Yesterday, the illustrious American Prospect published short essays by various youth politics activists and thinkers, responding to the question, "How do we keep Obama's youth voters mobilized?" While it's a great thing that young voters are being taken seriously as a political constituency, the question is a bit condescending in its formulation.
The better question to ask is, "How will youth voters continue organzing themselves?" or even "How can progressives engage with youth voters?" Millennial generation-focused youth politics groups are already beginning to organize a summit early in the coming year to discuss the future of their movement during an Obama administration and what the goals of youth political participation should look like. One of the great things about Obama's youth outreach program is that it didn't dumb itself down or expect young people not to have ideas of their own, and that should be kept in mind all future work with on these issues -- not that anyone in the piece necessarily forgets that.
Cautions aside, the query generated some interesting responses from the participants (which included several youth leaders), including this one from Peter Levine of the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement:
During the campaign, Obama gave youth many ways to plug in, from "friending" him on Facebook to taking a semester off to organize. Now that the election is over, he needs to offer a similar range of opportunities to cement their engagement. An issue like climate change requires a full spectrum of participation, from pledging not to drive once a week, to advocating legislation, to weatherizing homes as an Americorps volunteer, to becoming an EPA scientist. At a time when jobs are scarce and the public sector is weak and archaic, citizens' work should be the hallmark. Then, there will be Obama Democrats in 2060 the way there are New Deal Democrats today.
This is exactly right. Youth voting participation, both in terms of share of the electorate and percentage of young people who voted, both rose several points from previous elections, but the important phenomenon was the percentage of young voters who supported Obama, which was through the roof compared to any previous election in the last twenty years. I pointed out in this op-ed that first-time participants in the political system often set ideological preferences for the long term; Ronald Reagan, by winning majorities of the youth vote, helped build the conservative coalition. Many of these new progressive voters will continue supporting progressive candidates and policies, and giving them the opportunity to further commit to these ideals -- and to public service -- is very good idea.
--Tim Fernholz
