SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
youth voting
Our Voices and Our Votes Matter
On this National Voter Registration Month, let’s honor the generations who fought, marched, and even died for the right to vote by doing our part.
Sep 28, 2025
In 2002, the National Association of Secretaries of State designated every September National Voter Registration Month. This is more than a month on the calendar; it’s a call to action to remind us of one of the most powerful truths in a democracy: Change doesn’t happen unless we show up.
It’s a reminder that our voices matter, our votes matter, and that the freedoms we often take for granted can only be protected if we exercise them at the ballot box.
In recent years, one freedom has been under relentless attack: reproductive freedom. Across the country, state legislatures have rolled back rights that generations before us fought to secure. People are being forced to travel hundreds of miles for medical care, to carry pregnancies against their will, and to endure unnecessary suffering because of political decisions made by elected officials. These policies don’t reflect the will of the majority. Poll after poll shows that most Americans believe in protecting abortion access and reproductive healthcare. But here’s the catch: Beliefs don’t change laws. Votes do.
That’s why National Voter Registration Month matters so deeply. It’s about more than filling out a form. It’s about building power to defend all of our freedoms: reproductive rights, voting rights, LGBTQIA+ rights, climate justice, disability rights, racial equity, and economic fairness. Every freedom we value is on the line, and the ballot box is where we fight for them.
Young people, your future is being decided whether you participate or not. Claim your power.
This message is especially urgent for young people. Generation Z and Millennials already make up the largest voting bloc in the country. Young voters have the numbers to decide elections and to set the course for the future. Yet too often, young voices are missing at the polls because they aren’t registered and don’t realize how simple the process can be.
Here’s the good news: In many states, high school students as young as 16 or 17 can preregister to vote. That means when they turn 18, they’re automatically added to the rolls and ready to participate in their first election. By the time they reach voting age, they’re not scrambling to meet deadlines; they’re already prepared to cast their first ballot and shape their future.
If you’re a young person reading this, or if you know one, don’t wait until the night before a big election to figure out the process. Go online today, check your state’s rules, and register, or preregister now. Encourage your classmates to do the same. Host a registration drive at your school. Post on social media. Because here’s the truth: Decisions about your future are being made right now by people in power. If you’re not registered, you don’t get a say.
National Voter Registration Month is also a reminder to all of us, no matter our age, that democracy is not a spectator sport. Registration deadlines vary by state, and millions of people lose their chance to vote every cycle simply because they missed a deadline or their information wasn’t updated after moving. Taking five minutes to check your registration could be the most important action you take this year.
The stakes have never been higher. The Supreme Court has already overturned Roe v. Wade, stripping away a nearly 50-year precedent. State legislatures are racing to see how far they can go in restricting abortion access. Some are even targeting birth control and IVF. None of this happened by accident. It happened because elections have consequences.
But there’s another side to that story: Protecting and expanding freedoms also comes down to elections. In states where voters showed up to pass ballot measures protecting abortion access, reproductive freedom is still secure. In districts where young people voted in record numbers, leaders committed to justice and equity were elected. The message is clear: When we vote, we win.
So, on this National Voter Registration Month, let’s honor the generations who fought, marched, and even died for the right to vote by doing our part. Let’s commit to registering ourselves, helping our neighbors get registered, and making sure every eligible high school student knows they can take action now.
Our freedoms are not guaranteed. They are defended or lost at the ballot box. If you care about reproductive freedom, if you care about climate justice, if you care about racial equality, LGBTQIA+ rights, or economic security, then voting is not optional; it is essential.
Young people, your future is being decided whether you participate or not. Claim your power. Register. Preregister. Show up. And know this: your voice, your vote, your freedom, our collective future, depends on it.
Keep ReadingShow Less
Let Our Youth Vote!
Making it easier for young people to vote is a great way to increase participation, making our democracy live up to its ideals.
Aug 26, 2025
With democracy under attack in the US, a worldwide movement to lower the voting age is growing. This July, the United Kingdom announced it would lower the voting age from 18 to 16 in general elections. When the bill passes, the UK will join Brazil, Austria, Cuba, Argentina, Nicaragua, and Ecuador as nations which already allow 16-year-olds to vote. In others, including Greece and Indonesia, the voting age is 17.
While there is no clear partisan advantage in lowering the voting age, collective benefits abound—including a more engaged democracy judged by civic engagement and political attitudes.
Voting habits are established early, and support in the classroom can make a big difference. But, when the voting age is 18, fewer voters are in school during their first election. Depending on the election cycle, many will not have the opportunity to vote in a national election until they are 21. Thus, many first-time voters lack vital resources and thus face higher barriers to entry. The case is true in the United States. Nearly a third of unregistered voters between 18-29 say they were simply too busy to go through the registration process.
As political scientist Joshua Tucker explains, “If you vote when you’re young in the first three elections, [for which you are eligible] that’s likely to predict you continue voting.” If you don’t, “you’re less likely to vote for the rest of your life,” and “even one failure lowers the chance of voting later.” So, the stakes are high and opportunity during the early years can have lifelong impacts.
Here 16- and 17-year-olds drive, pay taxes, work unrestricted hours; yet they cannot exercise the fundamental, democratic right to vote.
Nations lowering voting age have experienced an increase youth activism. Argentina, for example, lowered voting age in 2012. Then in 2015, years before the surge of the #MeToo movement, the Ni Una Menos (Not one less) movement in Argentina began. Through mass protests and strikes, it aimed to combat and bring awareness to gender-based violence.
Another youth-led action—the Marea Verde (Green Wave) Movement—pushed to legalize abortion and significantly influenced development and passage of a 2020 national Argentine law that did just that.
Here, too, young Americans have stepped up for a stronger democracy, even helping to spark two of the most influential Supreme Court cases. In 1951, 16-year-old Barbara Johns, a student in a segregated school in Prince Edward County, Virginia, took action. Her school held over twice as many students as was legally permissible, used second-hand supplies, and lacked adequate bathrooms or heating. So, Johns led her peers in a school assembly and ultimately organized a student-body strike. With the support of the NAACP, her courageous efforts turned into one of the five legal cases of Brown v. the Board of Education that declared public school segregation illegal.
About a decade and a half later, five students in Des Moines, Iowa came together to protest the Vietnam War, each wearing an armband to school. For this they were suspended, but they fought back. Their fight eventually made its way to the Supreme Court and what would become Tinker v. Des Moines defining public-school students’ First Amendment rights.
In a more recent example of the power of student activism, a survivor from the Parkland shooting, high school junior Cameron Kasky, organized the March for Our Lives protests in 2018. In a fight for gun control, they would become one of the largest in US history, with a million participants—mostly students—taking the streets to fight for gun control.
These formidable young people offer inspiring evidence that an early understanding of civics, along with the experience of political empowerment, can ripple out to make history. These stories underscore our responsibility to bring these principles and opportunities to all young Americans, not only with better civics education but also by lowering the voting age, and thereby affirming their voices matter.
As data from the most recent election confirm, states with the least restrictive voting had the highest turnout among young voters, while the opposite was true in the more restrictive states. Thankfully, we are making progress: In a third of US states, 17-year-olds can now vote in primaries if they turn 18 before the general election. Even more exciting are the dozen cities where 16-year-olds can now vote, either in school-board elections or all local elections.
The facts are clear. Making it easier for young people to vote is a great way to increase participation, making our democracy live up to its ideals. Here 16- and 17-year-olds drive, pay taxes, work unrestricted hours; yet they cannot exercise the fundamental, democratic right to vote.
Let us step up to join our peer nations and change that now.Keep ReadingShow Less
The Kids Are Alright and They’re Taking Over
Mamdani’s win comes as youth voter registration is climbing across the board. And it’s not because anyone suddenly handed us hope; it’s because we’ve been forced to create it for ourselves.
Jun 28, 2025
As someone who’ll soon join those ranks of “first-time voters,” witnessing 33‑year‑old Democrat Socialist Zohran Mamdani defeat a seasoned political heavyweight like Andrew Cuomo feels revolutionary. Watching what’s happening right now—watching young people turn their disillusionment into infrastructure, their rage into organizing—makes it clear: The next generation is coming in hot.
The numbers say it all. According to the Financial Times, 52% of voters under 45 backed Mamdani. Cuomo only got 18%. A remarkable age gap, it’s a generation breaking up the political status quo. And what’s even more staggering? So many of Mamdani’s voters were casting a ballot for the very first time.
We’ve been told for years that young people don’t vote. That we’re apathetic, distracted, too caught up in our phones to care about policy. But this election shattered that myth. The campaigns were built on grassroots energy. To mobilize voters, especially newbies, Mamdani’s team organized over 46,000 volunteers and knocked on more than 1 million doors. And, the people showed up like their lives depended on it—because in so many ways, they do. Youth voter registration is climbing across the board. And it’s not because anyone suddenly handed us hope; it’s because we’ve been forced to create it for ourselves.
So to my fellow future voters, my peers who are just now stepping into the political arena: This is our moment!
Our generation was raised on crisis. Climate collapse. School shootings. Incredibly normalized economic anxiety. We don’t remember a world before mass surveillance, before “once-in-a-century” storms became routine. So, we’re pushing for better with everything we’ve got.
Mamdani’s campaign won because it was real. He spoke in a language of inclusion that we understand. His unapologetic support of human rights and liberation for all, including the Palestinians, resonated with us. His promises—affordable housing, public transit, community-owned groceries—speak directly to the world we’re inheriting. The one we’re expected to fix.
All of this is happening against the backdrop of Donald Trump’s presidency, which continues to cast a long, toxic shadow. But even his chaos doesn’t scare us as much as apathy does. Because what scares me, more than another four years of extremism, is the possibility that people will sit this one out. That they’ll believe the lie that nothing ever changes. That the game is rigged. But Mamdani’s win proves otherwise. When we organize, we win. When we show up, we matter. And we are showing up as strategists and leaders.
So to my fellow future voters, my peers who are just now stepping into the political arena: This is our moment! We are deliberate. We are strategic. You don’t have to be a politician to change the game. You just have to show up, again and again, until they can’t ignore you anymore.
Keep ReadingShow Less
Youth Coalition Presses Biden to Declare Climate Emergency Ahead of Earth Day
"As the election approaches, young people are mobilizing to demand President Biden take bold action to protect young peoples' futures."
Apr 11, 2024
Ahead of Earth Day on April 22, youth organizers across the United States are planning protests in hundreds of communities to demand that President Joe Biden declare a climate emergency and take other action to tackle the fossil fuel-driven crisis.
"President Biden promised to be a climate president. Ahead of the 2024 election, young people are mobilizing to hold him accountable to that promise," reads a joint statement put out by the coalition composed of Campus Climate Network, Fridays for Future USA, and the Sunrise Movement.
While they are focused on the president in power, presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump—a Big Oil ally whose plans for the planet if he returns to office are to "drill, baby, drill"—offers no hope for the groups' demands.
Biden has won praise for some climate progress during his first term, particularly his recent pause on liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports. However, the Democrat has also come under fire for supporting the Willow oil project and Mountain Valley Pipeline, continuing fossil fuel lease sales, and skipping last year's United Nations summit.
On Tuesday, the Biden administration approved the construction of Houston-based Enterprise Product Partners' Sea Port Oil Terminal off the Texas Gulf Coast.
Sunrise called the move "very disappointing," and pointed out on social media that the project is set to "be the largest oil export terminal in the U.S."
"It threatens lives, just so Big Oil can profit big exporting abroad," the movement added. "This is a dangerous mark of Big Oil's power in politics."
Despite marks of progress on climate, the groups lamented that "U.S. oil and gas production has surged to record highs" under the Biden administration.
They also acknowledged previous protests, including one by Sunrise in February that led to arrests at Biden's campaign headquarters.
"As the election approaches, young people are mobilizing to demand President Biden take bold action to protect young peoples' futures," they said. "That begins with declaring a climate emergency that meaningfully addresses fossil fuels, creates millions of good-paying union jobs, and helps us prepare for incessant climate disasters."
Last year—the hottest in human history—Biden claimed that "practically speaking," he had already declared a national climate emergency. The People vs. Fossil Fuels coalition responded that he "should follow through on his rhetoric and immediately declare a national emergency that would unlock new executive powers to speed up the deployment of clean energy and halt fossil fuel expansion."
As the Center for Biological Diversity has laid out, if Biden declared an emergency, under various federal laws he could then halt crude oil exports; stop oil and gas drilling in the outer continental shelf; restrict international trade and private investment in fossil fuels; grow domestic manufacturing for clean energy and transportation to speed the nationwide transition off fossil fuels; and build resilient and distributed renewable energy systems in climate-vulnerable communities.
To renew pressure on the president, Fridays for Future USA is planning a Day of Climate Action—part of a global strike next Friday, April 19. Organizers said that "in New York City alone, thousands of students will walk out of their classes and march from Foley Square in Manhattan across the Brooklyn Bridge to Brooklyn Borough Hall."
On Earth Day itself—April 22—Campus Climate Network is organizing actions at over 100 campuses calling on colleges and universities to "become true environmental justice leaders and cut ties with the fossil fuel industry."
Meanwhile, the Sunrise Movement plans to lead dozens of Earth Day teach-ins at congressional offices and other locations to urge members of Congress to demand a formal declaration.
Sunrise is also part of another coalition—with Gen-Z for Change, March for Our Lives, and United We Dream Action—that is pushing the president to embrace a broader youth agenda that addresses not only the climate emergency but also gun violence, immigrants' rights, and the U.S.-backed Israeli assault on the Gaza Strip.
"In 2020, young people sent Biden to the White House. In 2024, how many young people turn out for Biden will determine if we stave off a second Trump presidency," the group's political director, Michele Weindling, said last month. "Right now, young people are shouting for what we need from Biden to mobilize our generation this November."
Keep ReadingShow Less
Youth Organizers Launch 'Protect Our Power' Campaign to Reelect the Squad
House progressives "have shifted the political narrative to center young people's leadership on the most pressing issues of our generation—from climate justice, labor rights, and abortion access, to anti-war foreign policy."
Apr 05, 2024
A coalition of youth organizers this week launched the "Protect Our Power" campaign to help reelect progressives in Congress who are under attack from pro-Israel lobbyists for their criticism of the U.S.-backed Israeli assault of the Gaza Strip.
"We are among the leaders of the most diverse and progressive generation in U.S. history," says a fact sheet from organizers. "We've met each other on Zoom calls, college campuses, campaigns, rallies, and parties. Spanning across a range of organizations and movements, we're united by our generation's common fight for peace, justice, a livable world, and a multiracial democracy."
"Over the past few years, we've experimented with a diverse set of tactics to grow our power—our involvement in elections being one of them," the organizers noted. "Today, we not only occupy the streets but Congress itself. With just a handful of insurgent electeds known as 'The Squad,' we have forced our generation's priorities to the forefront of American politics and reinspired young people to be involved in the political process."
"We're united by our generation's common fight for peace, justice, a livable world, and a multiracial democracy."
The Squad began with Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.), and Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.)—younger progressive women of color all elected in 2018. The informal group has since expanded to include Reps. Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.), Cori Bush (D-Mo.), and Summer Lee (D-Pa.).
Young progressives in the U.S. House of Representatives recently dubbed "Squad-adjacent" by Slate's Alexander Sammon include Reps. Greg Casar (D-Texas), Delia Ramirez (D-Ill.), and Maxwell Frost (D-Fla.).
Tlaib—the only Palestinian American in Congress—and Bush led the first Gaza cease-fire resolution effort in Congress, just days after the October 7 Hamas-led attack on Israel, which has retaliated over the past six months by killing more than 33,000 Palestinians, injuring another 75,000, displacing most people in Gaza, and devastating civilian infrastructure.
While global condemnation of Israel grows—a genocide case against the country at the International Court of Justice continues to garner support—the dark money affiliate of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) plans to spend $100 million trying to unseat congressional critics of the Israeli government this election cycle.
Reporting on those plans led to the recent creation of Reject AIPAC, a coalition of progressive organizations working to take on the group and its affiliated super political action committees (PACs). Members include Justice Democrats, Jewish Voice for Peace Action, IfNotNow, Working Families Party, Sunrise Movement, Democratic Socialists of America, and Gen-Z for Change.
Youth organizers from some of those same organizations are involved with the new Protect Our Power effort.
"The only thing that beats organized money is organized people," the young organizers argued. "Fortunately, that's what we know how to do best. Over the next few months, we'll build out a cohort of committed young leaders across the country and equip them with the training and tools to bring their own networks into this work."
"We'll work with these leaders to mobilize their networks to engage in a variety of tactics to defend the Squad," the organizers said. "For some groups, that might mean making texts, calls, and knocking on doors. For others, that could mean birddogging, targeted and disruptive demonstrations, oppo research, and much more. Then, once we win, we'll frame our victories as a governing mandate to shape the Democratic platform and agenda in the 2024 general election."
Before November, progressives targeted by pro-Israel groups are working to win their primaries. In Pennsylvania, voters are set to head to the polls on April 23. Lee's primary challenger is Bhavini Patel, who is taking money from rich right-wingers; a previous challenger, Laurie MacDonald, is now running a write-in campaign as a Republican.
The New York primary elections are on June 25. Bowman faces an AIPAC-backed Westchester County Executive George Latimer—who last week was accused of "straight-up genocide denial" for his comments on the mass slaughter in Gaza.
Bush and Omar are both set to face locally prominent primary challengers in August.
Those four incumbents "and the rest of the Squad have shifted the political narrative to center young people's leadership on the most pressing issues of our generation—from climate justice, labor rights, and abortion access, to anti-war foreign policy," the Protect Our Power coalition said on social media Thursday.
"Help us reelect the Squad and guarantee that our allies in Congress can continue to represent young people across this country," the group added. "Join us this Sunday for our
kickoff."
The coalition is made up of "over 100 youth organizers across issues, including students from 30+ universities," according to spokesperson John Paul Mejia. "We're defending the Squad and our generation's political power from right-wing, billionaire-funded organizations that want to silence us."
Among the campaign's supporters is climate activist Magnolia Mead, who
warned this week that "our movements can't afford to lose their critical voices in Congress. Now and in the coming months we have a chance to throw down and protect them."
Kavi Shrestha, an Oregon-based leader with College Democrats of America, similarly
stressed that "our generation cannot stand by as right-wing billionaires and PACs attack the representatives who stand up for our interests—Medicare for All, a habitable planet, and an immediate cease-fire."
"While they have money," said Shrestha, "we have numbers."
Keep ReadingShow Less
Biden Must Do Much More to Win Over Young Climate Voters
Biden must end the flow of public money to fossil fuels, sending a clear statement to voters that he is the candidate who will stand up to fossil fuels, and stand up for our future.
Mar 14, 2024
I turn 18 just in time for the 2024 election, and I know that the stakes are higher than ever. It’s not just a contest between President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump; it’s a choice between the only person who can lead the U.S.’ much-needed energy transition and a criminal who’s promised to systematically dismantle environmental protections and our democracy.
As a climate activist the choice should be easy, but my peers aren’t jumping for joy at the prospect of casting a vote for Biden. While the Inflation Reduction Act was a step in the right direction, we’ve also witnessed a string of new oil and gas projects, watered-down language, and broken promises. Biden must do much more to win over young climate voters ahead of this year’s election, and he can start by keeping his promise to stop public money flowing into fossil fuels.
A record number of young people voted in the 2020 election, with as much as 10% increases in young voter turnout across key battleground states like Arizona, Wisconsin, and Georgia. This year, Harvard polling has predicted a lower level of youth turnout, which could be potentially fatal for the Biden-Harris administration. To win, Biden needs a strong turnout from young voters. The White House is now on an all-out offensive to charm young climate voters like me, recently setting up a TikTok page and inviting a group of young climate influencers to the White House.
Youth can help transform the Biden campaign into a powerful political movement, but we are not willing to compromise on the climate crisis.
Despite his efforts to connect with us, Biden’s climate hypocrisy is a line many of us aren’t willing to cross. Last year, Biden approved the Willow project, going directly against his promise to end fossil fuel projects on public land and water. This caused outrage in many youth circles.
The promise-breaking goes beyond Willow. In 2021, the Biden administration and 33 other governments signed up to the Clean Energy Transition Partnership, promising to end international public finance for fossil fuels by the end of 2022. But in the last year alone, the U.S. channeled almost $1 billion into new oil and gas, through the U.S. Export-Import Bank, EXIM. Next week, the EXIM board is voting on a major oil and project in Bahrain. If it is approved, at least $100 million U.S. tax dollars will go toward over 400 new oil wells, contrary to Biden’s fossil fuel pledges.
Export credit agencies like EXIM are government-owned institutions that provide financial services to large infrastructure projects around the world. They are also the world’s largest international public funders of fossil fuels. Each year, Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries’ export credit agencies provide over $40 billion of public money to fossil fuels—five times their support for clean energy.
This must stop. With our planet and our democracy in the balance, President Biden needs to fund a just energy transition. It’s not an accident that the largest climate march since the pandemic took place in September last year—young people are fighting for better. To win the youth climate vote, Biden must end the flow of public money to fossil fuels, sending a clear statement to voters that he is the candidate who will stand up to fossil fuels, and stand up for our future. This will get the youth vote out much more than a 30-second TikTok ever could.
This week, the OECD is meeting in Paris to discuss groundbreaking proposals to stop export credit agency support for oil and gas. It’s one of Biden’s last chances to prove himself as a climate leader, and the U.S. will play a critical role. Biden can either support the proposals and put a stop to EXIM, or choose to continue plunging public money into coal, oil, and gas.
Youth can help transform the Biden campaign into a powerful political movement, but we are not willing to compromise on the climate crisis. Many of us grew up believing we would “one day” see the effects of climate change, but in the last year, my education has been stalled or stopped due to flooding and extreme smoke multiple times. I refuse to vote away my health, my community, and my safety.
Our democracy is incredibly fragile, deeply worth protecting, and impressively resilient, much like our planet. I will cast my first-ever vote for Joe Biden, but to get a record youth turnout he needs to do more. Next week, Biden has an opportunity to build momentum from his pause in new LNG permits and match his promises with action, ending the flow of U.S. public money into fossil fuels for good. In the meantime, I will continue to pressure Biden to listen to young people, because I refuse to choose between my future and my vote.
Keep ReadingShow Less
I Want My Grandchildren to Have a Livable Planet
It is past time for our country to acknowledge the fear and the anger that comes with the prediction of 99% of climate scientists that we need to make radical changes in order to allow our young people to survive in the future.
Sep 29, 2023
A recent high point for many East Coast climate activists was the amazing march in New York City on Sunday, September 17. I also was a marcher in the huge New York climate march almost a decade ago. This time around, the march was as diverse as the city itself, but another striking aspect of this march was the amazingly creative and excited youth marchers.
I was able to walk along the march on the sidewalk before things really started going, and what I saw was the most colorful, joy filled and transformational presence of people who were not yet adults when the march occurred in 2014. There is a serious reason that Vivek Ramaswamy, the far-right piece of ego running for president, says that our voting age should be 25! I am hearing more serious Republicans discussing 21 as a voting age—three years older than the age when one can enlist in the military.
The MAGA crowd, who don't have any respect for voting rights for others, is happy to disenfranchise the next generation. Young voters are being blocked from voting from colleges by Republicans in order to suppress their voices. We understand that they are the future—from the lawsuits young people are initiating against oil companies, to disrupting events such as the U.S. Open.
So many of the cruel policies punishing women, nonbinary folks, people of color, environmentalists, and generally anyone with a shred of kindness seem to be aimed at youth.
As I observed the march, I saw some of the most colorful, original signs, costumes, body paint, floats, and dancing. Much of the art on view was rainbows, hearts, neon colored, and represented all the images that the far right wants to eliminate. Much of the art was created with a tiny fraction of the single use plastics still sold freely in this country. Greenpeace created an amazing sculpture using all e-waste. Some young people used trashed plastic bottles to make "fish" on sticks that swam through the air. There was some incredible use of papier-mache, body paint, and such original signage.
In walking through this group, I was struck by the joy, the color, the openness of this crowd to all the people, music, books, artwork, that the right wing is trying to ban from our lives. The generation who has come of age in the 21st century is beautifully made up of the many varieties of people who exist—and they are open to and proud of their differences. It seems clear that the book bans, the teacher firings, the petty anger at all the "wokeness" all appear to be an attempt by the far right to prevent the coming up from taking power. So many of the cruel policies punishing women, nonbinary folks, people of color, environmentalists, and generally anyone with a shred of kindness seem to be aimed at youth.
Franklin Roosevelt lowered the age for drafting young men from 21 to 18. For 30 years, there was a campaign to lower the voting age to 18. The anti-war protests of the late 1960's included a demand that those young men who were being used as cannon fodder should have a vote as to foreign policy. In 1971, Richard Nixon signed the 26th Amendment into law giving the vote to 18-year-olds. The 26th Amendment is not going anywhere.
Every time there is a national election, the demographics speak for themselves. As a white 69-year-old who worked tirelessly for Bernie Sanders, who has been a progressive my entire life, I am always astounded to see the terrible voting record of white women my age in the U.S. In the states that voted for Donald Trump, the percentage of older white MAGA voters is terrifying. For example, in Alabama, 80% of white women voted for Trump. The golf cart driving seniors in Florida's huge retirement complex, the Villages, are much more the norm, even though many of those same seniors have grandchildren who are terrified about their future due to the destruction of the climate. I always wonder how these people justify their unlimited, unthinking use of fossil fuels that will create an even less livable world for their grandchildren.
It is past time for our country to acknowledge the fear for the future and the anger that comes with the prediction of 99% of climate scientists that we need to make radical changes in order to allow our young people to survive in the future. The ultimate selfishness of the climate change deniers is overwhelming. As Jimmy Carter was ridiculed for asking people to wear a sweater and turn down the thermostat to save carbon-based fuel, Bernie Sanders was mocked by the media for being the only 2016 debate participant to answer that climate change was the issue of the future. Can you even remember the other Democrats' answers? If we don't step it up, stop extracting fossil fuels, and challenge the cancer of capitalism. all the fears of our amazing younger generation will be realized. I want my grandchildren to have a livable planet and will be working to that end for the rest of my life.
Keep ReadingShow Less
Audio Reveals Top GOP Lawyer's 2024 Strategy: Make It Harder for College Students to Vote
"Instead of fighting for the people or actually earning the votes, Republicans' only plan is to try to 'combat' voting on college campuses," said Rep. Summer Lee.
Apr 21, 2023
A longtime Republican lawyer who aided former President Donald Trump's effort to overturn the 2020 election told GOP donors that the party should be working to roll back voting on college campuses and other initiatives aimed at expanding ballot access, according to audio obtained by progressive journalist Lauren Windsor.
"What are these college campus locations?" Cleta Mitchell, a top GOP attorney and fundraiser asked during a presentation at the Republican National Committee's donor retreat in Nashville last weekend.
"What is this young people effort that they do? They basically put the polling place next to the student dorm so they just have to roll out of bed, vote, and go back to bed," lamented Mitchell, an avid voter suppression campaigner who has represented Republican organizations, individual lawmakers, and right-wing groups such as the National Rifle Association.
According to The Washington Post, which reviewed a copy of Mitchell's Nashville presentation, the GOP attorney's remarks "offered a window into a strategy that seems designed to reduce voter access and turnout among certain groups, including students and those who vote by mail, both of which tend to skew Democratic."
"Mitchell focused on campus voting in five states—Arizona, Georgia, Nevada, Virginia, and Wisconsin—all of which are home to enormous public universities with large in-state student populations," the Post reported Thursday. "Mitchell also targeted the preregistration of students, an apparent reference to the practice in some states of allowing 17-year-olds to register ahead of their 18th birthdays so they can vote as soon as they are eligible."
Ben Wikler, the chair of the Wisconsin Democratic Party, noted in response to Mitchell's presentation that "Wisconsin has 320,000 college students."
"If the GOP had won the state Supreme Court race, they would've—as this speech makes clear—engineered a crackdown on student voter freedoms," Wikler wrote on Twitter. "Instead, thanks in part to student turnout, democracy lives on in Wisconsin."
"The Trump machine wants to disenfranchise students," Wikler added. "We're fighting them in WI. They've got their eye on our state, and NC and VA too."
Republican lawmakers in dozens of states across the country have introduced at least 150 bills aimed at restricting ballot access this year, according to the Brennan Center for Justice.
"Two of the more radical proposals include a Texas bill that would allow presidential electors to disregard state election results and a Virginia bill that would empower a random selection of residents to void local election results," the group observed.
In her speech to Republican donors, Mitchell said GOP lawmakers should be using their dominance in state legislatures to "combat" voting by college students and measures such as same-day voter registration.
Mitchell pointed specifically to North Carolina, where Republicans now have veto-proof majorities in both legislative chambers thanks to erstwhile Democratic state Rep. Tricia Cotham, who recently switched parties.
"Instead of fighting for the people or actually earning the votes, Republicans' only plan is to try to 'combat' voting on college campuses and prevent students and young people from participating in our democracy," Rep. Summer Lee (D-Pa.) wrote Thursday. "They are SHAMELESSLY and DESPERATELY saying the quiet part out loud."
The New York Times reported last month that Republicans, "alarmed over young people increasingly proving to be a force for Democrats at the ballot box," have already been "trying to enact new obstacles to voting for college students" in recent weeks.
"In Idaho, Republicans used their power monopoly... to ban student ID cards as a form of voter identification," the newspaper reported. "But so far this year, the new Idaho law is one of few successes for Republicans targeting young voters. Attempts to cordon off out-of-state students from voting in their campus towns or to roll back preregistration for teenagers have failed in New Hampshire and Virginia."
"Even in Texas, where 2019 legislation shuttered early voting sites on many college campuses, a new proposal that would eliminate all college polling places seems to have an uncertain future," the Times added.
The intensifying GOP campaign against youth voting comes after young people had a major impact on the 2022 midterms. As researchers noted in a recent analysis for the Brookings Institution, strong enthusiasm and turnout among young voters "enabled the Democrats to win almost every battleground statewide contest and increase their majority in the U.S. Senate."
"To the GOP: I hope you're afraid," tweeted Olivia Julianna, director of politics and government affairs at Gen-Z for Change. "I hope you wake up every morning haunted by the chants of young voters protesting your attacks on our rights. You should be afraid. Because you're going to lose power, one vote at a time."
Keep ReadingShow Less
See More Stories
Most Popular
To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good.
News & Opinion
Trending
Common Dreams, Inc. Founded 1997. Registered 501(c3) Non-Profit
Privacy Policy