Reporting from the Metro Train exit in Alexandria Virginia, rush

[diamond14]

hour tonight....Van Dorn Station....

tonight, for the 'rush hour' (3 PM - 7 PM) passengers...I stood outside the Metro Train exit and passed out campaign materials for my favorite candidate....I am old, and I worked alone, no YOUNG people are volunteering to help....there are so very few YOUNG willing to work on campaigns today...none to help here in Virginia tonight...I am the only person to volunteer for my election location here in Alexandria VA from 6 AM to 8 AM tomorrow morning for the Virginia primaries...

my observations:

most young people told me that they would NOT vote...they said typically that it wouldn't make any difference, so why bother...

some young people said that they were PROUD to have never voted, and never will vote....it makes no difference to them....

some young people told me that they felt 'morally obligated' to avoid voting...others said it was just too much trouble...they had no time...

several older people stop and spoke with me about how horrified it was to hear the YOUNG respond like that, and that they had NO IDEA that the YOUNG did not want to vote...

IMO, this is the primary reason why the bush* cabal is in power, today...the YOUNG don't vote....it is also the MAIN reason why the draft will be implemented soon after bush* seizes a second term...

[pop goes the weasel]

1. They think they are cool

when in fact, they are tools.

Never give power away to the powerful--every vote not cast inflates the value of the votes cast. Voter turnout in upper class neighborhoods is 70% or better--those are people who have enough power without the young, the poor, the workers, giving up their pittance.

[LibDemAlways]

2. It will make a huge difference to the young men

when the letter from the Selective Service shows up ordering them into the army.

[morningglory]

6. The young men who are poor or disadvantaged.......n/t

[SheilaT]

3. I went to Iowa to campaign for

my favorite candidate, and many of his supporters there were young, college students. One young lady wanted me to call her dad (we're both in our mid-50's) because he didn't believe any but the young supported our guy.

Perhaps your candidate only attracts older supporters. I hope not. I hope all of them are drawing voters of all ages. (I just hope my guy gets the most :) )

For what it's worth, younger voters have historically voted in very low numbers, I think because they feel powerless and like their one vote doesn't count. Many do change their minds as the years go by. But only about half of all eligible voters do so, it's sad.

[diamond14]

8. the YOUNG people said they were NOT voting....it wasn't about

WHO they were voting for...it wasn't about one candidate as better than another...it was that they refused to VOTE at all...

it makes no difference WHO the candidate is...if you give up the right to vote...as many YOUNG people have...

[morningglory]

9. When I turned voting age the first time, I was in college and working out

of state on an archaeological dig, figured anyone would beat Nixon, so I didn't bother to figure out how to vote absentee. OMG, I found out my vote counted. Have never missed an election day since.

[diamond14]

11. my cousin was KILLED in Vietnam, 19 years old, not allowed to vote

that was when YOUNG people got real outraged...old enough to FIGHT for your country, but NOT old-enough to VOTE....

and the voting age was dropped from 21 to 18, because of the activism and hard work of the YOUNG people in America...

it seem now, YOUNG people are more sluggish....will go easily into the meat-grinder of Iraqmire....sheep to the slaughter....

one YOUNG man told me that he wasn't worried about the draft, since he was an ONLY son, they'd never take him....and I reminded him that my cousin was an ONLY son...19 year old KILLED in Vietnam, silver star, purple heart...

[renegade000]

4. hey i'm in HS and i just went and phone banked for clark in arlington

not all of us young people are apathetic!

although i have to agree...most are :-(

[diamond14]

10. thanks, renegade000...you will forever be glad that you made the

effort...win or lose...it makes all the difference that you STOOD UP and tried to change the system for the better...

but if you look around at your high school....how many students actually have put any effort into this Virginia Primary Campaign? or for that matter, into any of the campaigns, reTHUGlican, democratic, or third-parties? my bet would be very few....as you also seem to agree...

but once again, thanks for your effort...if every young person on this DU board put in that kind of effort...bush* would surely be gone...but I fear that many chit-chatters do not actually STAND UP and work for the elections....

[renegade000]

12. yeah

i'm probably one in a few out of a thousand who has actually volunteered. it sometimes bothers me to see the apathy toward political matters in many of my peers. we are on different wavelengths...they can't understand why i'm so vocal about something that "doesn't affect us" and I can't see how they can't care. yet, often i do have a lucid conversation, which shows that the opinions and beliefs are out there - people just need the conviction to stand up as you said.

if we are truly aggravated and enraged by the bush administation...if we truly believe in what we say on this forum...then come the fall...we will be on the streets...on the phones...and at the ballotbox.

[countmyvote4real]

5. Did you raise the draft issue with them?

If so, did they still feel immune?

[ozymandius]

7. The same paradigm exists among those gung-ho for war.

They may cheer and wave their flags as the troops march down the street toward the transports that will convey the troops into hell. But the cheering will stop and our appetite for orchestrated destruction will cease when war visits these shores again. So much they are supportive of something they never have endured.

Like voting: they do not know how much it matters until they are unable to influence their circumstances. Someone never elected by the apathetic compels the same to journey into a war zone. The draft is already in the works. They only need to understand that everything they know and love, even their apathy, will be taken away from them.