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Wonks v. attack dogs -- no wonder GenY's turned off
Updated 12:00 PM ET October 11, 2000

By Suzanne Smalley

Medill News Service/Y Vote 2000

Northwestern U.


(U-WIRE) WASHINGTON -- So little Kailey Ellis really didn't stand in her science class all semester long -- it was just for one day and she could have had a lab stool. And good ol' Winifred Skinner may have paid for her prescription drugs by collecting tin cans, but, lo and behold, she's got a wealthy son (whom the media have duly noted works as a consultant -- does that sound affluent enough for you?). Guess the normal Americans trick blew up in Al Gore's face.

Then there's the other candidate and his own brand of serial exaggerating to account for. George W. Bush said Democrats have spent more on the contest then Republicans have shelled out for his campaign, a bizarre misrepresentation when one considers the oil man's cronies and their notoriously deep pockets (deeper than even the biggest oil well in Texas).

Finally, the complexities of the various tax plans with their labrynthine twists and turns and exemptions haven't exactly made the youths of America feel embraced by the political process. Even PhD. economists have trouble making sense of the competing plans' meaning and manipulations.

Feeling fuzzy yet?

Just in case, here's one more doozy. Fuzzy math remains a problem -- in fact, the arithmetic is getting so fuzzy that even Dubya himself is becoming confused by his own numbers.

In a Florida campaign appearance last week Bush stumbled while trying to do the math in his tax plan, tried to recover, and finally let his sentence trail off before asking his brother Jeb, the governor of Florida, for some help. If an Andover-schooled Yalie can get stumped by adding, then one can only imagine what those Texas schools are doing to young minds.

Ever the quick study, George stopped rambling and made a joke.

I was trying to do some fuzzy math, he said. Yeah, I used his (Al Gore's) calculator. But then I used the real one.

It's no wonder most Gen X and Y voters stay home from the polls. Is anyone really surprised that of those who do vote, many turn to candidates like Ralph Nader and the Libertarian Party's Harry Browne?

With the establishment's candidates spending so much time sniping at each other about arcane minutiae and stupid trivialities, most young people have become thoroughly disgusted by the two major parties.

Does anyone really care that The Very Hungry Caterpillar, which Bush cited as his favorite childhood book, wasn't published until he was in his twenties? Does the fact that a slightly batty and very proud old woman from Iowa refused to take help from her son for medical expenses matter? Does her pride make the issue of high-cost prescription drug any less potent?

Mainstream politics will continue to turn off young people so long as mainstream politicians continue to talk like wonks and attack dogs to young viewers who can't find the truth behind the mumbo jumbo. Twentysomethings would rather not vote than be duped into voting for a fraud.

Most people my age don't pay attention because they (the candidates) use all the Washington words, said Angela McCoy, 26. I wish they would talk like real people. I'll come home and my aunt and her boyfriend are watching the debate and I just leave. I'm like, whatever.


(C) 2000 Medill News Service/Y Vote 2000 via U-WIRE

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