How Do We Encourage Our Youth To Get Out And Vote

How do you encourage people to participate in the political process?

The challenge of encouraging people to participate in a democratic political process is like any other large challenge - it must be broken into its parts.  For people, the parts are individuals.Many individuals will only participate the serious discussion of their political views if they are placed in an atmosphere where they can do so without trepidation.  As shown by the work of noted political theorists, that is best done in small groups.Some of the insights gained by such prominent thinkers as Dr. Jane Mansbridge, a recent Past President of the American Political Science Association and author of Beyond Adversary Democracy, and Kevin Esterling, Archon Fung and Taeku Lee who studied "Knowledge Inequality and Empowerment in Small Deliberative Groups", include:"when interests are similar, citizens do not need equal power to protect their individual interests; they only need to persuade their wisest, cleverest, most virtuous, and most experienced citizens to spend their time solving town problems in the best interests of everyone."[1]"... face-to-face contact increases the perception of likeness, encourages decision making by consensus, and perhaps even enhances equality of status."[2]"... deliberation in small groups raises both the knowledge level of the participants and their satisfaction with the results of their deliberations."[3]These citations give a tiny glimpse into the insights already gained by those studying the reservoir of talent among the people.  They've found that people are encouraged to participate when they are asked what they want from their government rather than told what they want by heavily financed politicians.The way we encourage people to participate in a democratic political process is by arranging them in small groups where they can decide how they want their government to function.  William Rickards is doing the hard work of reasoning through a practical way to do this, at:Practical Democracy.Fred Gohlke[1] Beyond Adversary Democracy, Jane J. Mansbridge, The University of Chicago Press, 1980[2] Beyond Adversary Democracy, p. 88[3] Esterling, Kevin M., Fung, Archon and Lee, Taeku, Knowledge Inequality and Empowerment in Small Deliberative Groups: Evidence from a Randomized Experiment at the Oboe Townhalls (2011). APSA 2011 Annual Meeting Paper. Available at SSRN: Knowledge Inequality and Empowerment in Small Deliberative Groups: Evidence from a Randomized Experiment at the Oboe Townhalls

What factors do you think discourage and prevent youth from getting involved in politics?

Politics is an abstract concept and maybe many young people see it as a boring concept. Politics is harder to grasp than, say, the new found interest in the other sex or the wish to make party. They ask: Why should one even bother? Also, there is an aspect of laziness and lack of discipline: The youth is notoriously bad as regards to actually vote. A rainy day (literally, the weather) can make a difference as only the committed go vote then (and this is typically the older ones and the youth to a lesser extend). So, the weather can change the outcome of an election.The youth tend to want to “live now and not think too much about the future”. As you found a family and existential and financial issues become more important that may change and politics becomes more important.Another factor that facilitates lack of engagement of the youth: Some states (in the US) make it harder to vote for people who do not have a driver’s license as an ID. They allow gun permits but no university IDs as a form of ID. That of course is on purpose: That would suppress young voters’ participation as it makes it harder for them to cast a ballot. Since the young tend to skew left it is typically conservative states that to that. Because the deciders know these facts very well.

Should youth get involved in politics?

I will start my answer with the words of a German port Bertolt Brecht…“The worst illiterate is the political illiterate, he doesn’t hear, doesn’t speak, nor participates in the political events. He doesn’t know the cost of life, the price of the bean, of the fish, of the flour, of the rent, of the shoes and of the medicine, all depends on political decisions. The political illiterate is so stupid that he is proud and swells his chest saying that he hates politics. The imbecile doesn’t know that, from his political ignorance is born the prostitute, the abandoned child, and the worst thieves of all, the bad politician, corrupted and flunky of the national and multinational companies.”Political involvement doesn’t necessarily means joining a political party or running in an election. It basically means that a person must be aware of political development in general. One must be aware of the real concerns that can impact one’s life. One must be capable of identifying the real issues and filter out irrelevant issues that most of the politicians push on the public. For example, Congress and other parties pushed communal issues on the public and diverted all the attention from real issues like development of nation and corruption. Somehow even majority of the public also got carried away by such irrelevant issues and burnt their own homes in various communal riots, destroyed their own life running around for basic amenities like good roads, water, food, employment and medical facilities. All these amenities could have came to them only if they had focused on real issues of development and corruption by the government.Thankfully, mindset is improving nowadays and today’s youth is mostly focusing on such genuine issues. It is today’s youth’s duty to make sure politicians pay attention to pressing issues of good governance, public safety, economic development and government’s accountability towards public rather than superficial issues like religion, caste, language etc. The job of citizen to keep politicians focused on real issues is a never ending job and we all have to do this duty on a daily basis.Doing so, we the youth of India can remain politically involved without being part of the Parliament.

Why are many young US voters unlikely to vote in the 2018 midterms?

The answer is, alas, simple because it is the same answer that explains why young people fail to vote in EVERY election. They stay home because they have nothing to vote FOR.The Democrats have decided that, rather than offer a policy alternative to Trump, or run on a meaningful platform of tuition-free college and/or student debt forgiveness, or even to offer concrete plans on ANYTHING, they will run simply as “Not the Party of Trump.”Ed Kilgore is a famous political pundit for NY Magazine who also runs a blog called The Democratic Strategist. He wrote this piece just today:No, Democrats Don’t Need a National Platform for the MidtermsSee what I mean? He says it is enough for Democrats simply not to be the “Party of Trump.” They just have to point at Trump and the GOP and scream about how awful they are. As if this is going to really excite people and get them to the polls.No one seems to remember that this was EXACTLY what Hillary did in 2016. It didn’t work then, and it certainly won’t work in 2018. Democrats have been hiding with their heads in the sand while Trump’s approval scores have been rising. The latest Rasmussen poll shows Trump at 36 percent approval among African-Americans.Those 36% will not skip work on a Tuesday to go stand in line for hours just to vote against a man they are basically OK with.And young people will not go out of their way to vote against someone who is not up for election. Duh.