Feature:
February 2008 Issue
In a microwave society, young people are "changing" the
way campaigns are run in America. So where do we go from here?
By C. Todd Williamson, III
November 2004 might have been one of the most discouraging moments
of my life of following politics. Sen. John Kerry lost the 2004
presidential election by 2.4% to the incumbent President George
W. Bush.
But at the time, Kerry’s loss wasn’t the major catalyst
of my discontent. I was more upset with sullen campus atmosphere,
(as I was in college at the time) associated with the student body’s
post-election reaction.
The campus student center was filled with mumblings of, “See
this goes to show you that at the end of the day, my vote doesn’t
count.” As well as, “Those politicians don’t
address our issues anyway. It’s like they take us for granted.”
Now it’s February 2008 and “Super Tuesday” is
like a national holiday celebrated every two years. Since
now and that fall day in 2004, the 2006 midterms saw the greatest
turnout of young voters than any other midterm election in history.
Rashad Drakeford, Deputy National Field Director for Students for
Barack Obama, explains his view of the recent voter increase among
young people. “I think this year we as young people finally
have a candidate in Barack Obama who speaks to us and our issues,
who we can look up to, and who we can identify with, said Drakeford.
“
Even though in 2004 we had Diddy telling us to "Vote or Die" and
MTV telling us to "Choose or Lose", we didn't have a
candidate that could energize or mobilize young people to register
to vote, go through the absentee ballot process, or stand on a
line for an hour or so to vote.”
State by state, students and young professionals alike felt that
they could make a difference in the polls. In 2006, there was a
chance to make history. With a possible Democratic victory, there
would be the first ever woman Speaker of the House, a chance to
end the war in Iraq, and possibly be a uniting of the country behind
a Democratic Congress and a Republican White House.
Within the first 100 hours in session, the new Democratic majority
led the 110th Congress through some of the most productive legislative
days of the early 21st Century.
The momentum of 2006 carried over to 2008. Except, this time there
are higher stakes, the politicians are more recognizable, and there’s
more money raised and spent per individual candidate.
But not since the 1980 Democratic primaries between incumbent President
Jimmy Carter and Sen. Ted Kennedy has there been such a heated
squaring off between two members of the Democratic Party.
The last bitter fought primary season for the Republicans was only
8 years ago between then Gov. George W. Bush and Sen. John McCain
in South Carolina. The relationship between the two is still recovering.
Carter and Kennedy fought over economic inflation and taxes, while
Bush and McCain just plain fought.
As the primaries come and go, the key word that will be etched
in history in the minds of voters and future observers is change.
The word itself can instill refreshing tones yet strike fear. 2008
will be known as the year in which the term “change” dominated
the text of stump speeches, banners, and in the titles of cable
television news supers.
The term was such a rallying cry that the three major contenders
for the Democratic presidential nomination fought over who was
the bigger “change agent” as if they were battling
over the naming rights to a top 40 hit.
John Edwards has been speaking of change since his first run for
the presidency in 2004. Sen. Hillary Clinton was a symbol of change
when she and her husband, former President Bill Clinton, first
hit the national political scene in the early ‘90’s
with their “two for one deal” opposite the more experienced
Bush administration.
Sen. Barack Obama is now viewed as the cosmopolitan candidate of
change for today. Attracting young adults and first time voters,
Obama seems fitting as the singular figure that many of the young
first time voters from 2006 are rallying behind in 2008.
Agents of change (Sen. Obama, 2008 and Sen.
John F. Kennedy, 1960)
amongst their biggest supporters: the young.
“He [Barack Obama] speaks
to issues that affect us like the Darfur Crisis, the War in Iraq,
college affordability, and improving public education. Just like
the way JFK called ordinary citizens to serve their country through
creating the Peace Corps or renewing interests in math and science
through the space program, Barack Obama is doing the same by
letting Americans know ’change doesn't happen from the top
down but the bottom up; we have to work to make America better together.’ And
that message of unity and togetherness has awakened my generation
to get involved, said Drakeford.
His candidacy has come to represent a sign of the times. An evolution
that coincides with the emergence of the Internet having a deciding
effect on outcome with sites such as Youtube.com, The Huffington
Post, Drudge Report, Rooster Talk, and The Politico capture the
eyes of a new generation of political observers.
In his analysis of the last general presidential election, Michael
Nelson writes of the Internet’s effectiveness in The Elections
of 2004. Nelson believes that the Internet had not quite arrived
in 2004 as he relates it to the growth of another medium and its
relationship to politics.
“Internet politics in 2004 more
closely resembled television politics in 1952. It was a startling
shift from the campaigns of the past and one that in hindsight foreshadowed
the coming era of television politics. But it was not decisive,” said
Nelson.
2008 was a different story as CNN partnered with Youtube to produce
the first ever CNN/Youtube Presidential D ebates in which candidates
answered video taped questions on live television from everyday citizens.
These debates took the traditional “town hall” format
to a whole new level as the majority of voters asking the questions
were 35 years old or younger.
Every 20 to 40 years a breakthrough happens in politics where new
voters (particularly younger voters) tip the scales and deliver a
nomination or an entire election. Usually these are centered on one
or two candidates.
In 1968, many young college students were claiming to be “clean
for Gene” as they pledged support for Minnesota Senator Eugene
McCarthy. The slogan was an attempt to show that the usual
college anti-war crowd could cosmetically clean up, knocking the “hippie” label.
Serving the Obama campaign stop-by-stop, Drakeford notices similarities
between 2008 and what he’s read and heard about those engaging
campaign days of 40 years ago. “We are facing tough issues
like global warming, a two front war, terrorism, healthcare crisis,
a mortgage crisis, problematic public education system, and a recession.
We are at one of those moments in American history like 1968; we
are truly at a turning point.”
Senator Robert Kennedy, although previously announced that he would
stay out of the 1968 race, had a change of heart after he was assured
that President Lyndon Johnson had no intentions of pulling out of
Vietnam.
Kennedy would later claim much of the anti-war as well as the labor
and inner city Black vote. His campaign would depend on the politics
of change.
In his critically acclaimed book Mutual Contempt, Jeff Shesol uncovers
a memo sent from LBJ adviser Harry McPherson to the president, framing
the context of the impending presidential race.
“
This contest is about change, and that did not bode well for LBJ. McPherson
coolly and comprehensively assessed the Kennedy challenge: ‘Kennedy
offers the change to a dove policy, together with the reputation
of a tough guyxHe will “bridge the gap” between young
and old.’”
It seems only ironic that almost 40 and 47 years to the days that
his older brothers announced their candidacies for the presidency
that Democratic lion Sen. Ted Kennedy endorsed Obama.
Sen. Robert Kennedy campaigning among
college students, 1968
President Kennedy’s daughter
Caroline acknowledged Obama’s uncanny spark and similarities
to the nation’s 35th president in her New York Times endorsement
op-ed “A President Like My Father,” in which she stated, “Senator
Obama is inspiring my children, my parents' grandchildren, with
that sense of possibility.”
It will be interesting to see if a candidacy of hope and change
will mold a new generation of socially conscience Americans. The
same generation that was inspired by President Kennedy would go
on to serve in the Peace Corps, become skeptical of an unclear war
in Vietnam, see a man land on the moon, and live to see and be apart
of the end of the Cold War.
With a spark of hope, there’s no telling what wonders and
challenges my generation will embark upon in the coming decades
until its time for us ourselves to pass the torch. Drakeford has
his own ideas of where the next generation is headed.
“Generation Y has to become more involved in this country
whether Barack Obama wins or loses. We have to become more involved
through
community service and being politically and socially aware and active.”
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