It's going to come down to the Youth Vote. And overall youth activism... [View all]

It's not because young voters are the Democrats most dependable backers. Clearly they aren't, but THAT is why so much is riding on them. We need Democratic landslides now, a lot of them, at the local and state levels as well as at the national level with virtually everything hanging in the balance. And those landslides must fly in the face of ongoing Republican voter suppression and vote nullification efforts ,and still manifest despite them.

Clearly we need to mobilize all elements of the Democratic coalition. That of course starts with our core base, with African Americans and other minorities leading the way. It also includes Union voters, self avowed progressive voters, highly educated white voters, and women overall. But it is young voters who can put us over the top in the wide range of races that we must now win because collectively they represent our greatest untapped potential for new votes, precisely because they historically have not participated in elections at as high a rate as other Democratic leaning constituencies.

Events of the last week especially should be a siren screaming in the ears of those still under forty. It is they who will inhabit this world, looking forward, for sixty years or more as climate change continues to intensify. It is they who will live out their biological child bearing years as the reproductive rights of women get stripped away. It is they who will suffer most and longest if the right wing assault on democracy and our constitutional rights fails to be repelled.

It has oft been noted that the overall youth led mobilization against the Vietnam War in the 60's and early 70's was fueled by the draft, and the dire and immediate consequences that failing to end that war could bring to potentially millions of young Americans. The Republican war on reproductive rights, and a failure to confront global climate change now with the urgency that is required, falls heaviest on our youth. They (or more accurately an overwhelming majority of them) have every incentive to decisively oust Republicans from wielding political control in this nation.

Voting registration education and enrollment efforts need to go into full gear, in every manner legally possible, at every high school and college campus in America starting NOW. It can't wait for election seasons to kick into high gear. Republicans intend to disenfranchise the youth vote. That can't be allowed to succeed.