I rule, says the JACC
◊ I just won, big. There aren't any second-place awards or honorable mentions for the bring-in essay, just one winner. Me.
Thanks again, Dean, for all the constructive criticism.
There�s a lot of time, money, print inches and MTV ad campaigns this year aimed at getting young voters to put down the XBox controllers and TV remotes long enough to get out and vote.
Yeah, we�re apathetic. We�ve always been: U.S. Census Bureau data shows that voting rates of the 18-through-24-year-old demographic have mostly declined since 18-year-olds got the vote, from about 50 percent in 1972 down to 36 percent in 2000 (�Voting 2000" 5).
But not everyone has given up hope. Optimists see young people as incredible untapped potential just waiting to change the course of an election. They�ve got reason: Bill Clinton actively courted them in the 1992 election. Voting rates spiked among every age group that year, but the biggest leap of all was among the under-24s (�Voting 1996" 1).
See, Clinton went for youth-oriented network TV, not just CNN. He showed up on �The Arsenio Hall Show" sporting sunglasses, playing the sax and talking about anything but politics. He did a Q-and-A session on MTV — which had also invited his rival, George Bush, who politely declined — and answered burning questions from America�s youth about his underwear preferences.
All the presidential candidates since have been trying to recapture that silver-screen magic. Anyone drooling at the idea of moving his golf clubs, family and photogenic pets into the White House in 2005 has been trying to one-up the competition on TV and lure young voters any way he can.
Politicians do this mostly by treating us like we vote for wardrobes and sound bites, not politics. That goes double for this year�s high-stakes election: fear of terrorism, an anemic economy, rising energy costs, outsourced jobs and continued military presence in Iraq are big issues that require a leader with grit, determination, a full head of hair and a smile that shows the canines.
The PR stunts have already begun. George W. Bush donned a sharp-looking flight suit and had his military chauffeur land a fighter plane in front of a bank of reporters: that says that he�s tough, patriotic and a soldier at heart, regardless of his actual, possibly fictional, service record. John Kerry topped that by getting decked out in a leather jacket and riding a Harley onto the stage of �The Tonight Show": he�s a rebel, a rule-breaker, someone who will shake up the White House and usher in a new and daring administration, never mind that he�s just as old and white and rich and bogged down with special interests as all the other candidates.
They expect us to fall for this stuff as if we were complete idiots.
Which, let�s face it, we are.
We don�t vote. We�re lazy. We don�t educate ourselves. We don�t learn about the candidates or their positions on key issues. The only time we notice them is when they get 10-second highlights on the evening news or when they�re ridiculed on �The Daily Show."
Television is a powerful medium; just look at TV losers like Richard Nixon, Al Gore and Howard Dean. Their lack of presence, goofy noises, stiff demeanor or nervous sweating during televised speeches made pundits, pollsters and news-show editors squeak. Nixon�s slick style fell apart on TV during the 1960 presidential campaign, making him look like a �truthless used-car salesman," as Hunter S. Thompson described him (par. 21).
The idiot box broke these candidates, but at least those fatal goof-ups happened while they were discussing politics. Now, politicians don�t even talk about issues with young voters. We�re seriously dumb or seriously not paying attention if John Kerry�s PR flacks think he�ll get more votes by being filmed gingerly snowboarding down a bunny slope than by discussing his political views.
Even sadder, CNN barely rates with young people. When we get a chance to talk to potential world leaders, it�s on MTV, and the best we can come up with is �Were you cool in college, and are you cool now?" � as a young man asked John Kerry on MTV (�Choose or Lose" 2). We haven�t shaken off our high-school habits: we want our leaders to be smooth-talking, photogenic and outgoing. We want them to be cool.
Politicians have already figured this out. We�re a notoriously fickle market so their efforts to reach us through television, our favorite non-Internet medium, have looked pretty clumsy so far, but they�re going to catch on. This year�s presidential hopefuls are working hard at the seduction of the innocent. Howard Dean tapped tech chic by soliciting campaign donations through his Web site and keeping a blog. Bush cracked wise to reporters about falling asleep and missing Janet Jackson�s Super Bowl nipple-flash. Kerry took a long step away from the usual criticism of rap and hip-hop by calling them �important" on MTV and by admiring their �social energy" (�Choose or Lose" 2).
Politicians are getting smarter. Pretty soon you�ll be seeing candidates referencing �American Idol," iPods and file-sharing in hopes of cashing in on youth culture.
Yeah, it�s scary. But if that means we get to see George W. Bush eating live cockroaches on �Fear Factor," it�ll be totally worth it.
Works cited:
MTV.com. �Choose or Lose -- John Kerry: Your Questions, His Answers." MTV.com. March 2004. April 1,2004. http://www.mtv.com/chooseorlose/features/john_kerry_033004/
Thompson, Hunter S. �He Was a Crook." June 1994. The Atlantic Online. April 1, 2004. http://www.theatlantic.com/unbound/graffiti/crook.htm
U.S. Census Bureau. �Voting and Registration in the Election of November 1996." July 1998. March 31, 2004. http://www.census.gov/prod/3/98pubs/p20-504.pdf.
U.S. Census Bureau. �Voting and Registration in the Election of November 2000." Feb. 2002. March 31, 2004. http://www.census.gov/prod/2002pubs/p20-542.pdf.