Engaging the Youth

We are wrapping up week 5 here in the Rock the Vote office and it really was an exciting one. This past Wednesday, our very own Alexa Galan and Becca Ward got to go see President Clinton speak at a Campus Progress event for youth activists. Topically, he brought up voter registration laws and compared them to Jim Crow. Click here to read what he said. While Alexa and Becca were listening to a former president speak, Katie Scholick got to witness President Obama's twitter town hall. As she put it, they were close enough to make eye contact (yes, the rest of us were incredibly jealous - DCProblems). Our whole group got a tour of the capitol later in the afternoon by North Carolina representative, Virginia Foxx. She even had us sit in on a House Committee on Rules session and witness a vote.

All this interaction with politicians made me think of what Rock the Vote's president, Heather Smith (Duke grad!), calls a dangerous cycle. Politicians do not pay attention to youth constituents because they do not vote at high enough levels. Thus, youth constituents do not vote because they feel that politicians exclude them. Clearly, something has got to give. The rising levels of youth participating in philanthropic rather than political work proves that they are not apathetic. Young people want to make a difference and are trying to do so within their own means.

Strict voter registration laws and the current media portrayal of the youth as apathetic are detrimental to youth political engagement. Every day, politicians are making decisions that will have long term affects on my generation. I find it so frustrating that more isn't done to engage us. The twitter town hall was a great first step. Having a town hall via the internet allowed for anyone with access to a computer to join. The vast popularity and number of questions submitted by young people proves that they are interested in current political events.

Hopefully, more events like the twitter town hall will happen in the future - the youth want to be involved and need opportunities to engage.

Click here to read Katie Scholick's blog post about her experience at the Obama town hall.

Yes, Katie was actually this close to the President.

Rep. Virginia Foxx meets our Duke Engage family!