When President Obama visits Charlottesville today, excited students and plenty of homemade signs will surely welcome him. But behind that enthusiasm is a tougher reality — as a generation, we’re just not that engaged with this election.
In fact, in Gallup polling, the portion of young Americans who say they ‘will definitely vote’ is down 20 percentage points from 2008.
It is worth considering: why is that? After all, both President Obama and Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney have delivered a number of speeches and attended rallies on various campuses.
They’ve each spoken about the central challenges facing our generation, and what they have done and will do to address them. And there are certainly a number of students, both here and elsewhere, who are extremely enthusiastic about November 6th. They’re putting in the work to prove it, registering voters and making their best pitch to friends and classmates.
But more broadly, only 21 percent of college students describe themselves as politically active. Here is the most concerning part: large percentages of our generation are likely to say that “politics today are no longer able to meet the challenges our country is facing,” and say that our voices are not heard in government.
In other words, right now, we doubt politics, and we don’t feel engaged in the process. That needs to change.
Late last week, Univision announced that both Obama and Romney have committed to a series of “Meet the Candidate” forums aimed at Hispanic voters. These events offer both candidates a chance to engage with critical groups in an innovative way, and more importantly, they give that group an opportunity to question the presidential contenders on the issues that matter most to their audience.
As Univision rightly pointed out, Hispanic Americans will play a critical role in electing our next president, and their impact on our society overall continues to grow. However, there is one other group who meets that description: America’s next generation. That’s right: us.
As young Americans, we will have a crucial impact in November, but even more importantly, we’ll inherit the results of everything determined in this election. From the economy and our education system, to the national debt and our energy policies — we know that all of the largest issues that we face will have a major impact on our generation, both now and in the future.
Both candidates regularly mention “the next generation.” But now is the time for Obama and Romney to speak with us, rather than just about us.
For the last nine months, our national collegiate team at NextGen Journal, with students from over 80 schools across the country, including here at the University, have been working to develop this conversation.
More specifically, we’ve been working to develop The Forum on the Future: a series of live conversations with each candidate focused on the future of our country and of our generation. This Forum is largely organized by students, informed by our direct questions and driven by our priorities. The Obama and Romney campaigns have each received formal invitations.
In 2008, both candidates participated in two Presidential Forums over the course of the general election. Last week, we learned that Romney and Obama will take part in at least one Forum series in 2012, targeting more than 21 million Hispanic voters. What we don’t know yet, though, is whether they will participate in a second Forum and speak with over 45 million young Americans.
We certainly hope they will. As The Republican National Convention begins and the president addresses students in Charlottesville, we urge both Romney and Obama to commit to speaking with our generation in The Forum on The Future. We hope you’ll join us. And as we’re engaged with directly, perhaps our political engagement will also begin to rise.
After all, as Romney once stated, “This is a campaign to make sure that we save the future for our young people…”
So in the words of Obama, “Let’s prove the cynics wrong … Let’s show them your voice makes a difference. Let’s show them America better start listening to the voice of the next generation of Americans.”
Connor Toohill is the founder of NextGen Journal a student at the University of Notre Dame.
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