race

These are two of my new friends. Princella and Richard, who, despite their republicanism are remarkable young leaders. Wednesday, I met with many of the Young Republicans in the party who can't help but notice that the stereotypes of old, white, men are more valid than they would like.

Leaders from the popular youth blog HipHopRepublican.com sat down with me to talk about opportunities that their party could harness if they were only willing to do the kind of outreach that Democratic Presidential Candidate Barack Obama's campaign does.

The young people all have ambitions to achieve goals or run for office, but they are fighting an uphill battle in a tough establishment world. Its the one thing that we as young democrats share with them. Their optimism reigns supreme, however, and they push mountains in efforts to move their party to something a little more mainstream or at the very least reflective of the 21st Century.

I sat down with Princella Smith, a young woman who works for former Republican Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich's new organization American Solutions. Ms. Smith got her start from a competition offered by MTV several years ago that allowed her to play a major roll in forums during the previous presidential election. She now serves as a major policy adviser and spokesperson for American Solutions - all before the age of 30. She is connected and personable.

In passing I mentioned that I was hoping to get an interview with Michael Steele candidate for Lt. Governor in Maryland. I had seen his commercials years ago when he ran and enjoyed the ad which became known as the Puppy Kicker ad from 2006 that I still find to be so outside the box and original. His concept of anti-washington and change endeared me to him, as much as a partisan hack like myself could be endeared to a republican.

Princella quickly dragged me over to what was known as Radio Row where all the talk news stations were poised to do interviews as politicians and prominent party people passed through the halls. Against the wall was Michael Steele doing a quick interview. Princella introduced us and before I knew it snapped a picture. I can safely say that it is the only picture of me with a Republican politician. But Michael Steele I don't mind, because at least he likes puppies. See the full video of the interview with Princella here.

Morgan Thomas is still in collage but already works on three campaigns this year all while serving her duties on the national board of Young Republicans. She is clearly a bright and eager young woman who hopes to win a mayoral seat before she is 30 and eventually run for governor. This was her first convention and the nomination of Gov. Sarah Palin had excited and encouraged her as a young female republican. See the full video of my interview with her here.

Claudio Simpkins told me that he frequently gets confused for Barack Obama, and with a beaming smile it isn't hard to understand why. From a broken home that had drugs and hardship bearing down on him it would have been easy for him to fall between the cracks of the system. Instead, Claudio rose to the challenge and is now at Harvard Law School. He has a deep passion to give back to his community with no real immediate enthusiasm about running for office. It doesn't stop him from having a little fun when people ask his friends "Wait... Is that? Is that him!?" See the full interview of him here.

Richard Ivory came up to my cafe table asking if we could share it because there weren't any others around. We introduced ourselves and I knew instantly that we were allies in the youth movement. Richard started HipHopRepublican in attempts to bring more youth to politics on his side of the partisan divide. Republicans aren't popular in New York City and Richard describes himself as a moderate who is heavily influenced by Mayor Michael Bloomberg whose campaign he worked on. After talking issues with Richard, I couldn't help think that back home in the Bible-Belt he would be a Democrat... but decided not to alienate him.

It was Richard that guided me to some of these most remarkable people that I met while at the RNC. A majority of the time I spent with Richard was with him shouting and running after passers by who he thought would be good for me to talk to.

Richard is up to his chin in hope for the youth movement to gain traction in the GOP. His connectivity and tenacity are honorable and unbelievable, but his friendliness and hope for his party's future is what brings people to him. Along with his friends and colleagues he hopes to bring the GOP into the new century where the party is more reflective of our country in race, in gender, and in age. It is with this kind of community Richard thinks they can sustain their party.

While I certainly don't agree with them on a lot of issues, if these were the faces of the GOP it would be a lot more difficult for opposition to succeed.

CE and Brett, the co-authors of the new book Why You're Wrong About the Right think, however, that the old white stereotype is not the reality they see when looking at their friends. CE tells me she has a good time, goes out, parties and goes to ball games. She's not an old fuddy duddy like some of the delegates seen on the floor night after night. See the full interview with these two co-authors here.

She is clearly a strong, polished, and well educated young woman who remembers with clarity Bill Clinton's outreach at the MTV/Rock the Vote candidate forum in 1992 where the famous Boxer or Briefs question was asked. CE says the mere outreach by him was a huge step for a politician to make, and she's surprised that there haven't been any republicans since take on similar forms of outreach. The book presents photos and interviews with those who don't fit the traditional appearance of the GOP. Youthful and minority faces shine from the pages as the argument is presented that not everyone is old and white.

The others would say that its just most of them.

Embedded through the links above are the entire interviews of these remarkable young people, and above is my comprehensive clips and soundbites of their comments. Also see my interview with Armstrong Williams, conservative talk radio host about these topics.

At the end of the convention the only thing I can say is that regardless of the party, young people are consistently being ignored this election when our votes are the ones that have made candidates since 2006.

I'm heading out shortly to tape for GritTV with Laura Flanders. We're doing a one-hour panel on the youth vote and a half-hour segment on Youth to Power. Be back online this afternoon.

• At Campus Politico, Ben Adler notes that summer break is putting a crimp in plans to register and organize students.
• At AlterNet, Courtney Martin talks about growing up a Millennial and how race and gender play differently on the campaign trail for younger voters.
• Republicans have a new blog dedicated to reaching "Generation Next" online. It involves crayons.
• Salon notes rising youth turnout, and while they are still skeptical, admit that young voters could be a factor in November.
• Barack Obama has 1 million supporters on Facebook.
• The "American Dream" as our parents knew it is dead, argues Anya Kamenetz, but she's got some suggestions on what a new American Dream might look like. Long live the American Dream!

Joe's got a great video up about Rush Limbaugh's "Operation Chaos" - in which he (Rush) encourages Republicans to eff with the Democratic primaries. He also has a good summation of the point I made earlier today about the supposed "race divide" between the Democratic candidates and how that plays out at the generational level.

So I'm finally at Yearly Kos. Sitting around waiting for General Wesley Clark to speak, stewing in my juices and waiting for my panels. I hate public speaking, and yet that's basically all I"m doing today.

The word is that yesterday Howard Dean delivered a keynote address in which he talked about the importance of engaging the youth vote.

Ben Adler from Campus Progress has the goods. I particularly like that last bit. Yay on you for brining up the topic Howard, but not exactly the best way to talk about demographic diversity and tolerance among Millennials:

DNC Chair Howard Dean just gave a rousing address here at Yearly Kos to the 1400 minions and hundreds of members of the media. He focused in large part on the importance of progressives appealing to young people. He noted the 20% increase in youth turnout between the last two midterms and noted that voting patterns get locked in for life at a young age. He admonished activists to always focus on the young as an investment in the future. He also rather comically pointed out that "there are white kids running around malls with pants around their ankles" as evidence that the hopes of the civil rights movement have been achieved. And Dean pointed to the long enduracne of civil rights leaders as a reminder that activism is a lifelong commitment.

The words are a bit indelicate (as Dean is often want to do), but the point is sound, and Republicans are getting scared.

• A few weeks ago I wrote an essay that barely scratched the surface of the role of race in youth politics. This essay on multi-racial and "anti-racial" youth coalitions digs a little deeper. This has also been a hot topic at MyDD lately.
• Check out this piece about some post-doc research at Georgetown on the role of New Media in campaigns. I think the study director overplays the role of Mobile media and podcasts. I think we're still a few years away from those mediums really taking off and having the impact that something like YouTube or socical networks will have in this cycle. But she really hits an important nail on the head at the end of the piece:
  

  "I want to look at places that are not designed to be political, but politics take place there. If you just look at candidate Web sites, you just see a limited amount of political action," she said. "But when you go to other sites like sports talk boards, you see a lot of political commentary and engagement."

  Bingo. That's the key, and its the piece that everyone seems to be overlooking (or at least not explicitly talking about) in all the discussions about new media, online outreach, and social networking. If you think about the campaign as a series of concentric circles, the campaign is the hub and social networks, YouTube, etc are the first layer of "new media" circles.

  That's as far as anyone is really taking it, but the whole point is that those first circles expand into other circles - smaller MySpace and FaceBook groups, groups on other, less popular social networks, online discussion boards, etc. Each step out gets less political in its main purpose, but it's these periphery locations and the ability to move political conversations into them that will be the key to really tapping the full power of "New Media."

• Finally, the Economic Policy Institute reports that 6 years after the 2001 recession, real wages and employment rates for recent college grads have still not returned to normal levels. Graphs after the jump.

This is a rough articulation of a problem I’m grappling with, and its quickly shaping up to be its own chapter in my book (though it wasn’t part of my original outline). I need a lot of help teasing this out, so comments are very much appreciated.

As I’ve been considering the place of - or more frequently total lack of - organizations whose mission it is to reach out to, engage, and elevate young people of color in our politics, I’ve started to think a lot lately about the divide between two major progressive constituencies: those who understand political activity through the vocabulary and history of social justice movements, vs. those who consider themselves to be part of a new progressive movement.

This new progressive movement seeks to work within and transform the system. It is party-based and electoral. During interviews for my book, a couple people pointed out to me that a lot of political terminology and basic concepts that we in this movement take for granted - including the term progressive - are either alienating or just nonstarters among a lot of young people of color. Instead, young people of color understand politics through a language based in community organizing, human rights, civil rights, and social justice. That is a language the progressive movement rarely embraces. Worse, its a language that the Democratic Party - our chosen vehicle of change - almost never embraces.

For the most part, it’s a racial divide (though not exclusively so). In the past, the civil rights movement offered a common mission and language. But identity politics is reaching its limits as a vehicle for accomplishing change, and we can’t remain siloed anymore. At the same time, asking people to drop identity politics altogether is totally unacceptable. That model developed for a reason - to address structural and outright biases in our system. These problems persist, and you can’t deny that a rightful place in our political conversation.

So, in the words of Led Zeppelin, “Where’s the bridge?” This is a problem for the progressive movement in general, but, as the most diverse generation in modern American history, it has particular relevance to any discussion of Millennial politics.