Oh, youth.
The demographic that once represented the problem with politics is now the No. 1 target of all candidates on the campaign trail. Whether it is for the presidential campaign of former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean or the Illinois U.S. Senate campaign of Democratic state Sen. Barack Obama, students are getting involved.
The stunning swell of support for Obama across campus seemed to point to an end to political apathy at Northwestern.
“It is rare for Northwestern students to substantially back any candidate, let alone a singular candidate in an eight-way Democratic U.S. Senate primary,” said Medill sophomore Christopher Kriva, leader of the NU chapter of Students for Obama.
“For students Barack’s compelling personal story and progressive legislative record represent a chance to believe in government again after almost four years of the very worst it has to offer.”
The group, which currently boasts 64 members on its listserv, plans to do even more for Obama win the seat of retiring Republican Sen. Peter Fitzgerald in the November election. Kriva views Obama as a “generational leader” who can help increase interest on campus.
Many would say the support for Obama and others is a huge step forward. But students seem to be forgetting one simple task: going to the polls and voting.
At Parkes Hall and Patten Gym, the two on-campus voting locations, only 263 people voted in the March 16 primary. It has become clear that students want it both ways — to complain yet do nothing.
Students for years have represented a premier group when it comes to complaining about the issues of the day, most recently the invasion of Iraq in 2003.
You saw it on signs, on pins and in discussion — doves coming out to protest with phrases such as “No Blood for Oil” and “Drop Bush not Bombs” all representing why students cannot and should not be a base for candidate support.
Students, on the whole, cannot be trusted for coherent positions on issues of the day.
Everywhere you look policy issues have been replaced by the likes of blogs, “meetups” and derogatory movies about President George W. Bush.
With the discourse in Washington widely considered the worst in recent memory, students must look to themselves as a very large reason for this.
And it is not something that should make us feel good about ourselves.
Generating debate is valuable and important. But the widespread protests seen across campuses in America, the hanging of Bush-Orwell signs and the imaging of Bush’s face onto that of Adolf Hitler are going too far.
Liberals, however, are not the only political activists at fault. Conservatives also have a problem.
You see the Right on campuses take an arrogant approach to the views of liberal groups, characterizing them as “smelly tree-huggers.”
Name-calling, outlandish accusations and outright dismissiveness on issues such as the recent bias incidents on campus point to a sense of hardheadedness and inflexibility from campus partisans.
I call for NU students to view politics as just one aspect of who they are as people. You rarely hear people calling others names based on food or musical tastes. So why must politics be so divisive on campus?
It is clear the youth has made its mark on politics this year.
Now it’s time for us to grow up.
Political columnist Troy Appel is a Medill sophomore. He can be reached at [email protected].
