Jfink's blog

We need a political infrastructure for young people that will both cultivate future progressive leaders and drive new and diverse youth towards higher levels of progressive political participation. Below is a working list of the broad challenges associated with current progressive youth politics:

• Progressive Political Programs Focus Exclusively on Youth Activists: Political programs and leadership training’s engage a small number of politically savvy young people and fail to mobilize new youth to participate in progressive politics
• Progressive Youth Activists Are Not Diverse: Progressive youth activists lack significant economic, ethnic, and regional diversity, as the same student activists are recycled between a few progressive groups

• Missing Strategic Management or System to Disseminate Information: Progressive political organizations often lack defined objectives and benchmarks to measure success; and they do not effectively share research and best practices to benefit the broader progressive community
• Absence of a Progressive Identity and Infrastructure to Connect Young People: Unaffiliated, small, and self-funded progressive groups or individuals are not easily connected to a larger progressive political community
• Progressive Activism and Democratic Politics Remain Miles Apart: Party leaders, activists, elected officials, and young people do not connect their support for progressive issues and values with support for the Democratic Party

What should be added or removed from the list? Many of the Dem/Progressive organizations that focus on youth and are financially secure have lacked vision and strategic capacity to address these critical problems. These challenges require action from our generation and the progressive community.

The spring 2007 Harvard IOP survey provides us with a snap shot of some early impressions young people have of the 2008 elections. The poll was conducted online by Harris Interactive. They surveyed a large sample; however these are individuals that have opted into Harris Interactive for online polling for their demographic. Don’t get me wrong, this is a step in the right direction, as IOP used to conduct these studies by conducting phone surveys.

Young people (42%) say they will definitely vote in a 2008 primary or caucus and are interested in volunteering (52%) for a presidential campaign if they are provided with an opportunity. I hope this is the case. It will be interesting to see if any of the presidential campaigns actually invest in voter registration and GOTV efforts. Campaigns would have to tailor their communications to young people and to the caucus and primary rules for each state. For example, in the earlier primary states college students could be encouraged to request an absentee ballot during Thanksgiving Break or Winter Vacation. It would be smart (and a necessity) for all campaigns to have a youth GOTV strategy for the primary that is aware of college schedules.

Party Affiliation and Candidate Ranks:

The Edwards numbers were a little surprising, as he has been building a national network of young people through his One Corps. I was also surprised by Obama’s significant lead over Clinton among college students. I don’t think Obama has a lock on the youth vote. Senator Clinton has a window through the summer and fall to define and introduce herself to young voters. I believe young people (being one) don’t have the love or hate position toward Senator Clinton that is often seen throughout the adult population. Many young voters were born around the time Gov. Dukakis ran for president, were in kindergarten during Hillary’s healthcare fight, and were in 4th or 5th grade during the impeachment witch hunt.