There was a buzz in and around New York on Thursday night, and it wasn’t just caused by the convention speeches. (My apologies to my readers who are used to a day after posting of this column. Because President Bush’s acceptance speech ran well into late night, the Smackdown Your Vote! intellectual illuminati made the strategic decision that a meaningful analysis was best left for a clear head. Because of the Superstar lifestyle, Friday morning involved a flight on no sleep, so there was time for even more analysis and reflection.)
I want to send out a special thanks to the Republican National Committee and its staff, from top to bottom. Their graciousness as hosts to our band of merry voting advocates allowed me to briefly immerse myself in a non-political environment if only for one night, and through this ability to step away from the process for a minute, reach a Zen-like state of understanding. From a purely non-partisan perspective, man those guys know how to party!
The convention was gearing up all week for the President’s speech. Up until the debates, it is the major opportunity that the candidates have to get their message across directly to the voters. Saying this message in front of 20,000 people who vigorously agree with everything you say, clapping until their hands are raw, only makes that message stronger.
No stranger to social psychology, after getting the chance to visit both conventions, and listen to both presidential candidate speeches, I am not surprised that I walked out of both conventions with a warm feeling, filled to the brim with hope for the future. The measure of a speech involves not only what you say, but also how you say it. Sitting in the audience I saw President Bush give a speech that was delivered in a way that makes you really want to root for the guy. Although the data shows that not many people tuned in to the speeches, and although young voters were probably the least represented, as the clips and sound bites permeate throughout the media universe over the next week, Bush’s message will get to a lot of people.
The message I heard was a good one from the perspective of our national Voter Issues Paper. We have been focusing on the problem of the candidates not speaking directly to potential voters in the 18 to 30 demographic. Last night, there were unquestionably points in the speech where I thought George W. was talking directly to my cohorts and me.
From the perspective of a young person, he made the point that the policies that have worked in the past aren’t necessarily the best for the future. He hit on the future of health care reform for younger workers with his support of health-care savings accounts. He hit on higher education issues by mentioning Pell Grants and increased funding for community colleges. He spoke of the changing environment of financial security with Social Security reform; and job training in a world where people consistently change careers (like professional wrestler to political correspondent). He talked about his motivation and vision for seeking and holding office. And you’d have to have been comatose to not hear him defend his choices in the national security arena.
As Jim Ross would say, “Business is about to pick up.” The issues important to 18-to 30-year-olds are now getting more attention. With two months to go before the election, it’s time to gear up and start figuring out which of these policies you agree with, and which of these policies you expect to actually see followed through to the end. Right now these potential future policies are just ideas floating in space. It’s up to you to decide if you think they are good ideas, and if they are realistically attainable, and then vote for the people at the federal and state level who you think can make it happen.
The nature of the campaigns is that candidates tend to make a lot of promises; usually more than they can pragmatically keep. As the colder weather of the fall creeps in, it’s time for young people to put on their “guarded skepticism” hat and their “likelihood of actually happening” mittens and feel out these policies.
The acceptance speeches have both managed to highlight these contradictory concepts: lots and lots of government spending, coupled with lots and lots of rhetoric about shrinking government and keeping it out of peoples’ wallets. Both those things are unlikely to happen at the same time in this universe (with our current understanding of quantum mechanics and string theory), but it sounds really good in theory. Then again, communism works, in theory (Simpsons reference).
Tom Brokaw of NBC News consistently refers to the conventions of today as “infomercials.” I agree, but I’d like to add that they are both selling products that don’t actually exist.
No one talks about what has to be cut to add all the programs both candidates have proposed. Unless, of course, one is a big proponent of deficit spending – but all that does is push the burden on (drum roll, please) us, only later. Unless we pawn it off of our born and unborn children, for which we should be ashamed for even considering. Tsk, tsk.
It wasn’t discussed by any speaker that less government “interference” in Americans’ lives should mean both physically, in budget, buildings, and employees, and conceptually, in civil liberties and the legislating of morality. For one magical night a year, we actually have it both ways.
Campaigns are often a lot of smoke and mirrors, but the smoke is beginning to clear (the mirrors are harder to get rid of). The substance of the speeches at the conventions conveys how high the stakes are in this election. That is why voter turnout will increase by 10 percent, and we’ll have two million more young voters in 2004.
Now it’s our task to make sure each of our votes accurately reflect which party’s perception of this great country’s past and present we support, and which future we’d like to help create. You have to filter out the noise and find the substance. We’ll try to help you along the way. Take a gander at the responses to the VIP from President Bush and Sen. Kerry posted on www.smackdownyourvote.com, and watch our Youth Debate which we will be broadcasting from Miami, Fla., Sept. 29th, on the eve of the first presidential debate.
And it’s not just about the race for president. There are elections for Congress, state legislatures and local offices. These people all influence your lives through the actions they take and the policies they support once in office.
We have taken our VIP to these candidates as well. Cong. Kendrick Meek has already responded, and you can expect other candidates for federal and state elected office to also be submitting VIPs in the next several weeks. Give these folks your close attention, if for nothing else than they have taken the time to respond to issues important to you as an 18-to 30-year-old American. They are demonstrating that they want your vote.
You can’t be a very important player in our democracy if you don’t get in the game. Now that we have these party nomination formalities out of the way, the game is on.
Return to Commentaries.