williamson states, "power without responsibility". If a college student is too intellectually challenged to get himself registered, and to a poll without being prodded and begged to do so, should they really be casting a vote at all? Is this the participation we want from young people?
"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be." --Thomas Jefferson to Charles Yancey, 1816."
Many would argue that these questions are regressive, that it's important that all people have a voice, but I'm not sure I agree anymore. The youth should not be encouraged to vote unless they are first educated and become involved in process in some more meaningful way. The act of voting alone implies no real participation or awareness. An uniformed vote is not better than no vote at all.
