From the American Spectator: “Rock the Vote crumbles”:
The Rock the Vote movement, which began in 1990 in an effort to get young people to register to vote for any candidate they wished as long as it was a Democrat, is in dire straights.Rock the Vote’s greatest crime is that it failed to be an advocate for the very demographic it purported to represent. Instead the group invested in every aspect of MTV liberalism: vacuous, context-free morality without a trace of seriousness about important issues. In 2003, Rock the Vote sponsored a debate for the (then) Democratic nominees that did not include a single question about Social Security or other long-term economic issues as they relate to younger workers. Instead, we got this gem:
According to the Los Angeles Times, Rock the Vote is the proud owner of $700,000 in debt, and the group has cut its staff from 20 people in 2004 to just two today.
The last question – God in heaven help me – was “What other candidate would you like to party with, that is, who would hold back your hair or be your wingman if you saw a hottie across the room?”Rest in peace, Rock the Vote. You shant be missed.
3 comments:
The last question – God in heaven help me – was “What other candidate would you like to party with, that is, who would hold back your hair or be your wingman if you saw a hottie across the room?”
As inane as that question was, there's not a smidgen of difference between it and finding out that George W. Bush likes to clear brush and that his favorite book is "The Very Hungry Caterpillar," or that Bill Clinton's a big Elvis fan, or an expose of what's on Laura Bush's Ipod, or that John Kerry is a "rabid" Sox fan.
When a Google search on "Ronald Reagan" + "jellybeans" gives up fewer than 40,000 matches, maybe then we can start sniffing at that vapid "Rock the Vote" fluff.
That "debate" was a rare opportunity to pin down the candidates on how they felt about issues that affected younger Americans...and they blew it asking if anybody had smoked pot.
The message that it doesn't matter who you vote for, just vote, is insulting. And vapid. Vapid is an excellent word.
Young people are smart. They may lack a bit of life-context but they are every bit as smart as anyone who's been around longer.
They can understand that it *matters* who you vote for and it *matters* to make a good choice on policies. And quite frankly, I think that the reason that most young people *don't* vote is just that. They *know* they don't know enough about the issues.
I voted as soon as I turned 18 (and at age 17 in the primaries because I'd *be* 18 by Nov. 2) And I voted in college... and there were a whole lot of races and issues on the ballot that I *didn't* vote for because it felt it would be simply *wrong* to do so. Who was *I* to vote in local elections, obligate the city to ballot measures, when I was a "transient" at University without an investment in that town?
Voting for the sake of voting just isn't right. And at age 18 I knew that.
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