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Can you be a little more specific as to how they're naive and think with their hearts?
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Lack of focus on voters between aged 18-30
- Thread starter Higgins86
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Can you be a little more specific as to how they're naive and think with their hearts?
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Eh, here's the thing...
Talk to most college age students who aren't NORMALLY politically active and I don't think they'll be able to really articulate many actual "issues" that are important to them outside of extremely vague notions, save for some social issues.
Many of your college age kids are:
1) Not in a full time job
2) Not supporting themselves 100% on their own
3) Not actively thinking about retirement
4) Don't own a home, land, or a significant amount of stocks and other assets
5) Relatively healthy
6) Still have reliable family support to fall back on
7) Have a cultural situation where falling back on said family is still relatively acceptable
8) Are still largely being shaped by the thoughts/views of those above them and their peers rather than their own thinking
I enjoyed watching the major elections since my interest in politics first started to peek in high school. 2000 was my first that I was truly old enough to grasp some of it on my own. 2004 hit while I was in the thick of my Poli Sci degree at college. 2008 occurred shortly after I was out, when I still had a many friends from school still in school. 2012 is now occurring just as I'm fully moving from that stage of "Post College Adolescent” to actual “Working Adult” now. Throughout that time, watching my contemporaries political views be expressed, acted upon, and change has been an incredibly interesting experience.
It didn’t shock me at the time, and doesn’t shock me now, that the youth vote is routinely low in most Presidential elections. Issues wise, many of your younger voters don’t have a truly decent grasp on them and are largely still filled with whatever idealistic views they had repeated to them by parents, teachers, etc. Even then, when they have a grasp, the ability to connect it to themselves to raise its importance level is difficult due to the situation they’re in. On top of this, it’s not just getting the youth interested but getting them motivated enough to actively take the time and go vote. It’s one thing to speak your mind on facebook, or chat about it with friends, as part of a social setting…it’s another thing to actively take the initiative to go do something on your own that doesn’t inherently do anything for you or gain any recognition of sorts. It’s not like people were flooding around school in 2000 or 2004 proudly proclaiming how great it was to vote for Bush/Gore/Kerry. The final issue is one of a superficial nature, but honestly much of politics IS superficial, in that it’s difficult for the younger crowd to generally connect to older, stuffy politicians who tend to come off as fake if they attempt to “act” younger.
The last two things are also why I wasn’t shocked to see 2008 be what it was. I don’t believe that Obama honestly tackled significantly more “young person” issues than most other candidates, or at least most other Democrats (as I said, social issues/gay marriage may be one of the few ones that raise to a level of significant consciousness with younger voters). However, what I think he did was find a way to make his appeals in a way that resonated, transcended from political figure to cultural figure, and in doing so allowed himself to seem more genuine or authentic.
Tax policy, health care overhauls, subsidies, stimulus…I think for many younger voters while there’s a base understanding and an idealistic view of what’s important about them, the understanding of how it impacts your life and the details of it are far harder and less likely for them to grasp. But the notion of “historic first black president” isn’t. The old style of mud slinging, slash and burn, politics with boring lecturing sounding voices that remind you more of your mom and dad then that cool older friend is not attractive or inspiring…but the lofty, inspiring, transformative rhetoric promising hope, change, and something different cries out to the naturally cynical youth who typically feel that the old way isn’t the best way. Obama in 2008 was not a politician, he was a cultural icon. From the “HOPE” paintings to Obama-girl to stadium rallies, Obama became something that was OTHER than political and that was immensely attractive for the youth. It became “popular”, it became a sort of “cult phenomina” (Cult like “Boondock Saints was a cult hit”, not Cult as in Waco). It was social status to be an Obama supporter and voter because it was a way that you could clearly claim to be a “part” of something major due to the historic nature of it. Unlike Bush, or Gore, or Kerry…people were excited after the election to go running around about how proud they were to vote for Obama. It was a status thing, it was a culture thing, it was “cool”.
It’s not anymore.
It’s politics now. He’s a politician now. That doesn’t mean he’s bad. It doesn’t mean the youth won’t still like him. Doesn’t mean the youth if polled won’t still give him support. But what I do think it means is that we’ll see the youth return to their normal form where a dedicated politically active minority will actually vote, a slightly larger majority will actively vocalize support routinely for one or the other but probably not go vote, and an even larger group will mostly be “meh” about it.
Politics are the thing you watch the Daily Show to make fun of and laugh at. Obama in 2008 was something beyond politics, was something that was going to change politics, that was going to be different. In 2012, Obama is “that cool guy that did some good things I guess but just seems like all the other ones really”.
Talk to most college age students who aren't NORMALLY politically active and I don't think they'll be able to really articulate many actual "issues" that are important to them outside of extremely vague notions, save for some social issues.
Many of your college age kids are:
1) Not in a full time job
2) Not supporting themselves 100% on their own
3) Not actively thinking about retirement
4) Don't own a home, land, or a significant amount of stocks and other assets
5) Relatively healthy
6) Still have reliable family support to fall back on
7) Have a cultural situation where falling back on said family is still relatively acceptable
8) Are still largely being shaped by the thoughts/views of those above them and their peers rather than their own thinking
I enjoyed watching the major elections since my interest in politics first started to peek in high school. 2000 was my first that I was truly old enough to grasp some of it on my own. 2004 hit while I was in the thick of my Poli Sci degree at college. 2008 occurred shortly after I was out, when I still had a many friends from school still in school. 2012 is now occurring just as I'm fully moving from that stage of "Post College Adolescent” to actual “Working Adult” now. Throughout that time, watching my contemporaries political views be expressed, acted upon, and change has been an incredibly interesting experience.
It didn’t shock me at the time, and doesn’t shock me now, that the youth vote is routinely low in most Presidential elections. Issues wise, many of your younger voters don’t have a truly decent grasp on them and are largely still filled with whatever idealistic views they had repeated to them by parents, teachers, etc. Even then, when they have a grasp, the ability to connect it to themselves to raise its importance level is difficult due to the situation they’re in. On top of this, it’s not just getting the youth interested but getting them motivated enough to actively take the time and go vote. It’s one thing to speak your mind on facebook, or chat about it with friends, as part of a social setting…it’s another thing to actively take the initiative to go do something on your own that doesn’t inherently do anything for you or gain any recognition of sorts. It’s not like people were flooding around school in 2000 or 2004 proudly proclaiming how great it was to vote for Bush/Gore/Kerry. The final issue is one of a superficial nature, but honestly much of politics IS superficial, in that it’s difficult for the younger crowd to generally connect to older, stuffy politicians who tend to come off as fake if they attempt to “act” younger.
The last two things are also why I wasn’t shocked to see 2008 be what it was. I don’t believe that Obama honestly tackled significantly more “young person” issues than most other candidates, or at least most other Democrats (as I said, social issues/gay marriage may be one of the few ones that raise to a level of significant consciousness with younger voters). However, what I think he did was find a way to make his appeals in a way that resonated, transcended from political figure to cultural figure, and in doing so allowed himself to seem more genuine or authentic.
Tax policy, health care overhauls, subsidies, stimulus…I think for many younger voters while there’s a base understanding and an idealistic view of what’s important about them, the understanding of how it impacts your life and the details of it are far harder and less likely for them to grasp. But the notion of “historic first black president” isn’t. The old style of mud slinging, slash and burn, politics with boring lecturing sounding voices that remind you more of your mom and dad then that cool older friend is not attractive or inspiring…but the lofty, inspiring, transformative rhetoric promising hope, change, and something different cries out to the naturally cynical youth who typically feel that the old way isn’t the best way. Obama in 2008 was not a politician, he was a cultural icon. From the “HOPE” paintings to Obama-girl to stadium rallies, Obama became something that was OTHER than political and that was immensely attractive for the youth. It became “popular”, it became a sort of “cult phenomina” (Cult like “Boondock Saints was a cult hit”, not Cult as in Waco). It was social status to be an Obama supporter and voter because it was a way that you could clearly claim to be a “part” of something major due to the historic nature of it. Unlike Bush, or Gore, or Kerry…people were excited after the election to go running around about how proud they were to vote for Obama. It was a status thing, it was a culture thing, it was “cool”.
It’s not anymore.
It’s politics now. He’s a politician now. That doesn’t mean he’s bad. It doesn’t mean the youth won’t still like him. Doesn’t mean the youth if polled won’t still give him support. But what I do think it means is that we’ll see the youth return to their normal form where a dedicated politically active minority will actually vote, a slightly larger majority will actively vocalize support routinely for one or the other but probably not go vote, and an even larger group will mostly be “meh” about it.
Politics are the thing you watch the Daily Show to make fun of and laugh at. Obama in 2008 was something beyond politics, was something that was going to change politics, that was going to be different. In 2012, Obama is “that cool guy that did some good things I guess but just seems like all the other ones really”.
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In a way I do agree with this. By and large I think younger people are more prone to vote or take stands on issues based on what emotionally feels like the "Right" thing to do, rather than basing it on say ideological principle regarding the role of government or historical precedence of it doing well or hard facts and figures suggesting the way to go. It's not a universal thing, but over all I'd say it's reasonable to say that the younger generations tend to be more idealistic and prone to emotion than the older ones, in part because they have a far smaller context to view things from and far less life experience to draw from.
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They are incredibly naive about the way the world really works. For example I had an engineer come to me and tell me we needed to re-design a particular project (at our expense) because the customer's landscaping would be negatively impacted by the current design. Apparently the gentleman's wife wanted to put the rose garden where we were proposing putting our equipment. I then proceeded to show this engineer the three other revisions we'd done to the project for similar reasons; when in fact the purpose of all of these revisions was to move our equipment closer to the customer's home and more of the expense onto us and away from them. Likewise, I have to constantly explain to these engineers that the contractors we work for/with are not really their friends, and to take everything they say with a very large grain of salt.
Even outside of the business arena these people are naive about the way the real world works. The number of them who do stupid, unsafe, and potentially dangerous (physically, financially, etc....) things just boggles my mind. It's like basic common sense and logic are totally foreign concepts to these people.
ThePlayDrive
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Meh, I think most voters regardless of age vote on emotion. I think the myth of younger people being more prone to it is just something that's easy to buy into, particularly for the older generations who want to believe that they're more reasonable.