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In Primaries Youth Vote Packs a Punch, Finally: Young people are turning out in record numbers to support charasmatic Sen. Barack Obama and make their voices heard nationally.
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By Hadley Mendoza Senior Staff Writer |
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| Sunday, Feb. 24, 2008 | |
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NATIONAL NEWS — Well students, looks like we finally deserve
a hearty round of applause for showing up in droves and performing the civic
duty that government leaders, celebrities and our parents have been stressing
for years. We voted! And it looks like those grown-ups were right after all;
the youth vote is actually making a difference in the 2008 primary elections.
Active participation in democracy is every citizen’s fundamental responsibility, and students need to take control of their future by casting their vote for president, both in the primary race and in the November election. In the next four years current college students will likely graduate and begin working in a country led by the candidate chosen from these elections. It’s exciting to see students and young adults finally taking government by the reigns. 
(Christina Aushana/Guardian)
The young-voter turnout in this year’s Iowa caucus was up a celebration-worthy 135 percent from the last presidential primary, according to a recent Los Angeles Times article. Not only was Iowa’s youth excited and ready to visit the polls, young people in states across the country — from New Hampshire and Massachusetts, to South Carolina and Georgia, to Nevada and our very own California — also turned out to vote in significantly largeer numbers than in the past. The question is, why now? The numbers show that young people are turning out in masses to vote for Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.). And if it is Obama that finally convinced young people to drop by the ballot box, forget the presidency, he deserves national and historic recognition for bringing out the youth — something not even P. Diddy could do with his Rock the Vote campaign back in 2004. And it’s about time. Statistically, old people are diligent voters, while young people fail to make their opinions heard at the polls. This means that politicians govern with those constituencies in mind, forgetting the youth’s collective interests. If students want even the chance to have their concerns — be they education funding, stem-cell research or marijuana legalization — seriously addressed by national leaders, they need contribute to the political process. It looks like that finally may be happening, and if Obama is responsible he should be awarded. So should Obama be the next president of the United States? That’s for Americans — including well-represented young people — to decide. Readers can contact Hadley Mendoza at hsmendoz@ucsd.eduThis e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it . |