Getting off the couch for politics

gzlaser

GONE are the days when apathy plagued US presidential elections.

Over the past few months, millions of Americans have been reading up on their candidates and counting down the days until the reigning Bush dynasty moves out of the White House. And it has been America's youth that have been showing the biggest surge in passion for politics.

The younger generation tends to sway more towards Democratic candidates, as they tend to be less stale and more hip than their Republican counterparts. The favored candidates are – you guessed it – Hillary and Obama.

As most students don't have piles of cash to donate, they give their time and youthful energy to the campaign. The most popular volunteer activities include canvassing, which is going door-to-door to ask for voter support; phone banking, which is telephoning registered party members to educate and remind them of their voting rights. Students also start blogs and throw fundraising parties for the candidate they hope will be the future president.

Why has there been such renewed interest in politics amongst the young recently? In general, Americans have started to pay more attention to their rights and duties as citizens, after seeing the painful effects of their inaction in the 2004 elections.

The country has also become more technology-savvy since the last election. Candidates have been using social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace to target the youth vote. This has led to less dependence on mainstream media for election coverage, with the young turning to online video websites, such as YouTube.

Over the past two weeks, there have been two primary elections in Iowa and New Hampshire. Obama won the first, and Hillary the second. A theme they have both emphasized is Change, with a capital \"C\". Americans are ready to say goodbye to cronyism and are hopeful of entering a new era of clean American politics.

Whether you're left- or right-wing, young or old, an election year is always fascinating because it awakens deep feelings of camaraderie among the American people. Political rallies are like rock concerts and every street corner turns into a place to rabble-rouse.

During the 2004 elections, I was on the ground canvassing, phone banking, throwing parties and translating. It was one of the most exciting times of my life. Although living in China is great, I yearn for the vigor and dynamism of election years, which will only be magnified in 2008.