As November 2 Election Day 2004 draws near, everyone appears to be gearing up for that final push to the finish line. Your Superstar youth voting advocates are no exception, as we are about to embark on a whirlwind tour of the Midwest to keep our momentum going strong. Our good friends at Rock the Vote (www.rockthevote.com) have invited us to join the last leg of their Bus Tour to get out the good word.
I will be making my first ever appearances at the University of Minnesota on Monday, October 11, and the University of Wisconsin-Stout on Tuesday, October 12. I will then be joined by the world’s strongest man, Mark Henry, and Garrison Cade for stops at Wayne State University in Detroit on Thursday, and a trip to Mad City, the University of Wisconsin-Madison on Friday.
The Rock the Vote Bus Tour has been bringing a rolling party to stops across the nation for the last few months, with about a dozen musical acts performing in a festival-type atmosphere that focuses on encouraging young people to get active in voting and politics and have a good time in the process.
If I may air some grievances for a moment, when I volunteered to be the political correspondent for Smackdown Your Vote!, I never thought I’d have to attend so many parties and concerts. It’s starting to wear on me, because it’s really taking away from my independent research. Just kidding - I seem to have fallen into the greatest job ever.
But what I really appreciate about joining this Bus Tour is the opportunity it affords us at the WWE to get out and have one-on-one interactions with young people who may never have heard somebody tell them their vote matters.
I’ve been amazed at the wide range of involvement young people have with the political process by the time they become recognized as independent American citizens. There is a sector of our youth population that is massively involved in politics, and I can see would rather be sat on by the Big Show than not vote. When I was out registering voters in the Hamptons in August, most young people were already registered and following the election closely. A lot also attended Ivy League colleges.
You don’t have to be a sociology major to realize that if you’re in the Hamptons in August, you’ve probably come from some dough, and you’ve had a great education, and your parents are probably well-educated voters themselves. These people don’t need to be reached by Smackdown Your Vote! or Rock the Vote, because they’re already in the game.
But when I visited a small community college in Southern Maryland, it was an entirely different story. Most students we spoke with were not registered and didn’t seem all that concerned about it. With some, it appeared that no one had every told them it’s something that affects their lives and their futures and maybe they should look into it. It was fascinating to watch a few people kind of mill around for a bit, and them come sit down and start talking about their ideas about the election. It was obvious that they had been thinking about it for a while, but it was also obvious by their subdued enthusiasm that they hadn’t found themselves in the type of environments where political discussions were encouraged. A representative democracy is not strong if it is satisfied with only representing the most advantaged.
That “Two Americas” scenario was raised by a Tufts University student last Wednesday night, where I was on a panel discussing the role of college campus activism in mobilizing the youth vote. Not surprisingly, when fellow panelist and former head of the Democratic National Committee, Steve Grossman, asked the students how many of them were registered, all of them raised their hands. He asked how many were going to vote; again they all raised their hands.
Well, if actual election-day turnout is under 50%, how are we going to actually reach the people who don’t go listen to panels at universities? I know those Tufts students that attended the panel are going to give it their best. Another way is through organizations like the WWE and the Rock the Vote Bus Tour. I like the way Rock the Vote is doing it. A lot of times, it just takes that one encounter to tip the balance from non-participation to activism. This week, the Bus Tour will draw the curious, but possibly not yet convinced, young potential voter to an environment where they will be bombarded by music, information, and enthusiasm. They will get access to the information on the issues that are important to casting the right vote for them.
They will learn that casting a vote is not just about personally being that one vote that potentially decides a close election, but about showing the politicians that young people will be at the polls this election and every election thereafter. Those politicians will be forced to realize that if they want to win future elections, they had better start giving the youngsters some lip service, legislation, and love today. After November 2, when we get 2 million more 18-30 year olds to the polls than we did four years ago, increasing turnout by 10%, we can be sure the future will be better for all of us.
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