Stephen Danley | Seeing past the rhetoric

Nancy Pelosi stood in front of a crowd of Penn students and told them, "I know that I am looking at the future." She told them "we need your help walking the precincts." And she was right. Pew polls show that our generation (18-29 year olds) is more likely to volunteer for political organizations than the baby boomer generation.

On Oct. 6 in Logan Hall, evidence of youth mobilization abounded. Representatives from the College Democrats had set up the event. College Republicans protested outside wearing their Ronald Reagan T-shirts. One audience member, College senior Emily Goldman, had spent the summer working for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

Yet, despite all the activism around, Rep. Allyson Schwartz (D-Pa.) could not help but ask the most pressing question of the morning: "Why do young people not get involved?"

These same Pew polls that show young people are more likely to volunteer show a dramatic gap in voting between youth and older Americans. In 2004, 68 percent of eligible voters 30 years and older actually voted; young voters limped in at 49 percent. The numbers are even lower for midterm elections. In 2002, 22 percent of young adults voted.

It's obvious the young voter is disenfranchised.

Twenty-six percent of young people identify as independents, compared to 18 percent of the general population. Since 1987, the percentage of young people who show a complete disinterest in politics has doubled.

These numbers reflect the cynical approach young people take to politics.

When Nancy Pelosi says she wants to raise minimum wage and bring jobs back from overseas in the same breath, students should be suspicious. The statement is blatantly contradictory; the jobs are going overseas because of cheaper labor.

It's not that raising the minimum wage is necessarily bad policy, but doing would make it harder to bring jobs back. Coupling the two ideas is blatantly disregarding the reality of the situation.

Don't think that this kind of contradictory statement is limited to one side of the aisle.

Lynn Swann, Pennsylvania's Republican gubernatorial candidate, wants to cut state spending by 5 percent over four to seven years. Yet he thinks "it's a mistake to come in and say, 'I'm going to cut X, Y and Z.'" Pressed further upon the details of cutbacks, he stated that he "had no particular efficiencies in mind."

Swann is a gubernatorial candidate running on an anti-government platform. One of the cogs of his campaign is improving government efficiency and cutting spending, yet his only policy proposal is a state spending cap. He has provided no policy on how to abide by that cap.

Voters see through this kind of posturing.

On Sept. 29, Pelosi released a press release saying that if Democrats were to win control of the House of Representatives they would "jump-start" the economy. While the release is great rhetoric, by almost any given account, the economy is already jump-started.

Unemployment? At 4.6 percent, it has shown a consistent decline since 2003. Budget deficit? The Congressional Budget Office reports it at $250 billion, $46 billion below the OMB's July estimate. Gross Domestic Product? For each of the past 10 quarters, annualized GDP has grown by more than 5 percent.

Young voters aren't stupid. They hear the potential speaker of the House say Democrats will "jump-start" the economy and know it's just partisan rhetoric. They hear a Republican say he's going to cut spending, but they recognize when he fails to point to policy proposals to do it.

But when Pelosi told the crowd that Democrats would raise the minimum wage and bring jobs back from overseas, something curious happened.

Penn students raised a raucous cheer.

These same students have taken economics classes. They should understand both the pros and cons of a minimum wage increase. They should see the disparity between a policy of increasing wages and trying to bring back jobs from overseas. But those same students cheered.

Maybe it's not just the politicians who need to rethink their partisan rhetoric. Maybe we young people have some thinking to do as well.

Stephen Danley is a College senior from Germantown, Md. His e-mail address is danley@dailypennsylvanian.com. Late Night Conversation appears on Fridays.

Please note All comments are eligible for publication in The Daily Pennsylvanian.