Teams like the Tampa Bay Rays should come out of nowhere every year. Olympic Sports should be shown on National TV more than just once every four years. Voter turnouts should BE closer to 100 percent than they are to 50 percent. Unfortunately, some things in this country fail to change because they are rooted in our psyche. In an election year of promise, however, times are changing. The youth vote HAS already shown its power to elect a democratic candidate who is neither expected nor with the last name that jingles with Clinton or Bush.
Last semester, when Barack Obama visited our campus, West Chester University became center stage. Two days before, students skipped classes and stood in the rain for hours to get a chance to see Sen. Obama live.
Host of “Hardball,” Chris Matthews said back in April, “It’s a game changer, the fact that kids are voting. It’s the first time in history.”
Matthews added that Obama would need the youth vote not only in order to defeat Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.), but to win the election in November.
One down. One to go for Obama.
So far, according to a number of polls, Obama is doing well. According to CNN, Obama is leading their “Who’s ahead” Electoral College poll. According to trends, spending on advertising, and sample polls, Obama has a 226-189 electoral vote lead with 123 battleground votes to be decided. The number needed to win the presidency is 270 electors.
On Saturday, Obama’s lead in the Gallup polls stayed at eight points (49-41). It may be important to know that the Democrats received a lot of media attention with their convention last week.
On West Chester’s campus, over 60 percent of students polled on August 28 said that they would vote for Obama if the presidential election was held that day. About 20 percent were undecided and about 17 percent said they would vote for McCain.
But here’s the catch: People between the ages of 18-24 vote the least, or so they reported back in 2005. According to a U.S. Census report approximately 6 months after the 2004 presidential election, only 47 percent of the youngest group claimed they voted.
So let us assume the people that answered this poll were completely honest. The low percentage of college-aged students who vote is simply silly.
An 18-year-old student who enters school or a 24-year-old graduate may not want to become informed about the world outside their college environment, but it is their responsibility to sculpt the world they will be living in.
It’s not a coincidence that college careers and presidential terms have a life span of four years. When a student signs his or her student loans, gets their degree and enters the world, that world is going to be in the shape America voted and can be affected by how young people vote.
Those former students that are unhappy with any plethora of problems in the world and didn’t vote back in 2004 or 2000 have no right to be unsatisfied because they did nothing to the contrary.
Countless Americans are paying more to fill up their gas tanks, feed their kids and thousands are losing health benefits. So learn from the past and don’t let history repeat itself, because you will be the not-so innocent victims.
If you think the McCain/Palin ticket is the best bet or you think the Obama/Biden ticket is the best direction for our country, vote for the right reasons, not because of party affiliation or for racist or feminist reasons. Vote because you think your candidates will take this country in the best direction when you walk down the graduation aisle, sign a mortgage or bring your first child into the world.
Young adults should have the HIGHEST voter turnout of any age bracket because they have the world ahead of them.
For young people, you really are deciding…for a lot more than just President.