After allegedly inciting
last week's "sabotage" fiasco, I decided to switch gears and write about something a little less controversial, and a little more serious: how the Democrats can hold on to their gains in Congress, and even win the Presidency in 2008, by appealing to young voters like me.
I am convinced that we will win Congress back this November 7, regardless of Karl Rove's bluster to the contrary, and regardless of the vote being rigged. They can't rig it this much. And when we do have the House again, we had better accomplish legislation that directly benefits people. We need to convince young people that what happens in Washington directly affects the minutiae of their daily lives. If we don't, we'll lose it right back.
In today's Morning Edition on NPR, Judy Woodruff reports on the organizing activities of one Nick Miccarelli, a staff sergeant in the Pennsylvania National Guard, Iraq War veteran, top staffer for Curt Weldon's re-election campaign against Joe Sestak, and senior at Drexel University. You can listen to the story here.
One sound bite in particular caught my drowsy ear this morning, and inspired me to write this diary. Miccarelli here discusses the kind of people he is looking for while canvassing the dorms at Drexel for GOP voters:
"Some are hostile. Some are openly hostile and slam the door in your face and throw things at you and call you a fascist. And those are the kind of people that you can't even really deal with. We usually like to spend time with people who may not have read as much or are not as informed about the way things are." (emphasis added)
This quote is so telling. First, it shows that America's college campuses are not exactly the fertile ground for Republicans that America's churches are. Obviously. Secondly, however, it indicates that we cannot rely on the assumption that young people will support enlightened candidates (i.e., Democrats) en masse. According to the 2004 exit poll, under-30 voters supported Kerry over Bush by 56-43 percent. But they made up only 17% of the electorate. We must push issues to the forefront of the debate that young people can directly relate to, or risk inspiring nothing but apathy in my demographic. And apathetic young people, the empty vessels that Miccarelli targets in his residence hall excursions, are as likely to vote Republican or Green than they are to stay home and not vote at all.
We can't expect the Democrats' marginally progressive stances on gay marriage and abortion to automatically win over apathetic twentysomethings, no matter how progressive they are. We must treat my demographic like the Bush Administration treats its demographic--the incredibly wealthy--buy our votes!
Now, before all the purity trolls around here get their boxers in a bunch, I should clarify. I am certainly not suggesting a direct, quid pro quo exchange of money, cigarettes, iPods, or anything else of pecuniary value for my vote. Got that? Okay. Moving on.
What I am suggesting is that we should highlight Democratic proposals that directly benefit young people where it counts: in our pocketbooks. Here are a few proposals.
1. Drastically increase need and merit-based financial aid for higher education. After seven years of college and grad school at public universities, I am $75,000 in debt. And I am one of the fortunate ones. Some of my peers have twice as much debt as I do. The cost of higher education has skyrocketed in the last ten years, and those costs are increasingly covered by loans instead of grants. The end result is young people who have a huge hole to dig out of before they can join the "ownership society" trumpeted by the current administration.
By the way, if the Democrats retake the House, Pelosi has promised to pass legislation to this effect in her first 100 hours as Speaker. A great first step!
And speaking of the ownership society...
2. Allow renters to deduct a portion of the rent they paid from their taxable income. Homeowners have long been able to deduct interest paid on their mortgages. There is something wrong with our tax structure when a homeowner making $60,000 per year could bear the same tax burden as a renter making $30,000 more.
3. Free iPods! No, seriously. This will work.
Wouldn't it be great if we could use these selling points to encourage young people to go to the polls? Wouldn't pushing these issues be a great way to inform young voters "about the way things are"? That Democrats have let Republicans use tax cuts as a political weapon for so many years absolutely confounds me. We should be fighting back on the same issue.
You can interpret this diary as a brazen, selfish attempt to have the government give me more money. You'd be right! But that doesn't mean I'm wrong. Republicans rewarded their most loyal voters, evangelical Christians, by enacting the policies they desired. Twentysomethings are our most loyal voters. Let's reward them accordingly.
I look forward to your comments for suggestions of other legal and ethical (I can't believe I have to emphasize this) ideas, along these lines, for attracting young people to vote.