Targeting the New Generation

     I turned 18 and registered to vote about two years ago. This will be my first opportunity to vote in the Presidential Election. And I'm noticing now, more than ever, the efforts that some political campaigns are making to win me over onto their side.
     Not me personally, but my generation, the group of new voters that's just beginning to become politically aware. Both Democrats and Republicans keep emphasizing their humble beginnings, and how they started from almost nothing and worked their way up to the status of potential president. This catches the attention of people in the lower financial classes, but rings particularly powerfully with younger people. Many of us between the ages of 18 and 25 have either just finished high school, are invested in college, or just graduated and are looking for some way to build ourselves up to financial stability and independence. For our Presidential candidates to tell us that they've done essentially the same thing we're trying to achieve.. That hits home.
     Targeting this demographic is also pretty strategic of them, in my opinion. This is a group mostly consisting of people who've just recently left home and begun getting accustomed to legal independence. It's the perfect time for a political group or party to prove to them that they should support their plans and agendas. Plenty of young people go out into the world representing and supporting the views they grew up learning from their parents, but plenty more inherently think their parents are wrong and want to form their own stance. It makes a great deal of sense for politicians to aim their efforts at an investment like that.
     More recently, it's been noticeable that the Democratic party has been trying various tactics to win over the younger voting generation as a whole. Politics has traditionally been a platform for older citizens, those with experience with political happenings and long memories. Speeches often refer to past events, invite old Presidents back to speak on new candidates' behalves, and make the whole political environment seem abstract to young adults by alienating them. Both Democrats and Republicans have always tried to win over the "younger" generation, meaning people between 30 and 40, but little attention was ever really paid to brand new voters. But just last week, President Obama did an AMA (Ask Me Anything) on popular news forum site Reddit. If that didn't immerse my generation in current politics, nothing will. People who previously viewed all of politics with a removed and distant eye were instantly fascinated by the fact that our incumbent was on Reddit with them. It was like the king emerging from his castle of news reporters and old advisers and joining you and your friends at Starbucks for a muffin and some coffee to talk about life. Even if people didn't agree with the answers he gave, the fact that he gave them left a pretty big impact, and it was a very strategic move of him to make.
     Additionally, at the Democratic National Convention, Julian Castro was given the honor of delivering the keynote speech. As the mayor of San Antonio, Texas, his presence not only reached out to the Hispanic community by being the first Hispanic politician to deliver a keynote speech, but also to the largely Republican population of the southern states. And at the age of 37, as the youngest mayor of any of the US's top 50 cities, he also appealed to the younger generation of voters who had previously had little ability to directly relate to any of the speakers at events like this. This was a very efficient way for the Democratic party to appeal to the younger generation by appearing to "freshen up" their act.
     So it's become pretty obvious that new voters under the age of 25 are now being much more specifically targeted than they had been in the past. President Obama was even speaking recently about passing some social programs to try to help college graduates pay off their federal loans. Student loans are possibly the second-scariest thing for newly graduated students to think about, only coming in second to the struggling job market and how difficult it is to find employment as a young person with relatively low experience. To have the highest-ranking governmental individual in the country tell you he'll help you pay off your student loans is an extremely attractive prospect.
     I actually find this campaigning tactic to be admirably strategic. They're now beginning to pursue a fairly large group of relatively green-horned people who are, for the most part, absolutely itching to have their own opinions and act upon them. And once these opinions are developed, they'll probably stick. Someone who begins their political involvement with one party is very likely to stay with that party for most of the remainder of their voting life. Whichever party can win over the new voters will be gaining an extraordinary asset to their cause, and it sure seems like the Democrats are getting a leg-up on it.