Politicians are the friend who hits you up on Facebook Chat only once in a while, only when she needs something. A couple weeks ago, she needed your vote.
She’s been doing her own thing in Washington, D.C., busy with her lobbyist friends there. She didn’t leave you a birthday shout-out on your Wall this year. She must’ve forgotten. But remember that time, sophomore year, when she helped write the education appropriations bill? Man, it seems like yesterday.
Congresspeople, governors, even mayors across the country have incorporated social media in their election campaigns. President Obama’s social media-infused 2008 campaign brought out more than half of potential voters between the ages 18 and 29, continuing an upward trend in youth participation in presidential elections. Candidates this year hoped to use Facebook and Twitter to keep us involved.
That didn’t really happen. One in five of us voted this year, according to the Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning and Engagement. This turnout is comparable to recent midterm elections.
Still, politicians need us young people. Despite the perpetual lack of policies to benefit young people, they need us. We have low voter turnout – probably because we are rarely on the agenda – but they need us to vote sometime. They want our participation now so that as we “grow up” and start caring about issues they care about, we’ll give them our support.
Representative democracy may not mean much to us as young people, but when we become “adults”, it’s supposed to be important.
Theoretically, social media could make politics important to us now. A candidate – a young person, for instance – could run a successful Web-based campaign on the cheap. A Facebook page is free, and with a flip phone and a little flair for PR, a candidate and his or her team could create a dynamic page that effectively presents the candidate’s platform.Hordes of young people had joined Facebook before the site opened its membership and your mom and your city councilperson created pages. We should have Facebook politics on lock.
We’re missing a couple things, though – money and power. Without the passive consumption many politicians get from TV ads, the main thrust of organizing a grassroots campaign is getting a candidate’s name out there, which requires a full-time team of very active and committed supporters. And they need to eat and pay bills.
For many of us, our student-loan debt is greater than what we’ll make in years at our jobs. Even if we have great, original ideas about leading in our communities, we often need financial support to get anywhere.
In politics, getting money usually involves seeking out people in positions of power. And that money comes with strings not to make the people in power look bad. For example, if a campaign gets money from labor unions, it’s a good idea not to step on toes of Democrats, who the big unions support religiously.
Not stepping on Democrats toes means staying near the political center and maintaining the system as it is. In the end, young people don’t need the status quo. We have no voice in the status quo.
Social media will not make the American political system more democratic. Facebook, Twitter and the others are simply another way for candidates to reach potential voters.
So, when the 2012 presidential campaign starts up next year and your politician friend hits you up again, think of the benefit she gets from your support. Then, think of the benefit you get from your support. Do they match up? Can you post on her Wall and let her know how she can help you?
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