The Youth Vote

12 Comments

1. 

   IL JimP on March 31, 2014 at 1:45 pm

   Basically for all of the Democratic constituencies, positive campaigning works better than negative.  

2. 

   euzoius on March 31, 2014 at 2:15 pm

   I’ve noticed in volunteering that young people are the organizational backbone of the climate movement.  Perhaps I’m foolish, but I think many young people still care about the planet and environment.

   We’ll see how the (absurdly delayed and cravenly evaded) Keystone XL decision comes out.  Obama kowtows to our fossil-fuel plutocrat masters on that after all he has said about climate concerns and the election messaging becomes pretty difficult.  The climate movement will denounce him.

   The young are (still) more idealist than the middle-aged and the old.  They won’t accept some BS on the pipeline to hell…  

3. 

   Steve M. on March 31, 2014 at 2:37 pm

   Debt relief. Even loan modifications. Something — anything — to help them get the hell out from under the burden so many of them face.

   • 

     Arthur Gilroy on March 31, 2014 at 4:03 pm

     Yes. Precisely. That would reach the most likely young voters…those who are in college, those who are thinking about college or those who are out of school and in debt up to their proverbial asses. That goes of course for many of their parents as well. It would also reach parents with younger children who are worried sick over what is going to happen by the time their kids are getting ready to think about college.

     These are voters here. Prone to vote in order to save their own futures.

     However, the so-called “education” lobbies…really just another branch of the PermaGov-owning financial system…will fight it tooth and nail.

     Worth a try, though, just so long as whoever is giving it that try hasn’t totally lost the faith of the American people to the degree that has happened to Obama. My son was just going into college when Obama started his run, and he (as well as most of his friends) were delighted by his rhetoric. They weren’t sure that he wasn’t going to end up like the same empty-mouthed politicians that they had been watching during the Bush II era, but they were willing to give him a try. Eight years later? In fact, only four years later…they were through with his all talk-no walk bullshit. Whoever is running…on either side of the interconnected political fence…is going to have to convince them and a whole lot of other voters that they are going to back up their rhetoric with real action.

     Meanwhlie, back at the PermaGov media complex ranch…

     2016: Will Chris Christie’s pain be Jeb Bush’s gain?

     That’s the question a number of analysts are starting to ask as Christie, formerly a clear favorite of the GOP establishment, starts to lose his luster, tarnished by months of critical headlines about the George Washington Bridge traffic scandal in New Jersey.

     “I sense a boomlet about Jeb Bush is all about Chris Christie,” said Harvard University’s David Gergen Sunday on CBS’ “Face the Nation.” “People thought they were going to ride the Chris Christie horse and…they now think that horse may be lame and they’re looking for somebody else.”
     Both Christie and Bush are cut from the same mainstream Republican cloth: well liked by the donor class and viewed suspiciously by conservative activists. If they both compete in 2016 — and to be clear, neither has decided on a bid — they’ll be fighting for the roughly same slice of the Republican pie, and perhaps more importantly, many of the same donors.

     A Republican Jewish Coalition meeting in Las Vegas this weekend provided a vivid demonstration of their diverging fortunes. The event could have been Christie’s opportunity to reclaim the mantle of the establishment. Instead, Christie’s appearance was marred by the governor’s description of the West Bank and Gaza as “occupied territories” — a term shunned by the pro-Israel donors and activists in the audience.

     The governor reportedly apologized for using the term during a private meeting with RJC board member and billionaire casino magnate Sheldon Adelson, and his speech was otherwise well-received.

     But as Christie stumbled, Bush soared. The former governor was feted at a private dinner on Thursday to kick off the weekend. The dinner was held at Adelson’s private airplane hangar.

     Bush delivered brief remarks at the dinner, and after one attendee urged him to run for president, the crowd of donors burst into applause, according to a report in the Washington Post.

     That report described how many of the GOP’s top money men are giving Jeb Bush a fresh look in light of Christie’s recent struggles.

     “He’s the most desired candidate out there,” Brian Ballard, a prominent bundler for both John McCain and Mitt Romney, told the Post. “Everybody that I know is excited about it.”

     Former New Jersey Gov. Thomas Kean, a former mentor to Christie, conceded, “The Bush family has an enormous number of friends who would be liable to go back to a place where they have been before.”

     It was not too long ago that Bush seemed to be leaning against a run in 2016. But a rising political profile and a relatively busy 2014 campaign schedule are causing some to reconsider that assumption.

     “Every report was that he was not going to do it, he had made up his mind,” said CBS News’ Bob Schieffer on Sunday. “But my sense is he’s rethinking it.”

     “If enough people ask you to do something, your firm ‘no’ becomes a, ‘Well, gosh, let me think about it,'” added the Washington Post’s David Ignatius.

     —snip—

     And of course let’s not forget:

     Now open: The Hillary Clinton (campaign?) store

     ARLINGTON, VA. — In a concrete high-rise across the river from the nation’s capital, the Hillary Clinton store is open for business.

     There are aluminum ornaments _ each adorned with a giant H _ for Christmas, champagne flutes engraved with 2016 for New Year’s Eve and long-sleeved I love Hillary T-shirts with red hearts for Valentine’s Day, naturally.

     And every day, there are iPhone covers, tote bags, lanyards, even Born Ready for Hillary onesies for the youngest family member. Dog leashes are coming soon.

     Ready for Hillary, the political action committee that hopes to lay the groundwork for a second presidential run, already has hawked 25,000 pieces of campaignlike paraphernalia _ three years before Election Day _ for someone who may not even run.

     Kiki McLean, a senior adviser to Clinton’s campaign in 2008 who works for a Washington public relations firm, said the latest generation involved in politics had shown that it wouldn’t wait to be invited to participate. “People are channeling their energy and enthusiasm,” she said.

     The so-called Hillary store is tucked on the fifth floor of the group’s offices. White shelves filled with products line the walls, while dozens of shipments ready to be transported to the nearby post office sit on a table. Occasionally, a customer will wander in to try on a shirt or make an exchange, but most purchases are made online.

     It’s a little like Amazon, except shipping is always free and, of course, every product promotes Clinton.

     —snip—

     Jeb Bush? (Bush III)

     Hillary Clinton? (Clinton 2.5?)

     The “young voters?” Voting for either of these two tried-and-true, lying PermaGov warwhores…errrr, ahhhh…warhorses?

     I don’t think so.

     So the voting public shrinks another 10 or 15%. What’s it matter to the PermaGov as long as they get their man or woman in there?

     Not a bit.

     Not the least little a bit.

     As long as they have control of the media and the pursestrings, the PermaGov rules!!!

     2016?

                                                                    HAIL BRUTALIA!!!

     

     Bet on it.

     AG

4. 

   Raypc800 on March 31, 2014 at 3:01 pm

   The only real way to get young people to vote is it has to have a personal attachment. This can be done several ways.To get the needed information one needs to talk to the people. Find out what they are interested in and then point out how the Democratic Party can help.
   Numerous issues can be used
   Social Networks
   Education
   Student Loans
   Minimum wage
   Health Care
   Veterans in family
   Foreign policy
   Trade agreements
   The list can seem to go on forever for everyone has varied interests.
   Protecting our National Parks and all kinds of environmental issues….
   Point is they need encouragement to vote and to gather as many of their friends and vote together. Stick to it no matter how long it takes to cast your vote.  

5. 

   TarheelDem on March 31, 2014 at 3:04 pm

   Registration, information about the mechanics of registering and voting, recruitment of volunteers to help register and GOTV.

   Listening to their issues and talking about that instead of stereotyping what their issues “must be”.  Venue and getting implicit permission to talk politics is important in this sort of approach.  Finding appropriate venues is not as straightforward as “schools and churches”.  Venues affect the way the information is received.

   Media confirms instead of educates.  Media alone never got anyone to do anything.  Save your money and effort.

   Getting out the vote is about follow-up (without being a pest) and about unblocking legitimate practical and motivational issues.  And knowing when someone is agreeing just to get you to go away.

   And with the youth vote, candidates can step on their GOTV people’s efforts by tone, attitude, and cluelessness.

6. 

   Bugboy on March 31, 2014 at 3:17 pm

   Also: talk to your kids about voting, it’s never too soon to start. If every parent made civics part of the home conversation it would be a lot easier. However, it’s never easy bridging the generations.  

   My son can’t stand “stoners”, a sentiment I have to agree with and hate to discourage, but he also thinks anyone who smokes pot is a stoner.  

   What’s that saying about youth gracing us with their inexperience?

7. 

   Don Durito on March 31, 2014 at 5:19 pm

   These young adults also need to know where to vote, how to vote absentee if they are in college (and what barriers to voting have been erected if they happen to live in any of a number of GOP-controlled states).

8. 

   Death to Randroids on March 31, 2014 at 5:24 pm

   You want them to form a habit of voting so that they go to the polls again and again in the future so that you don’t have to waste resources with repetitive efforts to persuade them to vote again and again each election cycle.

   So trying to come up with slam-dunk issues may not be the best way to go about things.

   I’d find some celebrities who are popular with young people and have them ask their fans how they plan on voting, then have those celebrities encourage their followers to react negatively in the way that only mass behavior over the internet can towards anyone who expresses plans to not vote.

9. 

   MNPundit on March 31, 2014 at 7:09 pm

   I think convincing them their vote will actually lead to something happening is important.

10. 

    hoplite on March 31, 2014 at 8:39 pm

    If it’s the right message it’s important enough to work.  Talking about Republican intolerance is ok I guess. We can talk about how they don’t really share the basic American values of equality, democracy, upward mobility, etc. as well

    But I think the right message is that when the GOP has power they will f@ck you up bad. They will damage you and threaten your future, that of your family and if you’re planning to have them, your kids.  Unless you’re a transnational billionaire the Republican party public is actively working against your best interests.  If you don’t get out and vote, if you don’t get all your friends to vote, if you allow the GOP to have power they will crash the economy like they did in 2009, fill your oceans with oil like happened did in 2010, and then get a whole bunch of people in your age group killed and maimed like they did in Iraq.   You won’t be able to find a job, you’ll watch your family get sick because of a polluted environment, and many of you will get killed in the next BS GOP war.  If you’re raped and get pregnant the GOP WILL FORCE YOU to have that rapists baby.  

    This is of course going negative in a pretty big way.  Which, like it or not, always works better than going positive.  And creating fear is always the most powerful motivator.  But I don’t think we should feel dirty for doing it.  Because all that stuff is true. Young people should be scared to death of the Republican party.  Dems should make damn sure they are.  

    • 

      Death to Randroids on March 31, 2014 at 11:05 pm

      Hate is a better motivator than fear.