July 26, 2004
Will Young Voters "Rock The Vote" in 2004?
In the early ’90s, the “Rock The Vote” campaign did the unthinkable - deliver young people to the voting polls. Some attribute the high turnout to voter frustration with the first Bush administration, while others believed Perot may have been the reason for the surge. Others still would like to believe that a sax-wielding Bill Clinton may have somehow connected with the young’ins like, as some out-of-touch columnists have stated, “an Elvis Presley for Gen-X.”
Will young voters care enough about the 2004 election to have their voice heard? Are they the pivotal swing votes this time around, or is it just a lost cause to chase the under-30 vote?
In the 1992 presidential election, 43% of younger voters turned out (as opposed to 36% in '88) thanks, in part, to a campaign that featured artists like Aerosmith, R.E.M. and Sonic Youth. MTV played a vital role as well, supporting "Rock the Vote" by airing PSAs about the importance of the electoral process.
Remember Madonna draped in the American flag? This was the same campaign.
This year, "Rock the Vote" is back; MTV has focused its attention on the "Choose or Lose" program and MoveOn.org has joined Music for America and Barsuk Records for the release of Future Soundtrack for America, a CD with music from artists like Blink-182, The Flaming Lips, the late Elliott Smith and Tom Waits.
Over the past four years, a number of organizations have been created to bring young voters back into the fold, including PunkVoter, the WWE's "Smackdown the Vote"; the Hip-Hop Summit Action Network, and The New Voters Project which is aimed at delivering 2 million 18- to 24-year-olds to the polls in Colorado, Iowa, New Mexico, Nevada, Oregon and Wisconsin - all pivotal states this year.
There are a number of crucial issues that will affect the 18-29 crowd in the next four years: the war in Iraq, the draft, the economy, reproductive rights, outsourcing, terrorist threats, and on and on. Will an influx of young votes help the Dems, as the polls indicate?
Are either Bush or Kerry doing enough to convince young America to take the initiative and cast their ballots?
Posted by Ivan at July 26, 2004 07:06 PMI just helped P. Diddy throw his hat into this effort as well. I spent many late nights last week with Sean Combs and his team crafting his Citizen Change launch speech (don’t ask how I got there!) and I have to say that these folks really have their hearts in the right place on this. Combs is not an experienced voter, nor well informed on political issues, but he is sincere about his belief that he and other entertainers can touch young people who may be similarly inexperienced and underinformed. He also is targeting minorities of all ages, speaking to them as well. I’m all for it.
Combs tries to be non-partisan:
“I am nonpartisan,” he explained of his equal-opportunity ambush. “I’m gonna stick my nonpartisan foot up Bush’s ass, up Kerry’s ass. Republicans and Democrats, my foot is so way up your ass right now it’s crazy.”
Ed Gillespie was slated to speak at Combs’s press conference, alongside James Carville who was also there. The night before the press conference, however, two burly-looking representatives of the RNC arrived to check out the venue. They took one look at the logo (which depicts P Diddy and two others raising classic Black Power fists!) and the next day the RNC pulled out of the effort. Combs continues to reach out to them, but his management team is so full of Democratic campaign veterans I can’t blame the RNC for not getting involved. Besides, it’s not like the RNC cares about minority voters anyway!
Many of these efforts are being coordinated together to accomplish a single goal: increasing turnout among young voters. Inevitably, increased turnout (particularly among the young) means more Democratic votes, so naturally the Republicans are wary of the whole idea. But the Red America counterpart to Combs’ effort, Smackdown the Vote, does have a Republican bent to it. Their press release is funny: The RNC has donated an 18-wheel voter registration big-rig called “Reggie” - the Democrats can’t quite measure up to that.
-Cf
Posted by: Christopher Fahey at July 26, 2004 09:39 PMThe youth vote is interesting. As late as spring, people were shocked at how well Bush was polling in the 18-30 group, actually beating Kerry. But now the numbers are swinging the other way EXCEPT (and this is key) is several of the swing states. It’s not clear what’s going on, really, except that nobody can take the youth vote for granted, and young voters are far less firm in their party identifications than their elders. They could still break either way, depending on events leading up to election.
Posted by: Martin at July 27, 2004 12:58 AMIvan, if they could only see the potential for reinstating the draft with another 4 years under Bush and a Republican Congress, their vote would likely rock the nation on its keister.
Posted by: David R. Remer at July 29, 2004 07:24 PMNot that it matters now, but the draft resolution recently voted down in Congress was written by Democrats (Rangel) and was only voted on because Republicans knew this was a trick, so they called for a vote and it LOST. Everyone voted NO, including the guy that wrote the bill, except two democrats. But Kerry talks about it anyway, blaming Bush, proving he’s a lying wank, and he knows he’s lying but thinks it’s justified.
Posted by: Joe at November 2, 2004 01:08 PM
