Publius goes against the current grain (no kidding!):
Ignorance & Apathy
Go together like a horse and carriage…
Encouraging young people to vote is essentially asking the least experienced in adult society to help run society. This is also the same group that, economically, contributes very little to the national fisc. It’s easy to believe in utopia when you don’t know any better, and someone else is footing the bill. If you’re a politician selling the same pie-in-sky dreams for decades, the youth of Canada look like a tempting target.
But the young are connected, integrated and diverse! That must make them ideal voters! Not really. The highly efficient exchange of blather, i.e. social media, adds little to the sum total of human wisdom. Diversity? Turns out non-white young people are about as vapid as white young people…
… voter participation rate of people between the ages of 18 and 24 rose from 37.4 per cent in 2008 to an only slightly less abysmal 38.8 per cent in 2011.
Oh my gawd, like, remind me to, like, thank that other 61 percent….like…
” It’s easy to believe in utopia when you don’t know any better, and someone else is footing the bill.”
But isn’t that what is being taught in the schools of “higher learning”?
A lot of the utopians are in their 30’s, 40’s and up; safe and secure in their tenured academia positions or in the equally safe and secure public service tenure.
As for the young being diverse – hmm. I get the sense that they run in packs, and these packs can be quite exclusive and vicious against ‘others’.
Mark, you should have quoted this part. It’s the best:
“Politics is boring to most people. Earlier this year a Grit flack estimated that only about 15% of Canadians paid attention to politics. He was probably being generous. A much smaller number is so obsessed with the political game that they become deluded and humourless on the subject. The technical term for such people is bloggers.” LOL!!
Actually, young people tend to be socialistic in outlook. All the proof you need of that is that it’s always the NDP who advocate lowering the voting age.
Louise: Kate likes posts kept short but good point :). At least Publius is one the rare (like Kate) bloggers with true wit. It’s almost impossible to think of any non-conservative (note the small “c”) ones.
Mark
Ottawa
Youth is wasted on the young. Also, votes.
I remember meeting a municipal councilor while I was attending university, probably the first politician I ever talked to. He was a real cool person and drank in the local student hangout, so needless to say I was going to vote for him. But I forgot and missed the election by two days.
Young people have other things to think about. I wish I still did.
I loved this line from Publius: “Pious declarations to the contrary, mobilizing the youth vote is really trying to create electoral cannon fodder for the Left.”
Leftists want the politically apathetic and the young to vote because the make the assumption, which is probably accurate, that they will vote for them.
Otherwise, what would the point be in getting people to vote who have no idea what they are voting for?
I’m 52 years old.
I don’t believe I or anyone I know was mature enough to know who to vote for or really understood the important issues until we were in our thirties.
Of course no one under 30 would admit to that.
Utopia existed when only white men over 21 were allowed to vote. Universal sufferage…ha!
Oh, forgot to mention that it was white men over 21 but only if they owned land or slaves.
Winston Churchill: if you aren’t socialist when you’re 20, you don’t have a heart, if you aren’t conservative at 40 you don’t have a head.
Margaret Thatcher: The facts of life are conservative.
These two sayings embody the culture that is naturally developing with Canada’s aging population. Median age of a Canadian is now just over 40. When Trudeau was elected it was under 30.
Leftists are going to be extremely frustrated for the next few decades.
Voting is a responsibily. Entitled youth are not good with responsibility.
so I figure you are over 21 Iberia. but its mom’s basement , so no you wouldnt have qualified then either.
Growing up is hard to do…especially when one starts later in life…right ibby?
cal2
I guess we concur…
The best thing that ever happened to my kids was their first real paycheck (full time – good wages). They were apoplectic over the deductions. “Will I get this back when I file my taxes?” “Yes, but if you were not in school for 8 months of the year, that is pretty much what you pay.” They have now abandoned Liberalism. Amazing what a summer job can do.
Not long after I finally reached voting age, I was disappointed on February 29, 1984 as I would not get to vote for my prime minister as he announced he would not run again. What a fool I was. There … I said it. My young self would have voted for the worst PM in Canada’s history.
I believe it was Kate who has suggested previously: raise the voting age to 30.
On second thought I can’t confirm if it was Kate who suggested: “Raise the voting age to 30”. … Apologies if I got that wrong.
I’m pretty much with DS. My generation isn’t that dumb it’s just that the dumb part of it is really obnoxious thanks to social media and the “I want to say I was a part of it” mentality. You know, I talk to my friends and they all identify as liberal, but if you scratch beneath the surface you’ll find they are definitely a pretty blue liberal. Speaking of blue they also think Avatar sucked.
libertariansaresmarter, I can’t believe I agree with you on something! Avatar really sucked.
Amen Publius!
Iberia made a funny! Er, you DO know what the word “Utopia” means, and why it was chosen as the location of “The Republic”, right?
Is there a connection between ignorance and apathy? I don’t know, and I don’t care…
It’s so easy to demean ignorant teenagers and young adults who are either apathetic or stupid when it comes to politics. It’s even easier to demean them from your computer chair on a blog that probably has an extremely low young adult readership. I come here for information, to learn more about issues that are important to me and also to get a little snark mixed in. However as a 19 year old university student, who works for the majority of her living, does NOT have any student debt and is an active conservative; it is exceptionally discouraging to log on here to see you all ridiculing myself and students like me. I know we are not anywhere close to the majority, but I do my research on politics, I make informed decisions and I try to help others my age do the same. Sitting there ridiculing me for not being 30 is so pointless, educating me with your life experience is far more productive.