Leading the Millennials
by Miki Saxon
Last week as part of the Odd Blog Couple, I wrote Can youth lead? and over the weekend I had an interesting email discussion with Jim Gordon over at BossHatch. (See all the Odd Blog Couples.)
Jim is midpoint in the youth demographic and mentioned that he had attended an Obama gathering at his campus.
Miki
How was the Obama meeting? Do you think the youth (18-29) crowd will go to the polls if “their” candidate isn’t doesn’t make it to the finals? I really am curious about this since it was my Odd Blog topic.
Jim
Well campaigning at colleges is total hit or miss. Half of the student body is registered to vote in another state, unfortunately. On the other hand, you find that people like him will really convert a lot of undecided votes. I, personally, don’t want Hillary to win (way to conform to the expectations of my age group?). I think the fact that Hillary wants MORE government involvement (and power?) really annoys me. She does not settle well with the young voters – at least in the southeast. Either way, Obama is very charismatic.
Miki
These days, I find that I go to the polls to vote AGAINST a candidate and for the person most capable of defeating him/her. Do you think that’s enough to motivate your generation? If they had done that in the last election GWB would likely not be in office (apologies if you’re for him:)
Jim
GWB is an idiot. Kerry is an idiot. We were choosing between two styles of crap, and the nation chose smell over texture. I think the main motivation is no longer “change.” “Change” is an overused buzzword. I think young voters ARE voting against and they are looking at the issues. My generation has been patronized by older generations and other candidates. Even races are being patronized. For example, a republican candidate came to Clemson University with Chuck Norris and Rick Flare (a wrestler). His whole speech was some stand-up routing… which, frankly, was insulting.
There have been articles on CNN that say “Who will win – the black candidate or the female candidate?” Young voters aren’t voting for race or gender – we are voting on issues, we are voting against issues, and some of us aren’t even voting. Our motivation is what can be done now. We are the online generation, so we are used to instant gratification – candidates need to be talking about short-term if they want to see results in the polls. As reckless as that sounds, that is how it is. We’re a generation of cynics.
Hope that gives you an idea of what we are thinking (or some material to write about).
Miki
As far back as I can remember the candidates have been idiots, that’s nothing new.
Your generation might give some thought to that fact that many of the big problems, such as global warming, exist because the thinking has been short term for too many decades. The ironic part is that you are saying exactly what every previous generation, starting with mine, have said about the current older generation. I don’t know about before mine, but probably. You guys have no monopoly on believing that the previous generations messed things up and that only you can fix them.
Is Jim right? Will the need for instant gratification drive the vote? Will it cloud the issues? And can the issues that engage youth—health care, the economy, social security—respond to short-term fixes?
Your comments—priceless
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January 28th, 2008 at 10:40 am
The balancing act of immediate vs. long term policy seems to be the ultimate way to go.
Unless you can give instant gratification (or at least promises of it) then I think your chances of success go down, but at the same time I think enough people know that unless there’s a long-term plan in place then no matter how good the short-term fixes they’ll quickly turn into problems down the road.
I guess it’s something like: a penny saved is a penny earned – how far can you stretch your saving attitude versus your immediate spending attitude?
January 28th, 2008 at 12:02 pm
Luke, Based on the US savings rate across all ages your analogy isn’t a happy one. Politicians are good at promising, not good at delivering. EVERYONE wants instant gratification—look at the solution to the current economic slowdown. Give people some money knowing that they’ll spend it. Just think what would happen if they saved it, the whole stimulus package would flop.
Long-term thinking isn’t present in politics or business and certainly not on Wall Street. In business it’s a quarter and in politics it’s four years (’til re-election)
Most of the crises we’re facing came from short-term thinking and fixes and if Gen Y also demands instant fixes I’m afraid that we’ll just get more of the same.
January 29th, 2008 at 2:23 am
[…] Leading the Millennials These days, I find that I go to the polls to vote AGAINST a candidate and for the person most capable of defeating him/her. Do you think that’s enough to motivate your generation? (tags: voting millennials presidential candidates) […]