On Being Quoted in the Miami Herald
[Editor's note] In my post-Obama euphoria, I forgot to mention that my friends and I were interviewed after the rally by Fred Grimm of the Miami Herald! I got a an early barrage of text messages this morning confirming that my name made it to page 3B of the Metro & State section. Here's the article in its entirety.
Maybe the kids need a rock star to rock the vote.
Youth rock the vote -- but will they cast it?
They were loud and excited. As adoring as rock fans.
They filled the basketball arena at the University of Miami and lent Barack Obama's rally the exuberance political organizers covet.
They represented the most elusive demographic in American elections. They were young. And they were psyched, convinced that come November, they'll decide the presidential election.
Young voters, Michelle Correa, 22, told me with fierce resolve, were "waking up and taking control of their future.''
I'm not so psyched. It sounded too much like a variation of the myth resurrected every four years: in this election, unlike the previous election, young voters will, you know, actually vote.
Four years ago, MTV's ''Vote or Die'' cavalcade rolled into South Florida and enticed similarly exuberant youth to dance, grovel for free ''I Am A Vote'' T-shirts and cheer wildly at references to their mighty and decisive potential.
NO SWAG
They kept proclaiming how they were going to make a difference in the coming election. The artist then known as P. Diddy promised, "On Nov. 2, the revolution will be televised.''
They kept proclaiming how they were going to make a difference in the coming election. The artist then known as P. Diddy promised, "On Nov. 2, the revolution will be televised.''
Some revolution. Fifty-three percent of the 18- to 29-year-old voters so crucial to the Democratic Party didn't bother. The under-30 crowd might have preferred John Kerry by 10 percentage points, but their civic ardor faltered upon discovering that voters cop no swag. No free tees. Not even a Starbucks gift card.
They rocked the vote just fine. Casting the vote was another matter.
MTV's get-out-the-vote slogan had been ''choose or lose'' back in 2000 -- which turned out to be the year of the slacker. About 64 percent of the under-30 crowd -- in the closest of elections -- had someplace else to be that day.
Not Lillian Gonzalez. ''I voted for Gore in 2000,'' she said. But Lillian, 28, found herself in an uninspired funk in 2004. "But, now, after four years of this incompetence. I think young voters will make a difference.''
Jerry Laso, 22, volunteered for Kerry in 2004. ''This is different,'' he declared as Obama's rally on Friday reached a crescendo.
GIDDY AS GROUPIES
Kerry, he insisted, failed to generate the excitement Obama brings to his campaign. Laso remembers none of this crazy, wild youthful enthusiasm.
Kerry, he insisted, failed to generate the excitement Obama brings to his campaign. Laso remembers none of this crazy, wild youthful enthusiasm.
Indeed, talk earlier in the campaign of Obama's rock-star appeal was born out by the UM gathering, despite a speech that seemed to have been written by a policy wonk. He did garner a burst of youthful applause when he promised a $4,000 credit "to make college affordable for anyone who wants to go.''
He talked about the tattered economy and wondered what would have happened this week if the Republicans had managed to convert social security to private stock market accounts. The crowd cheered, though many of them had another four decades to worry about their retirement crisis.
But when he waded into the crowd afterward, they reached to touch him and begged for autographs and acted giddy as groupies at a Coldplay concert.
Adoring isn't the same as voting. But maybe the aura of celebrity -- along with a few cans of Red Bull -- will finally transform the youth vote from a slacker myth to an Election Day force.
Maybe the kids need a rock star to rock the vote.
(Via Miami Herald)
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