College Campuses Revel In Pivotal Political Role

[DeepModem Mom]

NYT/Reuters: College Campuses Revel In Pivotal Political Role
By REUTERS
Published: November 5, 2008

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - On American college campuses, where some two out of three students voted from Democrat Barack Obama, it wasn't so much "get out the vote" in this election but rather "text out the vote."

The savvy use of text messaging and Facebook networking combined with a political activism not seen at universities in decades roused what may be the biggest youth voter turnout since 1972, according to exit polls. That turnout on Tuesday was a key to Democrat Barack Obama's decisive victory in the U.S. presidential race, with 66 percent of 18-29-year-olds voting for him.

"We're the most diverse generation in American history, and this is our candidate," said University of California Berkeley freshman Ian Magruder, 18, who worked on the Obama campaign.

In his victory speech on Tuesday night, the 46-year-old African American president-elect thanked "the young people who rejected the myth of their generation's apathy."

In past elections, the youth vote fell short of expectations, reinforcing the belief that young people could not make a difference at the polls. This time, they accounted for a larger share of the electorate than the over-65 age group, with 18 percent of the 133 million votes cast. "The youth vote has fulfilled its promise," said John Della Volpe, polling director of the Institute of Politics at Harvard University....

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Instead of rebelling against the system, like the students of the 1960s and 70s did with sit-ins and street protests against the Vietnam War, this generation decided to go to the heart of it. UC Berkeley sociology professor Martin Sanchez-Jankowski said current Berkeley students aim "to be very active within the system to bring about some kind of change."...

http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/washington/politics-us-usa-election-students.html

[ebdarcy]

1. Good article. Thanks for posting it.