How can we get teens today into the political arena of tomorrow?

Question

What we are witnessing is the next american revolution. Citizens on all sides of the political spectrum are becoming more and more vocal as the state elections begin to take place. But what about 2008 and beyond? Who's going to carry the torch and represent the values of the american people? Ted Kennedy? Nancy Pelossi? Dick Cheney? Tom Delay? Not in my life time.

Many teens today are more concered about who wins American Idol, what Brad and Angelina's baby looks like, and the FIFA world cup than immigration & tax reform, the gay marriage amendment, Iran's nuclear program, and shying away from voting and politics almost all together.

If you're a teens activist, God bless you for whichever cause you're fighting for. As for me, these are the organizations I stand by:

http://www.fairtax.org/

http://www.norml.org/

(Don't know what political party shares you views, take this quiz and find out.)

http://www.self-gov.org/quiz.html

Answer 1

My suggestion would be to talk to them, parents have the biggest influence on a teens political view, if the parent has strong view it is likely that the child's view will follow. Watching the news reading the paper listening to political talk shows and book along with discussion at the dinner table is a good way to get a teen interested in politics.

Answer 2

I wanted to answer this in a particular way, so bear with me if this sounds funky.

If the teens don't get involved today, they will be that much more powerless than today to get involved.

Our young people are strong and proud Americans, coming out of the 60's and 70's they really make our country great and proud like it never was then.

They say every 40 years is a social revolution.

1840
1880
1920 - flappers and such
1960 - Vietnam war, protests, activism
2000 - The fight for the right for citizenship and stop colonization.

I was wondering when something this decade would come along to solidify our youth for something they believe in, and I guess it's here, only this time we knew it would be over the internet and not through music or movies like before.

I may be wrong about music, but I've not heard of any movies coming out of hollywood about our national immigration, or rather colonization issues that we face. Can you imagine a Hollywood completely silent about something? That alone should scare you about how secret what's going on around us is.

Answer 3

Teens - for the most part - have been primarily self-absorbed since the beginning of time. Many are socially conscious and eager to change the troubled world they're growing up in, but young people like to play and be young. When I was in high school few of us paid real attention to Mount St. Helens, the Reagan Recession, Chernobyl, Jim Jones in Guyana, etc, etc. ; but our parents did and tried to impress upon us the importance of these issues. We were concerned with Van Halen and leg warmers.

Kids now simple have more stimuli to distract them. We didn't have cable TV until I was 16, and only got 13 channels then. My parents didn't get a VCR until I was long grown, and what the hell was the internet?

Kids play a different sort of politics. Prom King and Queen, captain of the football team, Class President, Valadictorian, Homecoming .... blah, blah,blah.

With regards to our next leader? You can rest assured that none of the names on your list will get even close.

Answer 4

forgive us teens living in a "post-modern" world but if you want us to be interested in politics start from the beginning. yes the beginning: make babies watch c-span instead on nick jr. and see what happens

if you can't tell that's sarcasm

you know it's funny, you can't really force someone to like something, in this case politics. sad, i know, cause i really wish that some people would pay more attention to my corroding philippines: they wish to be a first-world country in 2046 ... in forty years i'll be forty-five. so when i'm forty-five ... oh, i don't even wanna think about it. cause i'd like to say that would happen but um- no ...

in other words, we're just more interested about what entertains us and politics just doesn't entertain us like fake gore in movies and celebrity gossip and the FIFA World Cup. sure immigration and tax reform, the gay marriage amendment and all those other things you mentioned are important but trust me, you're going to get a lot of groupies who will turn away from their groupie-like ways and become activists. something will happen watch.
keep faith, you'll get your politicians sooner or later

and no, the latter arguments were not sarcasm.

Answer 5

First Teens love drama thats why they travel towards movies and magizines, they think politics is just alot of old people playing chess. Show them the real world of politics and history. Show them the exciting part of politic life. Get them involved in the scandal and they will get involved in the lesson/world of politics teach them how to be better people and how those better people need to help with our government and so forth. We live in the best country ever where anybody could president if they work hard enough-show them that!!!

Answer 6

I dont live in the states...im UK but my personal thought is that if the politicians maybe stopped to listen to the teens instead of screwing up the planet/country world whatever for them to inherit then maybe just maybe the teens would show an interest in politics.....why bother when the world you live in is being slowly screwed up by a generation that isnt going to be around to live with the damage inflicted...and im not just talking about global warming ecological damage either.

Answer 7

To be honest, this is just somethings I have noticed between my friends, classmates, and just random people I run into, of all ages. Being from a middle class family, as are most of my friends and acquaintances, we just don't feel that our thoughts/beliefs are being represented by any candidate. I know, I have tried to get interested in politics, I gave it a good three year run, but many of the aspects being discussed are who to go to war with, or not to war with. Most of us are just trying to get through school, or get to a point in our lives where we can devote some attention to political matters.

And speaking of 'teens today,' no offense, but look at the age group of teens. Only 18 & 19 year olds may vote, so lumping in the other teen years with that age group might construe peoples thought processes.

I guess to boil it down, most 'young people' don't seem to care about politics because to be honest, politicians don't care about us, we aren't contributing millions of dollars to their campaigns, so they really have no reason to appeal to our wishes, also, alot of people vote either straight republican/democrat, very few people pay attention to TV debates (again, topics of little interest to my generation.)

Just some thoughts.

Answer 8

teens need to be aware of whats going on around them, but politics today is crazy, liars and cheaters, its ridiculus, and all the president wants now is war but some how peace at the same time. They should get into politics after they take economics and government and learn current events and stuff, like as a junior when they're more aware.

Answer 9

I think teens are largely concerned about what is only applicable to them. So the key is to show them that politics can apply to their lives and show them that the political scene matters. You're off to a good start. I also think it is the responsibility of adults to vote and be active politically in order to set a good example for the rising generation.

Answer 10

The fair tax is a joke. i cant imagine anyone that really wants it. At least anyone that actually has worked and pai taxes in their life. Kids are exposed to more liberal bs today than ever. Acceptance and tolerance does not make it right, Our education system is screwed so thusly our kids continue to come out screwed up. Good lord this is depressing, Im moving to Mexico where is more stable

Answer 11

With the teens' questions and some of their responses to questions, I am quite concerned with this generation. I'm afraid this generation has had to raise themselves because of absentee parents who either choose to not be present in the home or who have made decisions that require they not be in the home.

I guess I feel as if my parents felt about the 60s generation.

We can only hope!