I know we have been citing a lot of studies and articles lately which point to the power of the youth vote in the 2008 elections, but hold the phones, because last week CNN's "Situation Room" ran a segment on the youth vote which concluded that our vote is just "not all that" because young people, for all their enthusiasm, do not make it to the polls. The report considers it inevitable that the war in Iraq, genocide in Darfur, the health care crisis and college costs just will not be enough to get us out of bed on Election Day, in spite of all that the candidates may attempt in courting the youth vote.
But wait, how about all the data that rebuts this theory of young people's irrelevance? Election returns from November 2004 show that the number of votes cast by Americans aged 18 to 29 outnumbered votes from those aged 65 and over. And historical trends bespeak the gathering strength of the youth vote: turnout for 18-24 year olds was 11% higher in 2004 than in 2000. In 2006, decisive support among youth for Democratic candidates in the closest contests brought Jim Webb of Virginia and Jon Tester of Montana to the Senate and gave Democrats a majority.
These figures are doubly impressive because young people face the stiffest barriers to voting of any age group. From a lack of polling stations on many college campuses to the numerous registration requirements for first-time and absentee voters, making our voices heard on Election Day is not nearly as simple as it could and should be. Yet in the face of all this, the youth vote is potent and growing ever stronger. Hundreds of SFBO chapters around the country know that in only a few months, reports like CNN's will truly be a thing of the past.
Today, 8,000 people worldwide will lose their lives to HIV/AIDS, and another 14,000 will become newly infected. This pandemic is one of the greatest tragedies of our time. Along with malaria, tuberculosis, malnutrition, and unsanitary water, AIDS is one of the global ills which exacerbates extreme poverty and mocks our claim to the essential dignity of every human life. Yet this need not be the case; not only is AIDS preventable, but medicines called antiretrovirals are capable of transforming the disease from a death sentence into a manageable chronic condition. But for millions of destitute sick in sub-Saharan Africa, the Caribbean, Southeast Asia and elsewhere, this life-saving medicine is financially out of reach.
Last week, Senator Obama pledged that if he is elected president, he will help turn the tide against HIV by requesting that the US contribute $50 billion over five years to the global fight against HIV/AIDS. Ultimately, this contribution—which represents less than one-tenth of one percent of U.S. GDP—will save four million lives. Four million mothers and fathers, sons and daughters, brothers and sisters will be able to experience the joy of longer, healthier lives. This is the truest brand of American leadership, in the tradition of President Truman's Marshall Plan to rebuild postwar Europe and President Kennedy's Peace Corps. As Senator Obama explained in a speech on World AIDS Day last December at the Saddleback Church in California:
We can embrace another tradition of politics - a tradition that has stretched from the days of our founding to the glory of the civil rights movement, a tradition based on the simple idea that we have a stake in one another - and that what binds us together is greater than what drives us apart, and that if enough people believe in the truth of that proposition and act on it, then we might not solve every problem, but we can get something meaningful done for the people with whom we share this Earth.
Last week's landmark announcement did not go unnoticed by voters concerned about global AIDS and global poverty. Christina D'Allesandro, a member of New Hampshire Fights AIDS, knew just how much Obama's leadership meant: "I am thrilled to see that Senator Obama is coming out so clearly in favor of a comprehensive and fully-funded approach to global poverty." Meanwhile, in Ames, Iowa, Reverend Randy Gehring was equally grateful: "Iowans want to know, in detail, how the candidates would ensure America keeps its promises, including in the area of HIV/AIDS. Senator Obama has made clear how we can do that while at the same time ensuring our response to poverty is broad and effective." We know—as Barack laments—that "we are all sick because of AIDS"; but we know, too, that we have in our hands the power to overcome.
Ah, winter break! It may seem ages away right now, but it is really just around the corner. How about something different this year? After all, sleeping in every morning and countless afternoons of daytime TV might sound great when you are drowned in midterms, but we all know it gets old pretty fast. This year, how about changing the world instead?
By the time finals end this semester, Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina will all be in the final weeks before their first-in-the-nation primaries and caucuses. If you want to be a part of the Obama campaign at its most crucial moment, come spend a week or more during your break interning with the campaign in one of these states! No previous campaign experience is necessary. All you will need is your own means of transportation out there and a great work ethic! Housing is available on a limited basis, so sign up today at:
http://my.barackobama.com/page/s/winterintern
(Photo courtesy of The Arizona Republic)
On Friday morning, 7,000 students, seniors, veterans, and community members filled Arizona State University's Hayden Lawn. They gathered to hear Senator Obama decry the smallness of today's politics and declare a new direction for the future:
"We don't need somebody who knows how to work the system. We need somebody who knows how to change the system. We don't need somebody who knows how to play the game better. We need somebody to put an end to the game-playing…People want to sense that somehow we can still rally around a common purpose, that we can recognize ourselves as Americans and rally around a common destiny. People want to sense that we can be proud of being Americans and we can get things done again."
Obama did not only focus on 2008. He called on Arizonans to pressure their legislators to support a change in course in Iraq. He insisted that the Bush Administration's failed yet stubborn strategy is too costly to continue until the next president takes office in January 2009:
"We can't wait 15 months, because too many of our young men and women are dying. We can't wait 15 months, because we're spending $10 billion to $12 billion every single month that could be spent on college scholarships, that could be spent on health care, that could be spent on infrastructure, that could be spent on clean energy."
The message and vision that Obama laid out in his speech was enough to win more than a few new supporters in the crowd. Farryl Bertmann, a 32-year-old graduate student from Mesa, Arizona, came to the rally as a curious Clinton supporter. But after seeing Obama and speaking to others in the crowd, she had changed her mind: "Now I'm 100% behind him. So many things he said resonated with me."
Preparing for a campaign event is no easy task, but it is made a bit easier when you have more than 100 dedicated organizers working together. This is good news for the mammoth SFBO chapter at Arizona State University as it prepares for Friday's Rally for Change in Tempe with Senator Obama. Even though the school's SFBO chapter is the largest student organization in the state focused on a candidate, campus organizers hope that by the end of the day on Friday their membership will have increased four-fold.
For the past few weeks, the ASU chapter has been passing out flyers, giving presentations to classes, and working with other Obama supporters in the area to get the word out about the rally. By the time Barack takes the stage on Arizona State's Hayden Lawn on Friday at 10 AM, none of the school's 60,000 students will be caught unaware.
Sean Bowie, a senior majoring in history and political science and the campus SFBO chapter leader, says the student body is deeply concerned about the rising price of college education and health care. And with many of their friends serving in Iraq and Afghanistan, ASU students seek a candidate who will speak knowledgeably and truthfully about the road ahead. Sean knows that Barack Obama is this candidate; today he and many others are working tirelessly to make sure that the voters of Arizona know this, too.
It is a rare campaign that can galvanize previously apolitical Americans to tune in and become active supporters. Rarer still is the political movement that turns the once unengaged into true grassroots leaders. Stephanie (center in the picture above) is living proof that the Obama campaign has done just that. An English major at UC Berkeley, Stephanie is California's SFBO state communications director. It was only one year ago when Stephanie learned about Barack from a friend. As Stephanie recounts it, her friend "more or less shoved Dreams from My Father down my throat." After reading the autobiography, however, she didn't need to be pushed any further. She saw the Senator speak in San Diego and immediately signed onto the campaign. Today, Stephanie works with more than fifty SFBO chapters across the state, helps put out press releases about SFBO events, and ensures that op-eds are published. By the time California's Democratic primary arrives next February 5th, she says, every student in California will know the purpose and power of Students for Barack Obama. To learn more about Stephanie, check out her recent profile in the Women for Obama blog.
All across the country, political observers are taking notice of the contribution that Students for Obama members are making to the national dialogue this campaign season. Last week, the Huffington Post profiled one such student, Leslie Reyes, a senior majoring in archaeology and anthropology and chair of the SFBO chapter at Humboldt State University in northern California.
Like so many students supporting Obama, Leslie is not a longtime Democratic activist. In fact, during her first few years of college she was an active member of the College Republicans. But as she learned more about Senator Obama in the run-up to his campaign announcement, she was increasingly drawn to his message of a more inclusive and broad-minded politics. Still, when she signed up to volunteer for Barack on his web site, past experience with other campaigns left her expecting to become one more "nameless body" in the service of a huge, impersonal campaign machine.
Almost immediately, those fears were dispelled. Soon after signing up, she received a call from the Obama campaign in California asking her if she would like to attend Camp Obama. There, as she explains, her entire outlook on politics changed for good:
"After Camp Obama, I went right to the post office and changed my voter registration to Democrat so that I could vote for Barack in the primary. And I have a completely different outlook on politics now...Before [ Camp Obama], I was kind of afraid to speak to other people. I didn't know about politics, because it's such a touchy subject, people get really heated, but with the Obama Campaign, they're encouraging us to do that, and it's okay that we have differences, because we still have common goals as well."
Leslie's passion and energy have drawn more students into the group. In early September, she led Humboldt State SFBO members on a six-hour drive to see Obama speak in San Francisco. This weekend they will be taking another road trip, this one to Nevada to canvass for the campaign in rural areas around Reno. On campus, she has been approached by dozens of students, professors, campus administrators and community members who ask how they, too, can pitch in for the campaign.
Leslie knows that there are serious issues in our communities that are not being addressed. At Humboldt State—a school surrounded by rivers, mountains, and an ancient redwood forest—protection of our natural resources is a growing concern. On this and many other issues, Leslie sees that Obama is the one candidate who recognizes that students have much to contribute:
"Barack Obama is that sincere candidate that people have been waiting for. He's listening to us and making it easy for young people to get involved. This is a critical time in America right now and I think that young people want their point of view to be heard. We're tired of hearing people say that we don't vote, we don't get involved, we don't care about politics. We've never experienced a candidate that has let us be such a huge part of the campaign. I see other groups trying to form groups on Facebook to show support for their candidate, but Barack Obama is the only candidate who has made it easy for us to be active participants in the campaign. …This truly is our campaign."
Last week, 200 students crowded into a lecture hall on Harvard's undergraduate campus. The fact that this was a Saturday and classes had not yet even started was evidence enough that this would be no typical lecture. Instead, this was "Training Students to Change Our Politics," a meeting between students, professors and campaign staff intended to show us how we might most effectively contribute to Obama's campaign in New Hampshire, our neighbor to the north.
Ned Helms, the steering committee co-chair for Obama's New Hampshire campaign and a veteran volunteer of 10 New Hampshire presidential primaries, spent some time explaining the unique political dynamics of his home state. "Politics are different there," he explained. "Voters do not make up their minds based on TV commercials. They expect to meet the candidates, their staffers and volunteers in person." Furthermore, Helms said, there is no such thing as an establishment candidate in New Hampshire. Over 30% of the state's registered voters are "undeclared," meaning that on Election Day in January they can choose to vote in either the Democratic or Republican primary. A recent poll found that 70% of these undeclared voters plan to vote in the Democratic presidential primary in 2008, making them arguably the most pivotal constituency in New Hampshire's Democratic race. In the weeks preceding the election, these voters settle on the candidate who can transcend sound bites and tired partisan talking points. They will choose the candidate whose grassroots supporters can convey an honest message that resonates with their own experiences.
Yet how are we to deliver this message? The next speaker, Tim McCarthy, addressed this question directly. McCarthy is an historian of the 19th century abolition movement and one of the most electrifying lecturers on campus. He advised us to search within ourselves to find out where our own values intersected with Obama's. To do this, we had to delve deeper than policy prescriptions to our vision for America and the world. "We need to articulate a set of values that are positive and affirmative, not negative or reactionary." McCarthy said. "Obama has already done this; now is the time for each of you to do the same."
My friends and I left the meeting fired up and ready to go. Every Saturday for the next three months, the SFBO chapter at Harvard will be traveling to Nashua or Manchester, New Hampshire to canvass for the campaign. In addition, once a week we will be holding phone-banks from campus so that we can reach even more New Hampshire voters. With so much work ahead, we know there may come times when we get tired. Yet, as Ned Helms told us, "the antidote for exhaustion is not rest, but whole-heartedness. If you can do this with your whole heart, you may be tired, but you will never be depleted or exhausted."
With less than 135 days before the nation's first primaries and caucuses in Iowa, Nevada, New Hampshire, and South Carolina, the countdown for change in America is on. This was evident last Saturday, when SFBO chapters hosted fifty "Countdown to Change" parties on campuses around the country. All across the nation, students came together to share their vision for America. At the events, Obama supporters wrote postcards to early primary state voters explaining why they are supporting Barack. Many chapters also used the opportunity to raise funds for the campaign's efforts in early primary states.
At the University of Kansas, the students took the party to the streets to spread Obama's message to classmates and other members of the community.
Some chapters, such as Students for Barack Obama at the University of Texas at Austin, took Obama's call for a more inclusive brand of politics to heart by kicking off voter registration drives on their campuses. As Nick Hudson, a junior majoring in government and philosophy, explained in The Daily Texan, "We think an important part of the Obama campaign is getting people involved in politics in a way they haven't before." Nick and others like him are following in the footsteps of Senator Obama, who made his first foray into politics by leading voter registration drives in Chicago during the early 1990s. By giving previously unregistered students a voice in our political system, SFBO members around the country are helping to make ours a stronger democracy not only in this election, but for years to come.
As the summer winds to a close, student volunteers on presidential campaigns are packing up their duffel bags and heading back to class. After weeks of parades, marathon phone calls, and pizza three meals a day, those who believed deeply in their candidates came back loving the experience.
Chris Dodge, a Georgetown University sophomore, worked in DC for Obama’s campaign to organize new student chapters and recruit volunteers for the fall. Here’s how he described his summer with the campaign to the Georgetown Independent:
“We're so lucky to be in a place that offers so many different opportunities to get involved politically, either legislatively or campaign-related. I would say, though, that campaigns can get long and tiring, so make sure you volunteer/work for a candidate or cause you really believe in. That's what keeps you going-the idea that what you're doing can make a substantive difference.”
His work was no summer stint for resume-building; it was a mission. This fall, Chris will take his organizing skills back to campus. And though the meals may be more regular and canvassing will be mixed with political science papers, the commitment endures.
It had that celebration feeling last Sunday at the Lexington Center in Kentucky as Barack Obama spoke before 1,800 supporters. The discussion ranged from local issues to global issues, yet the common thread throughout was Obama's call for an even stronger grassroots movement:
"I'm confident that we can chart a path that leads us to a better future. But I'm humble enough to know that I've got to have you with me. I've got to have you involved. You've got to be part of this process, this movement of change, this movement of transformation."
The hundreds of students in the crowd, many already a part of this movement, know just how much promise Obama's campaign holds for their communities. Cindy Alexburg, a freshman at the University of Kentucky, explained:
"I'm from Pikeville, which isn't...the most likely stop for a presidential candidate. But when we get the chance to talk about issues with a candidate like Obama at a local level, it really gives us encouragement that even the problems of Eastern Kentucky can be solved."
Most students at the event weren't surprised by another huge youth turnout for Obama. And why should they be? As noted by the Kentucky Kernel, the University of Kentucky's daily newspaper, over 500 Facebook groups nationwide to support Obama collectively boast more than 325,000 members, making him far and away the most popular candidate among student users.
When asked how Obama has achieved such solidarity with students, college senior and aspiring teacher Sheryl Williams replied: "He's here, and he's talking about issues that students care about...He gives us hope that our voices will be heard."
For more on Obama's appearance, follow this link to an article in the Kentucky Kernel, the University of Kentucky's daily newspaper.
No need to stress about back to school gear this fall; just wear Obama! The Obama for America campaign has just released all-new T-shirts, pins, water bottles and yard signs at the Obama Store. Each purchase on the site is a 100% contribution to the Obama campaign.
More importantly, wearing Obama gear on campus and in your community is one of the best ways to start conversations with undecided voters. Friends, neighbors, and classmates who still seek their best hope in this race will ask how you found yours in Barack Obama. Your words of support could make all the difference. It is, after all, through these conversations that people are galvanized, movements are built, and elections are won.
So show your proud support in style this fall. To find these items for you and your friends, visit:
http://store.barackobama.com.
A recent poll by Global Marketing Insite, Inc. (GMI) confirms the newfound power of social networking sites in the 2008 elections. It finds that 39% of respondents age 18 to 24 have already checked out a presidential candidate’s Facebook or MySpace profile. Of this group, 53% said that after visiting they were more likely to support the candidate. And with primary season to accelerate in the coming months, this medium will only grow in importance.
This trend can only bode well for the Obama campaign. To date, Barack Obama already has over 130,000 supporters on his Facebook profile, giving him over three times as many as any other presidential candidate. Our group, Students for Barack Obama, began on Facebook. This is not a fad; social networking sites are one of the tools we will use in this movement for a stronger America.
