Why Politicians Don't Care About Young People

Summary

The video explores the challenges young voters face in influencing politics, emphasizing how media and campaign strategies often prioritize older demographics. Despite their potential impact, young people are less likely to vote due to barriers like time constraints, work schedules, and generational differences in priorities. The video critiques the political system's tendency to overlook youth concerns while proposing solutions like preferential voting and mandatory voting to ensure their voices are heard. Ultimately, it highlights the need for a more inclusive political approach that engages younger generations without alienating other voter groups.

Takeaways

• 😀 Politics has become like a team sport, with people supporting their side through ups and downs, often leading to voting against their best interests.
• 😀 Young voters are crucial for political strategies, but many politicians struggle to engage them effectively, leading to their lack of influence in elections.
• 😀 While the support of young voters seems essential, they are often seen as unreliable and less targeted by politicians who focus on winning the next election.
• 😀 The impact of young voters is limited by factors like work commitments, lack of compulsory voting enforcement, and lower turnout rates.
• 😀 In countries with free elections, the focus is often on issues that affect older demographics, which diminishes the political sway of younger voters.
• 😀 Young people often have difficulty participating in elections due to factors such as inconvenient election dates and financial priorities like working instead of voting.
• 😀 The younger demographic represents a smaller share of the population, which naturally weakens their collective influence in elections.
• 😀 Campaigns face difficulty in targeting young voters, especially when their preferences clash with older voters' priorities, such as housing development and student loan relief.
• 😀 Social media and online media engagement by young people makes political messaging harder to reach without alienating other voter groups.
• 😀 Young voters are more politically engaged with independent voices, but politicians must tread carefully to avoid alienating both young and older voters.
• 😀 Solutions to increasing youth participation in elections include preferential voting systems and mandatory voting, though these face resistance from incumbent politicians.

Q & A

Why has politics become a 'team sport'?

Politics has become a 'team sport' because people now strongly identify with political parties in the same way fans support sports teams. Media outlets treat campaigns like sports playoffs, and election night as the grand finale, which is good for ratings. This creates an environment where voters support their political party unwaveringly, even when it goes against their best interests.

How does the media influence political engagement?

The media amplifies political engagement by treating elections as entertainment, which boosts ratings and public interest. Political campaigns are often framed like sports events, with fans rallying behind their teams. This commercialization of politics has led to increased polarization and has affected how voters engage with candidates.

Why are young voters considered unreliable in elections?

Young voters are considered unreliable because they often don't show up to vote consistently. They are distracted by other life commitments such as work, education, or social activities. Additionally, younger people tend to be less engaged with traditional political strategies and are harder to reach with conventional media campaigns.

What makes older voters easier to target than young voters?

Older voters are easier to target because they are more established in their lives, have stable jobs, homes, and finances, and are more likely to vote regularly. In contrast, younger voters are often busy with entry-level jobs or education, and may not prioritize voting or engage with traditional political messaging.

How do birth rates and longevity affect the political influence of young people?

Lower birth rates and longer life expectancy have resulted in an aging population, making young people a smaller share of the electorate. Even if young people were to vote consistently, they would still be outnumbered by older generations, who hold more political power.

What role does preferential voting play in increasing political participation?

Preferential voting allows voters to rank candidates in order of preference, which encourages politicians to appeal to a broader range of voters. It ensures that people's votes aren't wasted and encourages collaboration among candidates with smaller support bases. This system could help increase youth participation by making young voters feel their vote matters even if their first choice doesn't win.

Why is mandatory voting proposed as a potential solution for engaging young voters?

Mandatory voting is seen as a solution because it would force all eligible voters, including young people, to participate in elections. This would make politicians take their concerns more seriously, as they would have to compete for the votes of young people alongside older, more reliable voters.

What challenges exist with implementing mandatory voting, especially for younger voters?

One major challenge with mandatory voting is that it would require a significant change to the current system, which might not be welcomed by incumbents who benefit from the status quo. Additionally, even if voting were mandatory, young people would still need to be motivated to engage with the process, which is difficult given their current lack of political involvement.

How does young people's preference for independent media impact political engagement?

Young people often prefer getting their political news from independent, small-scale voices rather than traditional, centralized media outlets like cable news. This makes it harder for political campaigns to reach them with broad, general messages, and increases the influence of niche media platforms that might not have the same broad appeal.

What is the significance of the generational divide in political priorities?

The generational divide in political priorities is significant because younger people tend to prioritize issues like affordable housing and student loan relief, which older voters, who are more established in their careers and homes, do not prioritize. This difference in priorities makes it difficult for politicians to create messages that will resonate with both age groups simultaneously.