September 5, 2003 -- Vincent Fiore: The Silent Generation

The second reason was rooted in the run up to the Democratic nominee for the 2004 national election. It seems as if Vermont Governor Howard Dean is slowly applying a chokehold on the nomination, as his "I'm mad as hell, and I'm not gonna take it anymore" rhetoric/platform has taken root with many on the left, obvious among them the younger voter. It was than I came upon the chapter in Buckley's book entitled "The Silent Generation." It is the chapter that dealt with {at that time in 1959} the youth of the country and its uninspired behavior toward politics and the politicians in it. Nearly forty-five years have passed since Buckley's thesis of youth apathy in relation to politics, and I posit the notion that the young still keep politics at arms length.

The barometer that bears witness to this is the participation of the young in national elections. Forget the MTV "Rock the vote" pageantry and other such window dressing that implies that young voter participation is teeming. The numbers say otherwise. The US Census Bureau has compiled voter characteristics since 1964. In the year Lyndon Johnson was elected President, voters {registered} 18-24 years of age voted 50.9%, about one out of two. Since then it has been a steady descent into obscurity. In the 2000 presidential election, a meager 32.3% of Generation X and Generation Y, or "echo boomers" as they are sometimes tagged, managed to leave the self absorbing confines of their computers and the mind mush of reality TV programs for a night and exercise their right to vote.

Contrast this with voter's aged 65 and over. Since the Census Bureau started tracking voter participation via age in 1964, seniors have averaged a showing of 66.5%. In the last presidential election, seniors voted to the tune of 67.6%. People who see the differences between the young and old in voting characteristics are apt to parrot the talking head mantra that is ridged in stating the old have more to worry about, so it is little wonder why they vote as they do. But is that the appropriate sentiment, and was it ever? The young back in the forties and fifties had as much on their plate to consider, as do the overindulged youth of today. The main difference as I see it is the young of today are told they are growing up too fast, but are not enjoined to act it.

To not take part in the virtual forming of the country's direction is to in some respects leaving fate to chance. All other age groups with regard to voting have recognized the necessity of participation, although voting overall has declined from a high of 69.3% in 1964, to the present day 54.7%, most of the drop-off attributed to the apathetic young adult. More an issue orientated group than a political party supporter, young voters are more likely to get entranced by the tree's, but not the forest. In the early 70's, with the country heaving over Vietnam, college campuses were simply electrified to the point of violence with Senator/Presidential candidate George McGovern's populist raging over the war, demanding the troops be bought home. To those students, there were no other issues worth discussing. That was the last National election where 18-24 yr. olds voted anywhere near 50%.

Today with Howard Dean's bombastic attacks on President Bush and the war in Iraq, the young have formed behind Dean's banner of defiance at the establishment. They are wholly content to be caught up in a self-induced revolution that provides no answers as to what to actually do about terrorism, but to only pillage the Republican incumbent. Student activism is more akin to students acting up, demanding this or that without regard for consequence, with no real understanding as to the "rights" they demand of a free society. If there is fault to be meted out as to the political torpidity of the young voter, it must lie within ourselves. We must teach and inspire, if need be vociferously, that politics is more than an opportunity to sloganeer against a war at the behest of established elite's who have searched for a meaning to liberalism all there lives.

Buckley's "Up From Liberalism" points out that "The large majority of students, angled as they are toward liberalism, are silent, reflecting the great emptiness of their faith." When there is no passion, there is at most, little action. Totally self absorbed, there is scant room for public policy worries, much less national participation. There is a need for the young voter to know they make a difference; that theirs is a voice worthy of intelligent debate. The original silent generation, those born between 1925 and 1942, were the "generation without a cause," so conformity naturally followed. Today, the new silent generation is the latter period generation Xers and the future Y's, some 28 million potential voters {18-24 yr. olds}, have adopted a stance of impassiveness toward civic duty and an ambivalence on the issue's that shape the nation.

It seems little has changed since William Buckley's observations in 1959, with the exception being that the young voted even less. When I see 19-year-old kids in Iraq and Afghanistan fighting and dying for something they believe in, it is difficult to understand why there is so little interest in getting involved here at home. Howard Dean's candidacy is more placebo than cure for the placeless young that only commissions the need to vent, but does nothing in the long run to solidify a healthy partaking of empowerment through voting. It has been said that to be 18 and be conservative, you have no heart, but to be 38 and be liberal, you have no head. The sentiment is a reflection upon the maturation of an electorate, to see life as it is.

It is time for the youth of the country to get it in their heads that heart is not enough. Although the coerciveness of liberal academia has had incremental success inculcating their political utopianism within the young of yesterday as today, it is still unclear as to where the passion lies, and how to export it into the voting booth come November. It is indeed time, young friends, to get up from liberalism.

###

Vincent Fiore is a small business owner and is an active "Citizen Politician" for the GOP. He currently contributes commentary to 7 political web sites on a weekly basis.
ANWAR004@AOL.COM