An Independent Nation

As the younger generations become more influential in up and coming elections, one trend the United States public is going to see is a lack of party commitment. No generation before the generations X and Y have understood the lack of differences between the dominating political parties of today. Until, recently, there has been a definite divide between republican voters and democrat voters with a small percentage of independent voters willing to swing either way. Now, we are seeing people who are more willing to vote whichever way they want with a growing percentage voting third party as well.

The hard part about gaining an understanding of this new voting population is trying to comprehend how they make their voting decision. Younger generations are voting on feelings. Emotional voting has grown out of a general distrust in what politicians say and do. A lot of new voters have grown up in an environment where they have been taught to disbelieve most of the promises candidates make while they are campaigning. What they are left to rely on is the perceived character of the candidate. Thus, most campaigns have begun to lean more towards projecting a public image that voters are going to be willing to buy into with very little mention concrete principles.

Yet, the question comes up: Isn’t this a hazardous method of electing a democratic government?

It certainly goes against the idea of a politically educated population needed to effectively elect a government by the people and for the people. Self-government is only possible if the people feel like their voices are being heard and heeded. Most individuals feel that this isn’t the case and have all but given up on the idea of truly being represented in the halls of congress. Maybe that’s why the seventy-three year-old congressman Ron Paul R(TX) was so popular with the younger voters during last year’s election. He offered them something they had never really seen before. An honest appearing politician who actually offered concrete actions for making the government more voter controlled and not politician controlled. That’s why there were many individuals that were going between him and Barack Obama during the primaries, because they were offering an alternative to the current political sphere. While Obama continued to play off of voter emotions, and did a spectacular job of it, Ron Paul has helped spur a growing number of young people who are becoming principled independent voters with the sole interest of returning the power of governance back to the people.

As the emotional voters of today begin to realize that voting based on feeling isn’t very predictable nor effective, America will see the voting population either move towards deeper apathy or principled activism. Hopefully, the latter will prevail.