Turns out, the kids are all right.
Nearly 20 years after MTV first promised to “Rock the Vote,” young people are finally rocking the polls, gobbling up ballots as if they were iPhones.
They turned out in record numbers across the country last Tuesday. In almost every state, the youth vote either doubled, tripled or quadrupled from the 2000 and 2004 primaries.
Why?
Three words: O-ba-ma.
The youngish senator from Illinois — he’s 46 — has captured the hearts and minds of young voters, much like another youngster, the 43-year-old John F. Kennedy, did in 1960. Every candidate has his or her own share of young followers, of course, but Obama has begun to stir a new generation.
Like Ronald Reagan for an earlier generation, he makes people feel good about themselves and their country. He gives them a reason for hope, something young people have never felt in politics. For their entire lives, politics has been about tearing down your opponent to build yourself up.
Today’s 18-year-old voter was a 2-year-old toddler when Bill and Hillary were swept into the White House. They don’t remember the “Don’t Stop Thinking About Tomorrow” Clintons. They were raised on the “politics of division” that blossomed in the Clinton ’90s and ripened under George W. Bush.
Obama’s promises to bridge that red-blue gap, and his pitch-perfect oratory, have made him almost an iconic figure for young voters.
And judging from the “Barack ‘n roll” T-shirts I saw in Super Tuesday photos, he’s become almost, well, trendy. Not unlike those Che Guevera T-shirts teenagers like to wear — oblivious, hopefully, to the fact that Che was a murderous communist thug — young people love Obama because he’s Obama.
Of course, at some point, policy ideas will have to replace the soaring ideals that bring people to their feet during his stump speeches. This generation can be skeptical, and they’re savvy consumers.
They’ll want a side of substance with their main dish of Obama-mania. As writer Joe Klein pointed out in Time this week, there was even “something just a wee bit creepy about the mass messianism” in his Super Tuesday speech.
“We are the ones we’ve been waiting for,” Obama said. “This time can be different because this campaign for the presidency of the United States of America is different. It’s different not because of me. It’s different because of you.”
As Klein wrote, “that is not just maddeningly vague but also disingenuous: the campaign is entirely about Obama and his ability to inspire. . . . The Obama campaign all too often is about how wonderful the Obama campaign is.”
For now, though, it works. And hey, the kids dig it.
Can you picture an Obama-John McCain matchup in November?
Democrats would chase after young people like Republicans chased after “soccer moms” in 2000. It’s hard to imagine young voters warming to the 71-year-old McCain, who probably reminds them of that old crank in their neighborhood who yelled at them to get off his lawn.
Even before Obama, though, turnout among young people has been on the rise. It increased 11 percentage points in 2004 from a 25-year low of 36 percent participation in 2000, according to one poll.
Young people finally are becoming relevant in the political process, and it’s about time. For decades, apathy rendered them voiceless. Yet so many of today’s issues — the war, the debt — impact them the most.
So a new generation has found its political voice, and for some, it sounds like Barack Obama. For others, it’s Hillary, or McCain, or Ron Paul. No matter. What matters is that it’s been found.
Go ahead, rock the vote.
Dan Haley can be reached at dhaley@denverpost.com.
