Forum: Discuss 'Young Voices' Report
By: Generation Next Initiative
October 25, 2006 11:09 PM

Once you've seen Young Voices, Judy Woodruff's latest report from The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer about political activism among young people -- voice your opinion, tell us your thoughts.

What will motivate Generation Next to go to the polls for the Nov. 7 midterm elections? Are young voters too skeptical about the political process, or will they turn out in record numbers to show where they stand on the issues?

Comments

I am a high school Government teacher and would love to get a copy of this documentary. I just wish it were available before the midterm elections.
Posted by: S Ryder | October 26, 2006 3:49 AM

I am a 21 yr old recent female graduate with an above average interest in politics and the state of the nation. I am an avid C-SPAN viewer. My own perspective of the world gives me hope for the future, but I only believe in the future of this country because I feel I have been blessed with an excellent education. I graduated from an Ivy League school, attended one of the best public schools in Chicago and have parents who were heavily involved in my education. I say this because I believe one of the issues when it comes to young voter turnout today is education, more specifically civic education. It came to my attention a few days ago by Thom Hartmann, who while promoting his book "Screwed", pointed out that civics has not been taught in this country for at least 20 yrs, meaning that some of us are the first generation to have parents who also have not been taught civics and may or may not vote. It is telling that the Democratic vice presidential candidate for 2004 admitted that he did not become a regular voter until he began to run for office. What are we to expect of young people if we have not taught them the importance of their vote and their opinions? Young people are M.I.A. when it comes to political involvement because they feel they are outside of the American community. A sense of civic duty and a genuine American identity would go a long way in changing the voter turnout of young people.
Posted by: Nkosi Harvey | October 26, 2006 7:19 AM

Why Voter Apathy? Especially, voter apathy among the younger generation. No one really wants to discuss why it exists and how do we solve voter apathy. Voter Apathy exists because of Earl Warren and his decision to hear the case of Reynolds v. Sims in 1968. This case should have never been heard by the Supreme Court. This ruling disenfranchises young voters. The Court failed to realize that we are a nation whose needs differ based on our geography. Anthropologists based their observations on which species survived by the way they adapted to nature and their natural environments. Prior to the Court's Ruling, state's based electoral districts on County Borders. Thus, when Tip O'neill stated that "All politics are local" was true and relevant to the American People. For Example, In California we have 80 counties. Small populated counties like Placer, Yuba,Eldorado, Amador, and Calaveras are located in the Central Sierra Nevada between Donner Pass and Yosemite National Park. The "mountain folk" in these counties would represent one congressional district and their geographical and local needs are very similiar and the people in their communities identified with their Congressman. Today, our districts are gerrymandered by the political party in charge when the census reports are issued. Earl Warren saw a chance to grab politcal revenge against the State Senator of Los Angeles and San Francisco Counties by making his rulings in Reynolds v. Sims. If Congress was interested in addressing voter apathy, they would amend the Constitution to allow each state to determine Congressional Districts by County Lines. This Simple Action, would once again make "All Politics Local" and younger voters would reconnect with their representatives.
Posted by: John Roberts | October 26, 2006 7:26 AM

I was at that age of Generation Next when their parents elected Ronald Reagan and one year out of the Navy. A lower middle-class twenty-something that turned thirty in the penultimate year of Reagan's second term. I have a lot to say about young people since then and many of my peers, if you ever care to know. But suffice to say that Generation Next is the Generation that Reagan gave us and the Generation that I have often referred to since then as, "The people I grew up to despise, are now younger than me." Spared the draft (I went on active duty with the USN as a seventeen y.o., two months after the fall of Saigon) these self- indulgent middle / upper-middle class Want-ta-bees who fuel their "Fat of the Land" life-styles in pursuit of the latest eWaste by Parents committed to an America that, for most of the rest of us is on a fast spiral, to the bottom. [Don't worry as with my time, I know there are the exceptions.] I fear the America they and their parents will leave for my ten y.o French-American daughter... ..... A white-guilt-liberal / Corporate Capitalist Welfare State.
Posted by: Charles E. Tooth, Jr. | October 26, 2006 8:29 AM

I think that young people have more voice thatn they think they do. I also believe that young people in voting is major, and we have alot to do with what will happen in the next years. People need to realize that we are the "Next Generation" and inorder to get what we want and make a difference we have to be very active in poltics. We have the sbsoulte right to change what we wnat if you are active!
Posted by: Ashley Campbell | September 19, 2007 4:21 PM

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