Why Vote?

When I first signed up for a blogging class, I had assumed we would be writing blogs and I was excited about that prospect. But when the time came to start a blog, I was lost as to what I could write about. I briefly thought of some ideas but nothing really stuck. Then I saw this video while watching the news one day:

I can honestly say I don't remember the last time I had been so angry at anything. As a college student that is politically involved on campus, I knew this argument was entirely false. I had met more than enough students that were more knowledgeable about politics than the average person. If a newscaster argued that a different demographic, say women or a minority or religious group should be discouraged for voting, they would almost certainly be fired. However, the notion persists that young people don't care about politics and they know less than adults so this type of rhetoric is somehow acceptable.

In the wake of the 2008 presidential elections, which saw more young people get engaged than ever before, the 2010 elections are important to politicians because if young people don't show up, they can write off young voters and will continue to ignore topics we are interested in. But, if young voters show up once again, and continue to show up, politicians will be forced to listen to our interests since we could be responsible for keeping them in office.

However, as the standard news media seems to think it's acceptable to discourage young voters, they certainly won't be appealing to young people when they compile their election coverage. While registering voters on campus, that seems to be one of the biggest barriers to people registering. Many people that choose not to register say so because they don't feel they know enough about the elections or the issues involved. And I certainly understand some people don't care about politics and don't make learning about the issues a priority but a communication barrier should never be the problem with voting. And that's how I came up with A Young Voter. I am going to focus on youth issues in current politics and how young people can get involved in politics now before they forever become a member of the nonvoting citizenry. So for those of you that feel you are uninvolved with politics, please stick around and hopefully I can help, for those of you that want to learn more about a topic, let me know, and for those of you that already know what they're talking about, leave some comments about your thoughts, I'm always open to new lines of thinking. And for all of you that never watched the don't vote video from 2008:

Also, special note for those of you from Maryland, voter registration deadline is Tuesday the 12th! Go now. You can use your dorm address.