ABC-TV gave aid and comfort to Republican voter suppression efforts this week by airing a John Stossel "report" on uninformed young voters. The featured segment on 20/20, which included person-on-the-street interviews with young people reminiscent of Jay Leno's "Jaywalking" bits. Stossel's was not subtle about his message that young people are so ignorant that it's their patriotic duty not to vote, saying on-air "good for her" when a young woman expressed lack of confidence in her qualifications as a voter, and closing his hatchet job with an animated graphic and voice-over saying that "Rock the Vote" should be replaced with "Rock or vote."
Stossel offered no statistical evidence to support his premise, nor did he disclose how many interviews he conducted to garner the few snippets of young voter bloopers he aired.
Follow me across the fold for more... including a video response I hope goes viral -- well beyond my state's borders.
Well, here in Oregon we have a little experience with well-informed and politically astute young voters and activists from among their ranks. The Bus Project here is a vital force in Oregon politics, an effective grassroots organization comprised mostly of just such young Oregonians who register voters, inform them, and mobilize them in local and statewide campaigns. They have wasted no time in answering Stossel's slander, and with their characteristic wit.
Although it pains me to link to it, to fully appreciate the Bus Project's satire, you might first want to watch Stossel's piece here: http://abcnews.go.com/...
And here's the response of our homegrown young activists from Oregon:
On a personal note, based as solely on anecdotal evidence as Stossel's, I have had occasion over a couple of decades of working with young voters and activists -- in my advocacy and community organizing work, within and outside the Democratic Party and on individual political campaigns, and have found them to be more, not less, well-informed on average than their older counterparts. I find this unsurprising, since many of them have classwork on civics and other social sciences within recent memory, among other factors.
They don't need me to speak for them, as the video above so clearly proves. And with just the right amount of snark.
Finally, I owe a major hat tip to my state's premier progressive blog, Blue Oregon, and its head honcho Kari Chisholm, where I found the YouTube video while still fuming over Stossel.