Jim Thompson/Albuquerque Journal via ZUMA
Here’s something I don’t get. Maybe it’s because I’m dumb. Or maybe it’s because I live in California and I don’t see the same TV ads as everyone else.
But here it is. We liberals spend a lot of time griping that young people don’t vote. Fine. So how do we get them to vote? So far, I’ve seen various PSAs that explain how easy it is to vote; how you don’t want to let old people decide who runs the country; how easy it is to figure out which candidates are good, etc. And I guess that’s all fine. But various groups have been running PSAs like this since television was invented and young people still don’t vote.
So here’s what I don’t get. Why isn’t, say, Barack Obama, recording a PSA that really gives young people a reason to vote? A PSA that:
- Specifically says “vote for a Democrat, any Democrat.”
- Specifically goes after Trump and Republicans and figures out a way to convince 18-year-olds that Republicans are idiots.
- Specifically talks about issues that a young, disengaged voter might care about. Free videogames for all! Whatever. Our problem is not getting college students to vote, it’s getting high school grads to vote even though they don’t care about climate change, abortion, or social justice.
- Makes a game out of it. I dunno. Create some app that makes it fun to round up your friends to vote. You get points for every Democratic friend and negative points for every Republican friend. Sure, this sounds dumb, but it’s not the dumbest app I’ve ever heard of.
Here’s the thing: progressives don’t want kids to vote just because it’s their civic duty. We want them to vote for progressive candidates. In today’s world, that means Democrats. So run ads giving them all good reasons not just to vote, but to vote for Democrats. Hell, it might be the first time some of them even learn there are two political parties.
That’s the end of the rant. What am I missing here?
