Candidates ignore youth issues

The Republican and Democratic conventions are finished. Republican nominee George W. Bush talked about privatizing Social Security, tax cuts, Medicare and prescription drug benefits for senior citizens. Democratic nominee Al Gore talked about rescuing Social Security, tax cuts, Medicare and prescription drug benefits for senior citizens.\nThe youth of America were blithely ignored. The candidates should be scrambling to secure the votes of Generation X. Rock the Vote has been trying since 1990 to get American twenty-somethings to register and use their voting opportunities to make the government work for them. But something seems to have gone horribly awry.\n The "under 35" age bracket posts less than half the voter turnout of the "over 65" group. And the "under 25" group has the lowest voter turnout of all. Only about 32 percent of eligible voters in this bracket show up at the polls on election day, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.\n What does this mean for us? It means that this year, the candidates are focusing their energies overwhelmingly on the people they think will actually be in the voting booths ' the "over 65" crowd. Coincidentally, these are the citizens who have been contributing so handsomely to both campaigns.\nBush and Gore say they are supportive of youth-oriented issues, such as education funding and student loans for college. But the youth of America isn't jumping out of its chairs and rushing to the ballot box. In fact, the most prominent role that younger Americans played during the recent conventions was that of the protester ' violent and otherwise.\nOn the surface, Gore has tried positioning his daughters, especially Karenna Gore Schiff, to appeal to the younger generation. They recently appeared on the "Tonight Show with Jay Leno" and on MTV. But, according to the Los Angeles Times, when a delegation of politically oriented high school and college students from Los Angeles tried to secure permission to attend the Democratic convention at the Staples Center, they were handed 10 passes. For 200 students. The 80 who shared those passes were allowed to stay only 15 minutes each, the Times reported. \nIn a separate incident, the Times reported that reporters from the Associated Student Press were denied interviews with Schiff at the convention, because, according to an aide, she doesn't do events with those not of voting age.\nTalk about turning youth off to politics. These students are probably so disillusioned they won't feel a need to vote for quite some time.\nThe parties are trying a few tactics to market themselves to the youth of America. George P. Bush has been on the circuit, working to secure for his uncle the important Hispanic vote, and the vote of (primarily female) youth. Meanwhile, both conventions featured WWF's The Rock. Yet these tactics don't seem to be energizing youth to get involved with politics.\nThe upside of what is becoming of American youth is that, although they are voting less, they are volunteering more. According to a study in USA Today, involvement in community service is on the rise among our age group. It could be that this is how the next generation, feeling left out of the political process, will make a difference. \nCandidates, for president and otherwise, could easily take advantage of this commitment to the community and reach out to youth by addressing the issues with which we are concerned. \nThey haven't yet. We hope they will.