For youth's sustained 2012 campaign attention, medium is NOT more important than message

Tonight's debate is important to young Hispanic voters but it is not nearly as crucial as continued economic relief for struggling twentysomthings. Short of a "Celebrity Deathmatch" between GOP frontrunners Romney and Gingrich, young people will likely glaze over the TV in the never-ending waiting-game of real solutions. 

I agree with much of what Peter Levine of Tufts University's CIRCLE (The Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement) writes. Levine and his organization do a impressive job amassing and analyzing the raw data of the youth vote. Suffice to say, he's doing critical and terribly overlooked work.

But I disagree adamantly with their "Getting Out the Youth Vote" and the age-old assertion that "medium is more important than message." Reminding the candidates, politicians and media of that is a recipe for greater disenchantment over the long haul.  The fact that youth joblessness and homelessness remain so prevalent, that college-aged millennials are so debt- and loan-ridden and that entire generation is encumbered with a massive deficit all mean that Gen Y craves real policy-driven rhetoric.

There may be statistics to justify CIRCLE's claim - and it is certainly true that the Web is the optimal medium through which to connect to young voters - but it is a notion that dumbs-down the discourse for young Americans and steers it away from their concerns. Young people would participate in the electoral process at a vastly greater rate if the candidates substantively (not superficially) grappled with their concerns.

In The Detroit News, Kim Kozlowski reports on the nostalgically vibrant youth empowerment of the 2008 political cycle.

During the 2008 presidential election, an estimated 22 million people under age 30 voted — an increase of 2 million over 2004...It was one of the highest numbers of young voters ever recorded...Youth voters preferred Obama over Republican nominee, Arizona U.S. Sen. John McCain, by a 2-to-1 margin.

She also accurately reports that the honeymoon for Obama is long over. But she does report one unsubstantiated claim with which I would take serious issue: "But some say that it's still early to get students engaged."

It's never too early, in my opinion, Wes. If President Obama doesn't hit campuses across the country, pitching his economic populist message, he risks permanently disenfranchising a vital piece of his 2008 base. 

As Stephen Richer of Forbes writes, Obama must soon embark on re-creating his youth army. Enthusiasm ebbed precipitously during the 2010 midterms among young people, and a result, Obama has to bring young people back into the

Future Majority's Sarah Burris, as we did yesterday, sums up how Obama's SOTU was an appeal to young voters:

• “most daunting challenge can be the cost of college. At a time when Americans owe more in tuition debt than credit card debt”
• “Congress needs to stop the interest rates on student loans from doubling in July”
• “Higher education can’t be a luxury – it’s an economic imperative that every family in America should be able to afford”
• “states also need to do their part, by making higher education a higher priority in their budgets”
• “After all, innovation is what America has always been abt Most new jobs are created in start-ups and small businesses”

That was a start, Wes; what does President Obama do next to galvanize young people anew?