|
The Obama Girl professes her crush.
On Super Tuesday, 20 million youth came out to vote, showing that youth involvement is up from 42 to 52% in this year’s presidential election. "Super Tuesday puts the trend of higher youth involvement to the test," says Donald Green, a political scientist at Yale University in New Haven, Conn." The "Millennials," as sociologists have termed them are turning things around, as was proven by their large turnouts on February 5th. While “Gen-Xers” have been known for their cynicism and alienation from past elections, the "Millennials" are proving to be a lot more politically engaged and socially active.
While the poll stats are proving that it’s becoming cool again to care about things, when we take the micro view, we can see that the fight has really just begun. While the numbers are improving and more youth are taking action, are they really educated about the issues? As is true with most things, quantity doesn’t necessarily mean quality. Young voters can be notoriously unreliable, selective shoppers.
Take the infamous Obama girl, for instance. Amber Lee Ettinger, the 26-year-old model who gained world wide fame last summer with her Web hit, “I Got a Crush on Obama.” - the seductive online video where she vows her love and commitment to presidential candidate Barrack Obama. Surely Amber Lee got her vote on right? Ahem, WRONG!
On the night of Super Tuesday, reporters ran into Ms. Ettinger at an election-watching party in Greenwich Village and asked how things went at the polls.
“I didn’t get a chance to vote today because I’m not registered to vote in New York,” she said.
So where is Obama Girl registered to vote? “New Jersey.” Um, but didn’t New Jersey also hold a primary? True. The problem, she explained, was that she was sick in New York City and was unable to get back across the Hudson River to the polls in Jersey City.
“I was in Arizona for the Super Bowl — every time I get in the airplane I get sick,” said Ms. Ettinger, who did manage to make it to the Svedka Fembot election returns party at Chinatown Brasserie.
Interesting. She was too sick to vote, but not too sick to attend a party to watch the election results that very same night.
Although, it would be nice to believe that Obama girl is not a true representation of youth in America, the sad truth is that the loyalty of youth today only extends to the life of the fads or trends they follow. Obama is unfortunately the cool fad for youth to currently follow. Maybe that’s a cynical view, but this story just goes to prove that while it’s great to see youth votership up, we have to remember that relying on the youth vote will not a president make. Commitment to vote is only really a matter of convenience it seems. If it’s easy, fine, but any small roadblocks in the way or the possible sacrifice of a favorite television show, and a presidential hopeful can count that vote goodbye.
The question now becomes, will these same youthful voters that voted in the primaries still show up for the general election if Obama ISN’T the Democratic candidate? Hopefully, that won’t be the case. But for now, I guess we’ll just have to wait and see. Watch the Obama Girl's crush unfold here .
Only registered users can write comments.
Please login or register. Powered by AkoComment |
Be first to comment this article
