Many tempers are flaring over the results of Tuesday’s election. In such a divided time — when, as President George W. Bush put it, “You’re either with us or against us” — many voters are directing wrath, ridicule or pure hatred toward those who voted for the other side. If Bush is still committed to the vision of “being a uniter, not a divider,” he has a monumental task ahead of him.
Everywhere young Americans turned prior to Nov. 2, we were told to “rock the vote.” And rock it we did, albeit modestly. Turnout for under-30 voters increased to more than 20 million, a 9-percent increase over the year 2000, according to the Associated Press. It’s not the huge spike that P. Diddy and his ilk may have hoped for, but no single election is going to fully erase a long tradition of apathy and disaffection among young Americans.
Nationwide, young voters supported Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) by a margin of 55 percent to 44 percent — predictable, considering that young people have always been more liberal than their older counterparts, and as a whole our generation has more liberal views on issues such as abortion and gay rights than our parents.
But herein lies a potential problem: America’s liberal youths bothered registering to vote, braved long lines at the polls, listened as media outlets such as MTV deemed the youth vote as pivotal in the election — and saw their candidate lose. The 82 percent of UC students who voted for Kerry are disillusioned, bitter, angry or dogged by the feeling that the rest of the country is ideologically opposed to them. After young voters rallied around the message that their voice counts, we’re now facing the reality that our collective voice was drowned out.
But we must not use that as an excuse to turn our back on politics — in fact, we should do just the opposite. Bush did emerge with a clear win, but for an incumbent president, his portion of the vote was unusually small. The political minority is sizable; in 1992, garnering 48 percent of the vote was enough to give Bill Clinton the win. The country is split down the middle — encouraging news for those who may feel marginalized and alienated by the election results, but bad news in terms of actual progress in the next four years and beyond.
Former President Bill Clinton, in a speech to the Urban Land Institute on Nov. 5, articulated his message for young Kerry supporters and the Democratic Party as a whole: It’s “a mistake for our party to sit around and … whine about this and that or the other thing.” We can whine about the election results, just like the Democratic Party spent four years whining about Ralph Nader after the 2000 election, or we can further some real causes. Young Kerry supporters must realize that voting is only the first step in making one’s voice heard.
Our next presidential election isn’t for another four years, so forward-thinking under-30s must get educated on the issues, connect with their like-minded compatriots, write letters, demonstrate and otherwise raise hell. If you thought waiting in line to vote was tough, wait until you get a load of the legwork, the long hours and the many disappointments it takes to affect political change in more subtle ways — on the other hand, the blood, sweat and tears make success all the more sweet. This is the time for young Americans of all political views to back up our bark with some bite: We must show we really care, because in the whole scheme of things, voting is a very superficial way to get involved with politics.
More importantly, the Democratic Party must evolve its tactics in response to the defeat. It must not budge on its core values — the last thing we need is for the left wing to imitate the right more than it already has. Instead, Democratic politicians and pundits must change how they present themselves, and the party must change the way it articulates its message to voters and the way it responds to Republican attacks. That includes disallowing Michael Moore to act as an unofficial spokesman for the party — no longer should he be allowed to misrepresent the values and worldview of most Democrats, promoting flippancy and bias instead of earnest discussion.
Clinton has a similar tough-love message for the Democratic Party: “If we let people believe that our party doesn’t believe in faith and family, doesn’t believe in work and freedom, that’s our fault.” Many people have a warped image of the party, often based on what they know from right-wing pundits who the Democrats allow to promote damaging myths. Bush’s re-election campaign was based on attacking Kerry, and Kerry never deflected the barbs effectively — he tried taking the moral high road, but instead just came off as a weak candidate. Democratic candidates, if they want to succeed, must grow some fangs, even if it means buying into the nastiness that’s come to characterize modern political campaigns.
But beyond that, members of both parties — indeed, all Americans — must learn to talk to each other effectively. The Internet, right-wing radio talk shows, books by partisan authors like Al Franken and Ann Coulter, and other sources of “pop politics” are successful among consumers because they let people ignore the side of the political spectrum they don’t agree with. This needs to change. It’s intellectually lazy, it promotes the ignorance and closed-mindedness that will deepen the rift threatening to tear America in two, and it kills any possibility of making politics work in this country. Demonizing, belittling and remaining ignorant of your enemy is not the way to defeat him.
For Kerry supporters, this means talking to Bush supporters with respect and coming to understand their motives. You may be surprised to learn that their motives for voting for Bush were exactly the same as your motives for voting for Kerry. Bush supporters must do the same and open up frank discussions with Kerry supporters.
The great weakness of college students is that they’re convinced they’re right, and in classic Michael Moore and Bill O’Reilly style, they don’t even entertain the opposite view. We must learn to do the dance of opening our minds and reaching out to the other side without abandoning our core convictions and values.
The deep divisions splitting our country are more obvious than ever, and they stand to worsen if the two sides of the political spectrum continue talking past each other instead of to one another, marginalizing and misunderstanding each other rather than respecting each other. Young voters are perhaps the best equipped to accomplish this task: We are new to the political process, and we see its weaknesses and absurdities in sharp relief. Many of us are resigned to the fact that it’s going to be a tough four years, but if the two sides don’t reach out to each other, it’s going to be that much tougher.
