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Voting doesn’t have the same allure it once did.
Look at the percentages for voter turnout in the last several elections and you’ll see turnout numbers in the 20 to 30 percent range.
That’s a pitiful statistic. Especially when you realize the actual number of people who vote constitutes a fraction of the amount of registered voters. And registered voters represent only a small portion of the number of people eligible to vote.
It’s a sad state of affairs, really. And we have nobody to blame but ourselves.
This would drive my dad absolutely crazy. I can remember him making a point about the importance of voting time and again.
He would tap on his wooden leg — representative of his hitting a beach in Northern France in World War II, stepping on a land mine and waking up in an Army hospital to learn his right leg was gone.
He would tell me, “See this (tapping on his wooden prosthesis). Guys like me lost legs, arms and lives so people like you could grow up in a free country and exercise your rights, like voting. So make sure you always vote. It’s the only way you can have a say in who represents you.”
It’s the kind of thing you never forget. Out of respect for him and all who have fought for our country, I have never missed an election.
With that in mind, I was more than pleased to sit in on a focus group at Wilkes University Friday. There were 15 high school students — eight females and seven males — who are part of a larger group of about 250 studying the 2016 presidential election. Dr. Jane Elmes-Crahall, a Wilkes professor of communications studies, has been working with high school kids for some 20 years now and every presidential election cycle, she leads the group in discussing the candidates and issues.
This was a refreshing glimpse at how young people — first-time voters at that — feel about this presidential race. These bright young people can see right through the superficiality and immaturity of the candidates who have spent far too much time on personal insults and way too little time on meaningful discussions of real issues.
Here’s a sampling of how these students feel about the presidential race and candidates:
• In one word, the students were asked to describe the tone of the campaign: corrupt, repetitive, chaotic, childish, confusing and loud.
• Where do the students get their information: National Public Radio, CNN, MSNBC and Fox News. Regarding Democrat Sen. Bernie Sanders, the 74-year-old running a close second to Hillary Clinton, the students get information from Twitter, Instagram, Tumbler, Facebook and SnapChat.
• Issues that concern the students: foreign policy, college affordability, economic opportunity, gun control, pro-life, education funding, energy, affordable health care, immigration, jobs, military budgeting and racial discrimination.
• Preference for president: 8 for Sanders; 4 for Ted Cruz, 1 for John Kasich, 2 undecided, and 0 for Clinton and Donald Trump.
The students are tired of the personal attacks between the candidates, indicating there has been more personality than policy and a lot of “mudslinging” in the campaigns.
That said, the students said the campaigns have been “entertaining,” but overwhelmingly they agreed they have been “too negative.”
These 17- and 18-year-olds want more talk about issues and less “gossip.” They said the candidates have been too busy “slamming each other” and “too shallow on real issues.”
As idealistic as it may sound in 2016, these kids want presidential candidates to be honest, moral, truthful, caring, professional, informative, authoritarian — and smart.
Too much to ask?
It appears these kids have nailed it.
In assessing the choices America has for president, one student said, “They’re politicians.”
Say no more.