nykola.com | bothering people since 1981

I have much to say on the flop of the youth vote, but I just churned out an article on the topic so I'm not really in the mood. Maybe next week. Since its inception, I've been saying that the "youth voter registration cattle call" was missing a credible (or tangible) message. To perfectly illustrate my point, I direct you to "Punk Voter", a site which sought to use the influence of "punk culture" to rally youth to vote against Bush. Given the election no-shows of the younger generation, I'd say the title "Punk Voter" is entirely appropriate.

To drive home my accusations of emptiness, check out their "platform page". A few highlights:

Protecting Our Personal Freedoms

Punkvoter is working to fight to defend our personal freedoms and inalienable rights. We will be the loud, clear voice for the many minorities in our society. Our government was created to protect us not harass us. We want to make sure our government continues to guarantee all of our reproductive freedoms, and all of our rights to our own personal privacies. We believe equal rights under one set of laws should be paramount in any modern society.

I believe in order to get their point across, they would have been better off writing, "SQUAWK SQUAWK SQUAWK SQUAWK!" What are rights to personal privacies? What are equal rights under one set of laws?

And then there's this lovely little ditty:

Overhauling our Justice Department

We want to send a very clear message to Washington, DC. It is time to modernize our society to match the rest of the free world. We must ban government sponsored executions and stop long-term imprisonment of non-violent criminals. It is time to repeal the Patriot Act and restore our first Amendment rights, repeal the Rave Act and restore our Freedom to Assemble, and rewrite our countries archaic and in- humane drug laws.

In-humane drug laws? That's code for marijuana legalization. Not a credible demand coming from the punk crowd. In fact, they were probably high when they wrote it.

God Bless America.

(By way of Janna)

"Inalienable rights" always infers a granting from God, at least in its intended use. I kinda doubt that Punkvoter has God in their mission statement. Justa a hyper guess on my part. Just for fun I would like to see Ashcroft add "No Skateboarding" to the Patriot Act in order to justify their fears.

One problem with the "youth vote didn't show up" meme, how much of the youth vote filed absentee ballots? My guess is that the lower age brackets (18-22) voted absentee very heavily because they're in college. No exit polling is going to catch that because those folks never saw a polling place.

Ambra,
I read your site frequently, and although I almost always disagree w/ you, I kept coming back. I'm done though. For someone so young and sheltered, you just think you know it all. You don't. The last straw for me was your comment that "inhumane drug laws" was code for marijuana legalization. Listen, you need to wake up and step off your conservative soapbox to get some facts. Minorities in cities such as NYC, home of the infamous "Rockefeller Drug Laws" are being thrown in jail every day, young kids 17 or 18 years old getting 15-20 yr. sentences for first time drug offenses. Sometimes they're innocent, a victim of being in the "wrong place at the wrong time." As a black woman, you need to have more concern and respect for the plight of black youth due to these laws. Eduacate yourself, don't assume anything that isn't pro-Bush is liberal garbage!

Brianna: I would at least hope that you come back to read my response. And then if you're done with me, so be it.

First off, I find it highly amusing that people who don't know me presume that my background qualifies me for being "sheltered". Oh but if you only knew...That is a calculated assumption based on lack of knowledge, and unfortunately, not true.

As for the post...Context is everything. I know the laws of which you speak, but I know even better, the Punk generation and I'm having a hard time believing that the Punks (who are mostly white rich kids with rebellion problems) are talking about the Rockerfeller drug laws, and are much concerned with the plight of black youth. These are real issues, however I'd be willing to bet that's not what they're talking about. I will however, email them to ask.

Moreover, that comment was tongue and cheek. As is much of my political commentary. Since you read on a regular basis, I'd hope you picked up on that.

Lastly, You'll be glad to know that 1) I never stepped on my Conservative soapbox.

Thanks for reading.

As regularly the case, Mark Steyn has the last word on this topic: "The 'youth vote' is the Left's equivalent of the Rapture: it may happen one day, but not on any scheduled you want to put money on."