Intro
Here is the link to the file because the formatting will not transfer right.
Daniel Burkhardt
Marlen Harrison
English 202
28 February 2010
Introduction to my research project
Pre Writing: What I want to do in this intro is set the stage for my research project. I want to introduce my reader to the topic, provide an overview of different aspects concerning it and show what the issues have been historically concerning young voters. I then want to frame the question of my research and show how the larger trend of voter participation nationwide has been reflected in my district and to state that the goal will be to promote the participation of young people in the upcoming election cycle.
The third most important change in voting regulations since the founding of the United States took place in 1971 when Congress passed the twenty sixth amendment to the Constitution of the United States. This amendment gave the right to vote in all elections to eighteen year olds in every state of the union. The bill was introduced and passed as a response to the unrelenting pressure that young people were putting on the government through protests and public opposition to the Vietnam War (West’s). The statement of the time was ‘right to serve, right to vote’.
This was not a new issue for young people in the U.S. When World War II broke out, President Roosevelt lowered the legal drafting age from 21 to 18 (West’s). This prompted many opponents of the new policy to point out the disconnection between the expectation of service and the inability of young people to choose the representatives who were sending them into battle. Congress did not take up the issue back then, but in 1971 passed an amendment that was ratified in only 107 days to give the right to vote to all young people in the country.
This new voter base was angry. They were motivated to end the war in Vietnam and publicly opposed their parents and public officials on the conflict. Although the war was wrapping up in 1971, this new group of voters, some twenty million strong, would now have the ability to make major changes in the political climate and landscape of the U.S. The new voters would have to be catered to and would challenge long standing public policy stances by elected officials (Seagull).
Louis Seagull, a professor of political science at The University of Pennsylvania in 1971 wrote at the time: “The 18-to-21-year-old voters will have a substantial and fluctuating partisan impact at the polls . . . this argument is based on the behavior and beliefs of college- educated youth . . . who are a recently enfranchised group [within the electorate]”. He predicted that young people would make a break with the past and that the popular opinion was wrong, which supposed that young people would not actually make such an impact by voting.
But he was wrong. Young people did indeed have a certain habit of lethargy with regard to participating in elections. According to Daniel Shea and Rebecca Harris, “the withdrawal of young people from politics has been rapid, deep and broad” (Why Bother, 341). This has led to an alarming drop in participation in the recent years which is reflected in a University of Michigan poll cited by Mr. Shea and Mrs. Harris (341). According to that data, just 45 % of young people said they were very interested in the 2000 election.
The issue of young voters not participating in the election system or being part of the political scene has created a cycle of negative and cynical feelings about politics in general and has marginalized the voices of millions. This has led to further disconnection from the issues and even deeper negative feelings about political matters. In addition to this, campaigns have routinely ignored young people in their efforts to court votes because they have come to see money spent on trying to push young people to the polls all but wasted year after year (National Civic Review).
However, there is an alarming and exciting new development within the political science world since the Presidential election of 2004. Young people were being marketed to effectively by political campaigns and non-partisan ‘right to vote’ groups. For the first time since 1992, the margin of participation increased in record numbers and made a huge impact on the electorate of the United States. Motivated by discontent with the handling of two wars and the health of the economy, young people registered and volunteered in droves and in numbers never before seen (National Civic Review). And this rate of participation has only increased since, during the mid term elections of 2006 and during the Presidential election of 2008 (The Obama Campaign).
There has been a lot of information gathered and analyzed about the political landscape within the last decade. Of all that information, the biggest development and change in trend is the impact that young people are having on elections in the U.S. and the reversal of decades of disillusionment with the political system. The impact young people had in the 2008 election cycle is common knowledge and, in my opinion, an indication as to where the country is moving in terms of ideological governance.
In Pennsylvania’s 8th Congressional district, Bucks County, where I was born and raised, young people vote 69% in favor of progressive policies and ideologies (Pa. Dept. of State). The national trend of youth votership and participation was as big there as it was anywhere in the nation; I know this first hand. I believe that with the right kind of communication and with a focus on the issues that young people care about, the young people in District 8 will be a crucial deciding factor in the upcoming 2010 midterm elections. This project will look at the ways in which that crucial voting bloc will be persuaded to participate in the election and attempt to forecast what the impact of that participation could potentially be.
Post Writing: I achieved in my intro what I set out to achieve which was to share the background of the subject and to show why it is an issue worth addressing in a research paper. I then Went on to transition from the historical perspective of how young people have been typically involved or not involved in politics and to talk about where we are today. I then started to move into discussing how it relates to my district and what those concerns are and will be.
Works Cited
Seagull, Louis M. “The Youth Vote and Change in American Politics.“ Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 397 (1971): 88-96.
< http://www.jstor.org/stable/1039021>
Simba, Malik. “The Obama campaign 2008: a historical overview.” The Western Journal of Black Studies 33.3 (Fall 2009): 186(6). Academic OneFile. Gale. Indiana University of Pennsylvania. 15 Feb. 2010
<http://find.galegroup.com/gtx/infomark.do?&contentSet=IAC-Documents&type=retrieve&tabID=T002&prodId=AONE&docId=A215410593&source=gale&srcprod=AONE&userGroupName=indi68545&version=1.0>
“Twenty-Sixth Amendment.” West’s Encyclopedia of American Law, edition 2. 2008. The Gale Group 1 Mar. 2010
<http://legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/Twenty-Sixth+Amendment>
“Voter Registration Statistics”. Pennsylvania Department of State. 3 Feb. 2010
<http://www.dos.state.pa.us/elections/cwp/view.asp?A=1310&Q=446974>.
Walker, Tobi. “‘Make them pay attention to us’: young voters and the 2004 election.” National Civic Review 95.1 (2006): 26+. Academic OneFile. Web. 16 Feb. 2010.
< http://find.galegroup.com/gtx/infomark.do?&contentSet=IAC-Documents&type=retrieve&tabID=T002&prodId=AONE&docId=A145681506&source=gale&srcprod=AONE&userGroupName=indi68545&version=1.0>
