"the young voter"

so the other night, this hippieish lady comes a-canvassing to our door, telling us about the importance of the election, and not letting up in these waning days of the campaign etc, etc ... donate money to the DNC ... help make calls ... get out the vote. so far, so good - i'm with her and i've even pulled out my checkbook.

then she talks about how young voters are key to the obama campaign, and how important it is to get the youth vote out. and then she adds - "you know how those young voters are: whoa, duude - i totally needed to do something important today, but i can't remember what it is".

umm - wtf? i realize that young voters have traditionally been a flakey demographic, but to think that they aren't voting because they are too stoned/hung-over to remember the election??? i think you've missed the point of the obama campaign which has inspired millions of young people. believe me - they won't be "forgetting" to vote. i have yet to meet a so-called young voter that wasn't voting because they "like forgot and stuff". perhaps, back in your time, you were all too busy tripping on acid and "forgot" to vote against nixon. ok - no more quoted "forgetting". seriously though, folks like this are completely missing the reasons that guide the youth vote. young people often don't vote, because they feel that the issues aren't relevant to them. because they feel alienated and disenfranchised. it is a good thing the obama campaign as a whole understands this and has taken a more respectful approach towards younger voters.

of course, like most polite and slightly confrontation-averse people, this monologue only happened in my head, so that i could blog about it later. i quietly wrote her a check and wished her luck. i wonder how many blog posts stem from exactly these types of unspoken discussions where you badly want to say something but ...

waiting for next tuesday