Sarah Burris's blog

So much has been written about the youth vote in the last week as the President has been on his college tour talking about more affordable higher education.

Mitt Romney also has tried to keep up by hosting his own youth focused conference call where he apparently spent most of the call bashing the Obama Administration but offering no solutions of his own. The call also seemed to be designed to push out his fancy infographic that outlines how bad things are for young people and implies the Obama Administration is at fault for the plight of youth.

TP reports:

"So, if Obama was so bad, what would a Romney presidency do instead? The septuagenarian Brown, joined on the call by Rep. Aaron Schock (R-IL) and College Republican National Committee Chairman Alex Schriver, didn’t really have much to offer.

First, Romney’s surrogates downplayed the importance of issues that directly affect young people. Schock criticized Obama for his "focus on student loan and student debt," saying the real issue young people care about is jobs. Brown, meanwhile, attacked Obama for not reforming entitlement programs, saying young people should worry about their solvency in the future."

Of all demographics, young people have supported the President and continue to support the President. They overwhelmingly supported the Affordable Care Act, they supported withdrawal from Iraq and Afghanistan, they celebrated in the streets when Bin Ladan was killed, and they see his attempts at progress on the economy.

What they also see is the overthrow of the Republican Party by the more extremist faction that holds the antithesis of the what Millennial voters believe. Whether its their resistance to use government as a tool for good, the culture wars, complicated examples of racism, Fox News, and so many more, Romney's biggest hurdle with young voters will be his own party. Indeed, his biggest hurdle with most independent and moderate voters will be in running away from his own party.

The fact that young people have suddenly become the demographic de jour, however, is encouraging. Up until this point you haven't seen the GOP do a lot of youth outreach because Millennial voters aren't Republican Primary voters. This was a contrast to the Democratic Primaries in 2008 where the campaign was going on for two years and young voters were made priority number one when the Obama campaign targeted them for the Iowa Caucuses.

I mentioned this all in my interview with Minnesota Public Radio a few weeks ago.

So the GOP commentary that there is something wrong because young voters aren't as enthusiastic isn't including the whole story. If the Obama campaign had been doing the same amount of campaign work starting in 2011 that they did in 2007 - you'd see a different story. But re-election campaigns are different than first elections, especially when there is a competitive primary as there was in the 2008 election. The reason the competitive primary didn't work for the GOP is the candidates only highlighted the fracture within the Republican Party, where with Democrats the candidates were in agreement on most issues - it was more about the history, experience, or specific pet projects each candidate was running on.

This all is to say that the youth vote isn't up for grabs. It's going to go Democrat, but what remains to be seen is if that demographic will come out to the polls with the force and power that they did in 2008. Young voters didn't just vote - they got their parents, grandparents, and friends to vote. They volunteered in large numbers, they knocked doors, they made calls, and their votes extended well beyond the single vote they could give the president.

My good friend Jefferson Smith who is a great youth advocate (and now running for Mayor in Portland) always says that the thing more priceless than cash or votes is time. And young people gave a lot of their time to the President in 2008. They won't do that for Mitt Romney.

So what you're seeing the GOP do is try and put as many barriers in the way of young people. Whether that's the Voter ID laws that disproportionately disenfranchise young voters or if the Romney campaign can successfully convince young people that the President doesn't care about their needs so they aren't enthusiastic enough to help the campaign - that's the only way he'll chip away at the power of the youth vote. In my professional opinion, he'll never win them over enough to vote for him in large enough number to make a difference - all he can do is depress the turnout and the enthusiasm.

The one thing that is raising the interest and enthusiasm of the political process among young voters that are likely Obama supporters is the Colbert Super PAC. Stephen Colbert has tapped into a large contingent of our population that is frustrated with the political process and the power that Super PACs now have on our elections. That enthusiasm will directly benefit the President and give him quote the Colbert Bump. And if the Super PAC's treasure hunt happens to end in a swing state like Ohio, Pennsylvania, or North Carolina then he could have something that really impacts the election. Another "Rally for Sanity/Fear" in Washington DC isn't going to change any minds or influence any votes ... because it's Washington... A swing state or a few swing states, and you've got something.

Here is Stephen talking about the youth vote last night on the Colbert Report:

In an email to supporters following the show, the Colbert Super PAC said

"Both presidential candidates have been making cheap attempts to pander to the youth, which merely comes off as fake, or "whack." They're too little, too late, while Colbert Super PAC is neither little nor late -- we're large and now. And with a thousand unaffiliated Super PAC tentacles stretching to colleges across this land, my power (like your student loan debts) will only grow. "

From Resource Generation & Wealth for the Common Good's tax day actions around the country.

They had delicious homemade pie, played trivia games with tax facts, carried signs, and spoke at rallies - all to show that they as 1%ers believe in a more equitable distribution of wealth and that they should pay our fair share in taxes.

Here it is - listen to the audio of me and Scott on Minnesota Public Radio. Enjoy!

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If you're interested in the 2012 youth vote then you might check out Minnesota Public Radio this morning where I and Scott Keeter, director of survey research at the Pew Research Center will be talking about what impact the Millennial Generation has had and will have.

"So what worked for Obama in 2008? Sarah Burris, political blogger at Future Majority, said it was simple: His campaign asked young people to vote.

"They directly appealed to young voters," she said. "The Obama campaign worked really hard person to person, voter to voter. The best practice for mobilization is always personal contact."

Burris will also join the discussion."

Listen live and feel free to call in and make fun of me. Or I'll post a link to the show afterward.

Big thanks to Rep. George Miller for taking a stand against student loan interest rates doubling in July. We can always count on him to stand up for the needs of students and young people!

Vice President of the Economic Institute Ross Eisenbrey talks about why interns are wonderful but unpaid internships are bad, on last night's Colbert Report:

"Everyone who works for someone else for their financial benefit, should be paid for it."

They talk about an unpaid intern at the Report isn't gaining an academic experience because he's not in class - but he has to pay for the credits for his internship AND he's not getting paid for his internship. Interestingly, he also says that college athletes should also probably be getting paid.

"When people work for free employers get the idea that they don't have to pay for labor. If Stephen Colbert can get away with it, if everyone can get away with it, I won't pay all of the entry level labor. . . . We have bigger and bigger profits and more inequality than we've ever had in our experience... in the Gilded Age...."

This past week Presidential candidate Rick Santorum announced that President Barack Obama was a snob for wanting all young people to attend some form of higher education - either college, community college, or trade school.

I was furious when I heard this and fired off several emails to allies in the youth movement. Santorum is so far removed from the problems that young people in American today face that he thinks a high school education is good enough. The President - indeed most people - want young people to have a shot at the American Dream, but in today's economic climate and today's job market you have to have something more than a high school diploma to be able to earn enough to pay the rent in most cities - much less to be in a position to someday buy a home or even think about having a family. And the best part about such an out of touch comment? It comes from a guy who has a BA, an MA, and a JD. The photo meme to the right has been making the rounds on facebook.

And last night The Daily Show took Santorum to task with their Senior Youth Corespondent:

And Stephen Colbert:

"Yeah what a snob. Obama thinks everyone should go to college like he did. Well pardon me, your highness, but some of us weren't handed a ticket to Harvard by being the biracial son of a single mother on food stamps. Must be nice. . ."

A noble question to ask. Since the OWS movement where young people have flooded streets demanding justice for our downtrodden economy, we've also seen a higher demand to understand more about what happened and how to prevent it. Thus enters Heist: Who Stole the American Dream?

"Heist is the rallying cry of the 99%, who can take this moment in history and transform the American economic and political landscape through information-sharing and direct action. Heist is a warning as well as a vision of a new future. Viewers will come away from the film feeling that they understand who broke the economy and how, and knowing what is needed to fix it."

Dennis Harvey of Variety penned… "Heist is well timed as a one-stop summary of reasons for ordinary Americans to be furious at our financial systems."

NYC Event details:

AWARD WINNING, HEIST: WHO STOLE THE AMERICAN DREAM?
CONNECTS THE DOTS FOR THE 99%
LIMITED ENGAGEMENT! NY’s QUAD CINEMA MARCH 2 – 8, ONE WEEK ONLY!
Special events with filmmakers Frances Causey and Don Goldmacher:
March 1 Virtually Speaking with Jay Ackroyd - 9pm eastern
March 4 following 7:20 show: Q&A with filmmakers and Robert Kuttner
March 6 following 7:20 show: Q&A with filmmakers and economist David Cay Johnston
March 8 3pm: : Q&A with filmmakers and Eric Kingson of Strengthen Social Security

The movement to change our Election Day to the weekend has relaunched for 2012 at WhyTuesday.org and one of its founders Jacob Soboroff has given an outstanding presentation at TED Phoenix that is worth watching. In the efforts to get more young people to the polls we talk a lot about accessibility - and moving the big day to a weekend is a good first step in the right direction to helping young people.

Herman Cain gave his own response to the State of the Union at the National Press Club where he talked about how grateful he is with the endorsement from Stephen Colbert because he wants to keep the "youth vote inspired" because

"they're not gonna go and watch the shows that some of us more mature people watch to find out what's going on in the race . . . they're watching The Stephen Colbert . . ."

As Stephen remarks:

"Well said The Herman Cains! The more mature people watch other things. But the more immature youth vote watches this show…"

Then, unfortunately, I realized the only reason I knew about this story was because I was watching The Colbert Report because I don't care about the Tea Party.... DAMN YOU HERMAN CAIN!

The fact is, this isn't about maturity, this is about connectivity. Young voters aren't going to pay attention to people that don't represent their issues or their values, even if the train wreck of their campaign is fascinating and hilarious. I encourage more Tea Party members to go on Colbert - at some point, however, they have to realize that he's just making fun of them thought, right?

Just a few highlights of things that reference the Millennial Generation. Read the whole thing here

• "most daunting challenge can be the cost of college. At a time when Americans owe more in tuition debt than credit card debt"
• "Congress needs to stop the interest rates on student loans from doubling in July"
• "Higher education can’t be a luxury – it’s an economic imperative that every family in America should be able to afford"
• "states also need to do their part, by making higher education a higher priority in their budgets"
• "After all, innovation is what America has always been abt Most new jobs are created in start-ups and small businesses" - true, many by youth

OWS

• "And we've put in place new rules to hold Wall Street accountable, so a crisis like that never happens again."
• "And I will not go back to the days when Wall Street was allowed to play by its own set of rules. The new rules we passed restore what should be any financial system’s core purpose: Getting funding to entrepreneurs with the best ideas, and getting loans to responsible families who want to buy a home, start a business, or send a kid to college.
• So if you're a big bank or financial institution, you are no longer allowed to make risky bets with your customers' deposits. You’re required to write out a "living will" that details exactly how you’ll pay the bills if you fail -- because the rest of us aren’t bailing you out ever again. And if you’re a mortgage lender or a payday lender or a credit card company, the days of signing people up for products they can't afford with confusing forms and deceptive practices are over. Today, American consumers finally have a watchdog in Richard Cordray with one job: To look out for them."

In response, the PIRGs put out a release regarding the impact of the President's speech and potential legislation on higher education:

"“In this economy, we cannot double the student loan interest rate. Without a new plan, millions of students will pay a crushing $5,200 more on their student loan than they otherwise would,” said Rich Williams, Higher Education Advocate for US PIRG. “Students are already weighed down by state budget cuts, struggling family finances and uncertain job prospects. We applaud President Obama for his proposal to keep student loan interest rates low.”

If Congress does nothing, borrowers who will takeout the maximum $23,000 in subsidized student loans will see their interest balloon to an additional $5,200 over a 10-year repayment period and $11,300 over a 20-year repayment period.

In addition to loans, many students work their way through college to keep their debt burden low. However more full time students are becoming full time workers. With the economic down turn, it is getting harder for those students to find and continue employment. Doubling the amount of work-study jobs, as proposed by the President, will help support needy students willing to work hard make it to graduation."

Here is a chart (PDF) from the PIRGs on how students would be impacted if the interest rate on student loans doubled in July.