Twenty-two states voted in last night’s “super primary,” pushing the primary season past its halfway point. The process of picking the next president is officially in full swing.
This year, we’ll hear a lot of talk about the “youth vote,” that elusive demographic that many candidates attempt to capture. While there tends to be talk about how to appeal to young voters in every election cycle, we hope this will be the year that the youth vote really matters. The only way to change the country is to make the politicians pay attention, and a record-breaking turnout of young voters would send a big message.
Often, young voters say “the candidates don’t speak about issues I care about,” not knowing or caring that candidates speak to the people who vote. Senior citizens, for example, vote in very high numbers, so candidates spend a lot of time talking about Medicare. If young people want candidates to address the issues that matter to us, we must make our voices heard at the voting booth (or in Oregon’s case, the mailbox).
The cost of tuition has been skyrocketing for years. Even though President Bush and Congress have taken steps to raise the Pell Grant and limit interest rates on loans, a large portion of the population – those students who do not qualify for Pell Grants but can’t pay for school on their own – are left out. Students all over the country face the prospect of either not being able to go to school at all or having to take out loans that will take half a lifetime to repay. The way to make politicians take real action to make college affordable to everyone is to vote in every single election and make our voices heard.
Those of us who have made it through college are facing entering the work force at a time when the economy is in a state of flux. We are going to be living with the decisions of the next administration for decades. This is the time for us to care about the economy and the job market.
Eighteen-year-olds have only had the vote for 37 years. The 26th Amendment was passed a time when people our age were being drafted to fight in Vietnam but couldn’t play a part in the political decisions that sent them to fight. For young people, that struggle to get the right to vote should not be taken lightly.
The difference of course, is that there is no draft now and it doesn’t yet appear that there will be; however, it is still our generation being asked to sign up, and members of our generation that have been sent on multiple tours of duty. We should pay attention to who is in office and send a message that we care about the issues.
In what has been one of the longest election seasons in memory, and with Oregon’s primary still three months away, it may be hard for residents of this state to muster up the energy to continue to care.
While it is true that the Oregon primary election is often just an afterthought in the presidential nomination process, Oregonians, and young voters in particular, should avoid slipping into a state of apathy.
Too many people throughout U.S. history have fought for too long to get a vote – remember that women only got the right to vote in 1920 and it was within our parents’ lifetimes that people around the nation fought to protect the voting rights of black Americans. These battles were not waged so that people could just stay home on election day. Even in a small, late-primary state like Oregon, casting the ballot sends a message that you care. Voting is a civic responsibility and all Americans, especially young voters, should take it seriously.