But...why?

I just recently learned about a "campaign" that Barack Obama has been running called "Change Rocks". He gets on stage with a couple of popular rock stars and talks about his candidacy for the presidentcy, as if somehow, between riffs and pop songs about lady lumps, a political consciousness and intellect could be stirred somewhere between the crowd surfers and the mosh pit.

Now, I understand that candidates are trying to grab the attention of the younger voting demographic; that's why they have campaign ads on YouTube, and profiles on MySpace and Facebook...all in attempts to reach the 20 somethings who are among the groups with the lowest voter turnout.

But...why? As a member of this group, may I say...we are not educated, you don't want us selecting the leader of the free world. In 2004 I was a sophomore at a state university, meaning I was one of two Republicans on campus (we had a secret nod when we saw eachother, as to not be recognized by the oppressive majority). During the presidential election that year, I heard a ton of flack about President Bush, and how he needed to be replaced because he was a horrible leader. This fence I won't lay on either side of (not now, anyway), however, when I finally asked someone why he was so horrible, I didn't get any real answer. It was a series of "well...uh"s grunts, and scoffs; there may have been some Morse code in there. I didn't think about that.

Anyway, it was a fad. Hating Bush was the new cigarette. It was so cool because of its rebelliousness, , even though 99% of everyone else on campus heard the same political blurb on Jimmy Kimmel Live the night before too.

I'm not saying people my age shouldn't vote, I'm just saying that we mostly shouldn't vote. There should be a test that stipulates who can and can't vote. You should be able to know the top members of the current administration. You should have some familiarity with the domestic issues that you claim to be so passionate about, and you should know what country our troops are actually in before you say we shouldn't be there (locating it on a map wouldn't be such a bad skill either).