john

i actually use project vote smart -> http://www.vote-smart.org/ as a source for my information. it has loads of information for voters: local election offices, candidates for state & national offices, past voting activity, etc.

before i stumbled on project vote smart, i had feelings.similar to yours. it’s difficult to determine who the best candidate is when actions are diluted by rhetoric & fluff stories like what i saw on abc this morning – “eating habits of presidential candidates on the road”. yeah, that’s some hard-hitting journalism right there.

pvs isn’t perfect, but it’s the most comprehensive source of political info i’ve ever seen.

mike

The author of the WaPo article doesn’t understand everything either. She confuses the second and fourth amendments:

I’ve seen a lot of posts in the last week or so decrying the decline and fall of American youth. I wonder if we dotcom fogies are just starting to repeat the memes of our parents – maybe this generation has more going for them then we’d care to admit.

Jeremy

From someone who spent his senior year in college running a small advocacy campaign, interned in both houses of congress and the state legislature, participated in a political campaign, and who has spent the last three years helping to run a student-centered advocacy non-profit…

Let me tell you that your idea sounds good in theory but falls flat in practice. There’s a reason everyone considers the youth vote as being consistently the most unreliable demographic since voting began. It’s because it’s true.

For every well informed, well-intentioned, young person like you there are two who, when he/she does vote, votes for the best sounding name or his/her favorite number, or completely randomly.

For every young person that honestly wants to learn the facts and make an independent decision, there are two that only read the “Presidential candidates eating habits” stories. Besides, if you really want to learn about politics get a subscription to the Economist or the Wall Street Journal. It’s not like the information isn’t out there.

Finally, as noble as your idea sounds, there is a fundamental disconnect between facts and politics. Every political view can be reduced to a “value” that is not based on facts. These “values” cannot be reasoned with. Additionally, the “fun” part of politics is the actual politics, not the facts. The more you try to be impartial and fact based, the less likely people are to read your blog/website. It’s just not interesting to most people to read politically agnostic facts.

I hope i’m wrong, but i’ve become pretty jaded over the past few years with politics.

Matt S

“I’m just a bill, yes I’m only a bill…”

Don

Fun fact of the day: the United States is not a democracy. It is a republic.

I like the concept of an unbiased source for political knowledge and information, but I can’t help but wonder if it can be done. With finance you can say “spend less than you earn” and you’ll accumulate wealth. With diet you can say “consume fewer calories than you expend” and you’ll lose weight. With politics, what can you really say? It’s far more based on your own values and opinions…which are by nature completely biased.

Derek

I could have sworn that this topic was covered in “School House Rock”!

Kat

Thank you, Don! So many people confuse the two.

vh

Hold the phone, Jeremy: “For every well informed, well-intentioned, young person like you there are two who, when he/she does vote, votes for the best sounding name or his/her favorite number, or completely randomly.”

I don’t think that applies just to young people. If this and the other factoids you mention make young people an unreliable demographic, they make ALL potential voters unreliable, because ignorance and stupidity are not exclusive to the young. Nor do political opinions that do not open themselves to reason come under the heading of “values”: that’s what we call “pigheadedness,” not “values.” Indeed, the clever, deliberate conflation of pigheadedness with moral and religious values is one of the strategies that set this country on the wrong path where we all find ourselves today.

There’s a simple trusted source that has been neglected for three generations: it’s called elementary education. The reason few of Ramit’s commenters did not think to note that America is a republic, not strictly a democracy, is that few people alive today learned that in school. In the Dark Ages, we took required civics courses in junior high school and high school, and required Western civ courses in college. This is where you learned your political and intellectual heritage and were imbued with the idea that it’s your responsibility to keep it going. It also was where you learned the difference between narrow-minded opinion and values.

As young adults — even before you have children — you should demand that the public and private educational systems in your cities and states teach kids about the the Declaration of Independence, the Bill of Rights and the U.S. Constitution, about how this country is supposed to work, and about their individual responsibility in making it work.

Steve W

Now that I’ve actually read the article, I will say this — I understand fairly well how politics in principle works, but I confess that I couldn’t tell you what I could do to change things within my neighborhood.

Do I stroll into the County Courthouse and look for the information desk and ask “hey, where do I run for some kind of office where I get to change the rules that govern my neighborhood?”

That might be an interesting test. I should bring a video camera.

Jason

I’ve been thinking about something like this off and on for over a year now… and my motivation is pretty much the same as yours, I’m looking for a good source of information.

One point, I don’t think you need to cater the whole thing to young people. Older people buy into just as much crap as young people do.

I’ve kinda set out a rough outline of what such a site might look like (even had a name for it, which I can’t recall at the moment, I think I’ve got it written down somewhere). Unfortunately I’ve got too many other projects (aside from my day job) to take it on and do anything worthwhile with it, but I’d be happy to be involved in the planning and organization of it.

Allen

The main problem with the way a lot of you seem to be looking at approaching this is that the information is there, the majority of people just don’t care. Yeah, it could be compiled and presented in a much more clear and concise fashion, but it doesn’t matter how simply put, if a person is more interested in watching reality TV than about the local or national elections…… You see where I’m going. Yeah, this line of thinking could easily just lead to apathy and a sense of futility, but instead I think it just means that we need to look for a new way to package it, make politics “fun/cool/whatever”. Hell, a joke idea I had with my parents was to create a website that was along the lines of “America’s Next Presidential Candidate”, a kind of ripoff of the shows where you start with around a dozen people and they’re all competing for the prize (Top Chef, Top Model, Project Runway, etc…). Honestly, looking at the current field of candidates it sometimes feels like we’re already at that point. This could be either with the current candidates, or with a whole set of other people, maybe even just regular people. Example challenges could be like balancing a checkbook, if they can’t do that how could they possible balance the budget, etc. Yeah, it’s cheesy, it’s lowbrow, it’s mass market America. I don’t know, I just think that for the youth audience to care there needs to be a different way of presenting things. Then again, if you look at the number of voters as a whole vs. the number of people in the country, it’s apathy across the board, so maybe it’s just a waste of time to think that the majority of people are ever going to care.

Trent Hamm

Great idea, dangerous to execute. Most of your readers would be people who are interested in politics, who would hop up on their soapbox and rant. Ever tried reading Daily Kos? It’s unreadable because of the extreme leftists that rule the site.

Disillusioned Voter

Ramit:

It all depends on what you are looking for.

Are you looking for just technical information about how things work (rules on who’s eligible to run, when elections occur, how committees are structured)? The official channels are actually pretty good sources on that.

Are you looking for information on what candidates stand for? I find this harder. Because honestly most candidates lie. And voting records are hard to interpret without digging in.

Are you looking for how politics could change? That’s what interests me, frankly. I have no interest in yet another generation of “what are you going to do for me” voters. Do we really need just another class of voters who have their special interests they want pandered or moneyed?

My blog is hardly the source you are looking for (nor is it as updated as it should be), but it will give you a sense of what I think is more important than “technical” knowledge about the process and “politics as a game”.

Emma

I took a Government AP class in high school that taught me everything I need to know about politics as a citizen. I think one of the most important messages to get to young people is that it is just as important to make a careful decision about who to vote for in Congressional elections as it is in the Presidential elections.

Alex

Ramit, you’re right. Young people don’t care about politics like they don’t care about personal finance.

The attitude perpetuated by adults that young people don’t vote is a self fulfilling prophecy, and it’s really annoying to hear because it’s usually based on totally anecdotal evidence, if any evidence at all. Once it becomes common “wisdom,” politicos tell candidates not to bother, and the result is that they don’t even bother to try to appeal to young voters (save trying to lure young voters with moon bounces — http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/06/AR2007060602520.html — can you blame us for not being interested?)

It’s true that more young people volunteer than vote, because the system sucks and we all know it, but guess what, you cynical fogies? Voter turnout increased by 10% in 2004, the biggest increase since when 18 year olds got the right to vote, in the first presidential race since the electoral system was basically proven to be completely broken. I wish I could find a link to the Harvard study, but when I wrote for the Students for Barack Obama blog, we wrote a long post about how 18-24 year olds had a much higher turnout than expected and how they beat some important demographic in turnout – it was either Gen Xers or the elderly. I know there’s a big difference between those two, but I guess I’m so burned out from snorting adderall and listening to gangster rap that I can’t remember.

Also, I know anecdotal evidence is meaningless, but every single one of my friends who doesn’t vote says it’s because they forgot to register for an absentee ballot in time. My first election after I turned 18, I would not have been able to vote because the MA absentee ballots are due far before the election. It was only because Maine allows same-day registration AND lets its college students vote that I could vote at all — and I only have a few friends who are more politically active than I am. Young people have to jump through more hoops in order to vote than any other group except expatriates and the military. What are the other age groups’ excuse for not voting?

As for your idea, I think it could work, but it would never have more than a really limited market. People are so suspicious of ulterior motives when it comes to politics, and we all know reality has a well-known liberal bias. Plus, things like this so often come across as condescending — not just from candidates, like the Hillary thing I linked to, but from dumb crap like Vote or Die as well. That’s why young people watch Colbert and Stewart (and Maher, I guess, but I think he’s a douchebag) — they’re the ONLY effective case of making politics entertaining without being condescending. People are either not interested in voting or they are not interested in being talked down to. I think what would be better is explanations of more complicated issues that people can’t understand from 30-second soundbites, like economic policy. If you’re going to vote conservative on social issues, it’s usually for moral or religious reasons. Economic policy is a whole ‘nother ball game, and one that I doubt most young people (or people of any age, really) understand very well.

Sorry for the essay. Stereotypes about young voters annoy me.

Matt Fay

You need to visit the Prometheus Institute’s website, prometheusinsitute.net. I recently discovered it and am starting to become a contributor. It is a libertarian think tank from Orange County. They offer articles on all the subjects you are looking for information on. They are young and would appeal to young people. They offer an “Apathetic’s Guide to Politics” and articles about sports and pop culture as well as political satire. Anyone can get into their articles, but young people in particular.

I suggest that everyone wanting to learn more about politics, but may not know where to start, go there. It’s entertaining and well written. (esspecially when the start posting my articles).

alex

an easy source of trusted information on politics and voting…

already exists in the form of the daily show and the colbert report. you might think this is a joke, but seriously, the intelligence of those two shows never cease to amaze me. they really do know the issues and report them in a satirical manner only to emphasize the absurdity of what is going on. and at times, they do offer practical solutions in their observations.

Paul L.

Ramit,

I don’t believe one should be drawing parallels between young people interests in politics and in their personal finances.
The reason being is the perceived lack of impact on THEIR lives by ongoing changes in the American political infrastructure and tremendous impact on THEIR lives by their own financial well-being.
Simply put, the corner store will still be there after the elections and will still sell the same coffee regardless of whether a Democrat or a Republican wins the election. Now, (not) being able to afford that cup of coffee is a completely different matter that hits much close to home (or a dorm room).

I come from a country where changes in the political climate impact the average Joe ruthlessly and immediately, and believe me when I say this, 14-y-olds in that country pay more attention to politics than an average US grown-up does.

With that said, all the postings to this article clearly show that the information is out there for those who care to find it.

In my humble opinion, content of a web site that simply explains the US governmental structure and inner workings would equate to Politics 101 text book, while posting the latest data on at least the major current developments would result in a site just like any other posted here. I think building traffic to such site would be quite a challenge.

James

I was recently trying to look round the Scottish Government website, and ‘how democracy works’ would have been something I’d have clicked on. But it wasn’t there, of course. I forget though, we’re adults, of COURSE we know how it all works. As if. Wonderfully more insightful, for someone not particularly interested in politics like myself, was this site: http://www.juniorexec.gov.uk. The Government, as explained to children, and I found quite insightful.

Len

Politics is like boxing. Feint with a left cross, getting your opponent to drop his guard on his left then follow with a right hook to the jaw and your opponent is flattened. In the 2004 presidential election, the Republicans brilliantly feinted by stating that gay marriages were not an issue that the federal government would get into. Rather, it was to be an issue for the states to resolve. To be sure that the feint was taken, Dick Cheney made the pronouncement and it was carried by every news organization. The Democrats took it to mean that the administration was allowing the decision on this devisive issue to be made at more local levels, where gay marriage would be allowed in some places where it is more acceptable. That is, the Republicans were showing an enlightened view of national diversity. Then, after everyone who could vote in every state of the union knew that gay marriage would be resolved at the state level, the Republicans put gay marriage on the ballot of every state in which an otherwise complacent social conservative electorate could be coaxed to the ballot box because of the gay marriage issue. Oh, and by the way, while those social conservatives were voting against gay marriage, they completed their ballots by voting for George W. Bush, who was clearly against gay marriage. That was the right hook that flattened the Democrats in Ohio and elsewhere and won the Presidential election for Bush–and that’s politics in a nutshell.
In case you didn’t get it, voters don’t have to be very fond of your candidate to vote for him/her. There just has to be an issue that they are fervent about. Get your candidate associated with that issue and he/she will win every time.
Here’s a phrase to remember whether you selling beer or a candidate: “People buy emotion, not facts.” So, associate your candidate with issues that will stir voters to his/her cause and associate your candidate’s opponents with issues that will antagonize voters. In short, sell emotion. That’s what all the candidates are doing in Iowa.
Now you know what politics is about in the early 21st century: (1) faking your opponents so they drop their guard and (2) selling emotion. The issues are simply the vehicles for doing this. There are lots of issues, so get your opponents looking the other way while you get the voters focused on the issues that sell emotion the way you want it sold. The nominee of each party will be the candidate that does this the best.

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