Was the 'Yute' Vote Really Rocked? Mood: d'oh Now Playing: All That Remains
This year, thousands upon thousands of hours and countless millions of dollars were spent on youth-oriented Get Out the Vote programs across America. You literally couldn't spit without hitting someone's. There was one by MTV, Declare Yourself, Just Vote, Democracy for America, One Vote and who can forget the P. Diddy Sean Puff Daddy Combs, et al, effort: Vote or Die. Interesting marketing tact that one. Is that vote or I will have you killed like I did Biggy Smalls and Tupac? But I digress...
Everyone, especially the media, kept going on and on about how the youth demographic (18-29) was going to, in the name of popular MTV outreach program, `rock the vote'.
Their efforts, that I do applaud, resulted in epic numbers of new voter sign ups and an expectation of almost 20 million youth voters going to the polls to voice their opinions with their vote. Where did their efforts get them? Nowhere. After all of the hype and expectations, youth voters accounted for 17% of the vote this year. 17%. The exact amount as in the 2000 Presidential Election. I can hear the golf snaps on this tremendous (yes, tongue in cheek) accomplishment now.
Reality check people. Kids will leave you at the alter. How many times did you commit to something in your younger years and not follow through? Exactly! No amount of free t-shirts and concerts is going to make young people feel obligated to go stand in line for hours on end just to vote. Now, if free concert tickets were involved in the process, that would definitely change things.
Let's face it. For many of these fresh new voters, a nice stash of spleef and a classic episode of Space Ghost Coast-to-Coast could make the difference in whether or not they actually leave their apartment to go vote.
d'oh
