The Nation Will Keep Moving, With Or Without You.

For some reason (I think I might have heard John Mayer's "Waiting On The World To Change" on the radio), I've been thinking a lot lately about the "active youth" myth that gets tossed around during most presidential election years. As much as I would like to believe that the 18-24 voting bloc has as much power as pundits say we do, it's just not mathematically plausible.

Here we see how those in the 18-24 age group voted, but in Table 4c of the Census Bureau's 2008 election report, we see that the way this age group voted really doesn't matter that much. Of 25.8 million voters in this youngest voting bloc, only 15 million (53%) are registered. To further clarify this issue, only 44.3% of this demographic even bothered to cast a vote for President of the United States in the 2008 election. Out of 6 voting demographics, the 18-24 group is the third smallest... and it managed to get out the smallest percentage of voters. Again.

It's sad that the people I heard complaining the most during the 8 years of President George W. Bush's administration couldn't manage to get out in greater numbers, especially when you consider that the 2008 election was hyped as the most important of our lifetimes. I lost count of the number of people who became fans of Barack Obama before the election. I wonder how many of them actually made it to the polls?

In any case, the 18-24 voting demographic makes me nervous. Sure, we get more responsible with age, but we're the ones that typically have the newest ideas and the most passion about getting things done. It's too bad that so many of us have fallen into the "things are too difficult to fix" crowd - that robs the nation of some of its brightest minds in their prime. Nothing ever got done working outside of an institution... even the Civil Rights Movement needed laws to get passed before it made real change. So all of you out there crying about how both parties are the same or how one politician or another is a fascist: get a grip and get involved. You're not doing anyone any favors by sitting outside the circle and whining.

I hear you thinking "Stop complaining! The Democrats obliterated the Republicans in the 2008 election! Drop it already!" And you're right - the Democrats did win handily. That still doesn't excuse those who refused to offer an opinion but complain afterwards. The "active youth" myth is just that; a story made up by young adults, for young adults, in order to rationalize a bizarre lack of action in a society that is literally constructed to allow input from everyone. I'll end this post with an excerpt from a great column by David Sedaris about non-voters:

"To put them in perspective, I think of being on an airplane. The flight attendant comes down the aisle with her food cart and, eventually, parks it beside my seat. “Can I interest you in the chicken?” she asks. “Or would you prefer the platter of shit with bits of broken glass in it?”
To be undecided in [any] election is to pause for a moment and then ask how the chicken is cooked."