Home › Blogs › Sarah Burris's blog ›

Don't Vote

I have to confess, I didn't think much of Declare Yourself in 2004. They barely registered on the radar among youth organizations that year, and I found their Declaration of Independence Tour to be exceedingly lame. Sure, they get a lot of folks registered to vote, but all the registration in the world between 1993 and 2003 didn't get more young people voting. I tend to think that you need to give people a reason to vote. Sometimes the political environment (read: Bush, Iraq, Katrina) can provide that reason, and sometimes partisan messages can help provide that.

I also usually dislike PSAs, which tend to try way too hard to be cool and just end up being uninspiring. Most of the time they end up making political participation seem even less cool or relevant.

But these new ads done by Declare Yourself and the folks behind Reno 911 are pretty damn good, and they just might make me change my mind about Declare Yourself. They certainly make me want to get my ass to the ballot box.



I guess I'll have to keep a close eye on what Declare Yourself does this year. Particularly with their voter registration partnership with MySpace (There will be some interesting comparisons to be made in December 2008 between the Rock the Vote voter registration widget and the MySpace/Declare Yourself partnership.

More videos after the jump.



Bookmark/Search this post with:
  • Delicious
  • Digg
  • StumbleUpon
  • Propeller
  • Reddit
  • Magnoliacom
  • Newsvine
  • Furl
  • Facebook
  • Google
  • Yahoo
  • Technorati
  • Icerocket
July 10th, 2007 1:05pm
Tags:

Comment viewing options

Select your preferred way to display the comments and click "Save settings" to activate your changes.

awesome

Submitted by imaginarysamuel on Tue, 2007-07-10 13:24.

finally somebody worked out the equation of y = (toutube + colbert) / youth outreach

Really, really, really,

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue, 2007-07-10 14:54.

Really, really, really, really, good. Pitch farking perfect. The first one especially about the product targeting. Makes me feel guilty for not having seen the Reno 911 movie yet.

You're right about the

Submitted by Laurence (not verified) on Tue, 2007-07-10 17:45.

You're right about the lameness, although at least these groups are trying to make the democractic system accessible to a younger audience. The interesting thing is that I see the 2008 election as the most immediately relevant one in decades, and a lot of groups are starting up with change on the mind. I just came across a website for a new party called Unity08. They recognize that most Americans agree on the key issues (eg.: global warming is real, get us off mideast oil, focus on education), but that any consensus is undermined by the partisan bickering that goes on in Washington. We need to send a message that the partisan pissing contest is over by taking back the ballot. Groups like Unity ’08 and Declare Yourself need our support, otherwise, we’ll keep getting more of the same.

Uhm... Unity08 is a

Submitted by Quinton (not verified) on Tue, 2007-07-10 19:08.

Uhm... Unity08 is a front-group for a Mcain/Liberman type presidental ticket. There's nothing wrong with being partisan. Being partisian means beliving in something and then standing up and fighting for something. Be a partisan progressive democrat and drive the democratic party to be ever more responsive to what's good for the little guy.

You're right

Submitted by Michael Connery on Tue, 2007-07-10 21:22.

Hey Quinton. Good to see you stopping by. This is the first time I've seen you here.

You're right, of course, but this isn't MyDD. A lot of the readers here are just getting into politics, so go easy in the comments. Not everyone follows all the minutiae of who funds what, runs what, etc. This is definitely a place to help folks learn the ropes . . . and for all the attention they get in the political press (and from Sam Waterston), Unity 08 is still pretty inside-baseball to most folks.

>A lot of the readers here

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Wed, 2007-07-11 13:52.

>A lot of the readers here are just getting into politics,

This makes it all the more important to point out that an organization is actually a front group for a particular politician. People are smart. Even newbies to politics can readily understand conflicts of interest.

Absolutely

Submitted by Michael Connery on Wed, 2007-07-11 14:01.

I don't disagree at all. I just want to cut off any potential snark before it happens and make this a hospitable learning environment.

Partisanship

Submitted by Michael Connery on Tue, 2007-07-10 21:19.

I agree that 08 is really important, but disagree with your points about partisanship. Consensus isn't undermined by partisan bickering. It is undermined by the fact that the far right and the majority that you site fundamentally disagree on these issues. There may be concensus among the public, but in Washington things are split 50/50. Partisanship isn't bad, and splitting things down the middle or compromising wont' solve the problems you mention. Electing more Democrats - specifically more progressive Democrats - will.

I'm generally skeptical of groups like Declare Yourself because for over a decade their work accomplished nothing. 1992 saw the biggest increase in young voter turnout in two decades. Rock the Vote claims credit, and to be sure they deserve some. But Generation X was conservative. 1992 tipped to Clinton because Perot stole Republican Voters from Bush. Not because of a great progressive message or because of concensus, or non-partisan activities. In 1996, Rock the Vote registered over 150,000 MORE young voters than they did in 1992, yet 1996 is the worst young voter turnout on record . . .

In 2004, young voter turnout shot up again, and we chose John Kerry over Bush by 10 points. Because the situation in our country showed us how ruinous Bush was and would continue to be, and because a lot of new youth organizations - started by, run by and run for our generation - preached partisan messages to the people they reached out to.

Also, Quinton is right. Unity 08 isn't all it's cracked up to be. It's meant to appeal to folks looking for a post-partisan politics, but it is more likely to keep the country shifted to the Right.

any thing's better

Submitted by Sarah Burris on Tue, 2007-07-10 19:37.

with reno 911 and hot chicks in bikini's ... tho the nerd side of me really like the rap about china and oil... teee

Indeed

Submitted by Josh Koenig on Tue, 2007-07-10 22:46.

These are great. I particularly like how they strike a challenging tone w/the "leave that voting shit to us adults."

I think what we're seeing here (at last) a more widespread willingness on the behalf of major spenders -- Declare Yourself is a huge Hollywood big-money 501c(3) tax write off -- to treat the Millennial generation as if it has brains.

I found Will Farrel's parodies of Bush in 2004 to be very funny, but they had no real punch even though they were expressly partisan. These have a real edge to them, which is a credit to the veteran comics at work here (and isn't really a surprise to any fans of Reno 911, UCB or The State).

jumps

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Wed, 2007-07-11 00:48.

Awesome content.

I'm just annoyed by the whole blogger culture thing about "after the jump". Sheesh.