Conversation
Role of Young Voters in Politics
Continues to Grow
Judy Woodruff interviews Morley
Winograd and Mike Hais
TRANSCRIPT Originally Aired: May 8,
2008
Young
people are continuing to play a
larger, more expanded role in
politics, using new methods and
networking technology. The authors
of "Millennial Makeover: MySpace,
YouTube and the Future of American
Politics" examine the trend.
JUDY
WOODRUFF: Young people are turning
out to vote in record numbers and
are poised to play a crucial role in
the 2008 election. But who are these
younger voters? And why are they
interested in the election?
For
that, we're joined by Morley
Winograd and Michael Hais, authors
of new book entitled "Millennial
Makeover: MySpace, YouTube and the
Future of American Politics."
Gentlemen, good to have you both
with us.
MICHAEL HAIS, Co-Author, "Millennial
Makeover: MySpace, YouTube and the
Future Of American Politics":
Delighted to be here.
MORLEY
WINOGRAD, Co-Author, "Millennial
Makeover: MySpace, YouTube and the
Future Of American Politics": Glad
to be here.
JUDY
WOODRUFF: Now, I feel funny asking
you this first question, because I
just was involved in the last year
or so working on two documentaries
on the younger generation and what
their interests are. But why the two
of you? With all due respect, you
may be over 30.
MORLEY
WINOGRAD: Perhaps.
JUDY
WOODRUFF: May be over 35. Why were
you interested in writing about
younger Americans, Morley Winograd?
MORLEY
WINOGRAD: As we looked at the
history of America, we saw these
generational turning points or
transitions, which have sometimes
got the country in a great deal of
trouble and sometimes have led the
country to great new successes,
because the young energy was brought
into the civic and institutional
life of the country in ways that
really energize us, sometimes not so
good.
We
wanted to make sure, that this time
around, people understood the
millennials, older people, and
welcomed them into the American
political process.
The
American youth experience
JUDY
WOODRUFF: Now, you do identify, Mike
Hais, these -- every 30 or 40 years
or so, there is this sort of
turnover, if you will, in American
politics. What makes you think we're
poised for another turning right
now?
MICHAEL HAIS: You're right, Judy.
Every approximately 40 years, every
four decades, in the United States,
we experience what is political
scientists call a realignment. We
are using the term makeover, to be
maybe a little more up to date with
a term.
And
these occur invariably for two
reasons: one, because of the rise --
and they're interacting reasons --
but, one, because of the rise of a
new large dynamic generation of
young Americans, the coming of age
of that generation.
In
this instance, it's the millennial
generation, who are Americans born
1982 to 2003, and also the rise and
development of a new communications
technology that that generation uses
very effectively to mobilize itself
and to have others help to mobilize
them. And, in this instance, it's
the Internet-based social networking
communications.
JUDY
WOODRUFF: Well, I know from -- from
doing some work on this, that they
are the most diverse generation in
American history. What else
distinguishes them?
MORLEY
WINOGRAD: As you said, they're very
large. There's about a million more
millennials than there are baby
boomers, twice as many millennials
than the generation that preceded
it, Generation X.
Their
diversity is reflected in the fact
that they do not recognize or care
about racial and ethnic differences.
They're also the most gender-neutral
generation we have seen in American
history. Females and males work
together without thinking about who
is the traditional role and what
role should that be?
And,
in fact, in college participation
and professional school attendance,
in a lot of different ways, the
females are outachieving the males.
JUDY
WOODRUFF: How do you characterize
their -- their political views? I
mean, you point out that they are
voting more Democratic than
Republican. But is there a way of
labeling them?
MICHAEL HAIS: Well, we refer to them
as a civic generation. And that
means that they are a generation
that is not intent on -- as other
types of generations are -- not
intent on implementing their own
personal moral values, but rather in
rebuilding civic institutions, in
acting together as a group to
resolve political problems, which we
expect the millennials to do,
problems such as health care that
have really bedeviled the U.S.
political process for the last 40
years or so.
MORLEY
WINOGRAD: So, their parents raised
them share. And they had them watch
"Barney" and make sure that
everybody was treated equally. And
we came to win-win situations.
So,
they come to the political process
with a collective point of view, and
therefore tend to be Democratic.
And, in fact, this is the first
generation in about five decades
where a greater number label
themselves as liberal, rather than
conservative.
Technology and self-organization
JUDY
WOODRUFF: Why is it -- what is it
about Barack Obama that has turned
so many of them out?
MORLEY
WINOGRAD: Well, he has a unifying
message, so it's -- that's
important, because these are not a
generation interested in the
confrontational culture wars of the
boomers.
But he
-- and his background, which is very
diverse in and of itself, so he sort
of captures that nature of this
generation. But I think maybe the
most important thing is that he's
combined that message with the right
medium. He's really organized on
social network -- around social
network platforms to build the kind
of support he's been able to
demonstrate, at least in many of the
states.
JUDY
WOODRUFF: And what is it about this,
because your title is "MySpace,
YouTube and the Future of American
Politics." What is it, Mike Hais,
about this sort of explosion of
communications technology that we're
going through that sort of coexists
with this younger generation?
MICHAEL HAIS: Well, it really fits
with the lifestyle of this
generation, with the style of the
way this generation operates and
lives.
It is
not a generation that accepts things
from the top down, kind of a --
really a broadcast model, but,
instead, it's a generation where the
members meet together and interact
with one another in group settings.
And it's not -- and it's in group
settings obviously when they are
dealing with one another face to
face, but even more often perhaps,
in group settings as they interact
with one another through their use
of their cell phones, their laptops,
and so on.
JUDY
WOODRUFF: And how does that
translate into their interaction
with politics, with the political
world?
MORLEY
WINOGRAD: Well, it allows a campaign
to have its supporters
self-organize. Sort of the dream of
every organizational political hack
is to not have to spend any money
getting all those people energized.
And
here's an opportunity to do so right
on the Net, right all the time. So,
now, you know, on mybarackobama.com,
a million people, and Hillary's
campaign generating more money from
the Net than they have before. This
causes people to suggest to each
other that they ought to be active,
as opposed to have the campaign tell
them to be active or to take a
particular position and point of
view.
Youth
bring own style to politics
JUDY
WOODRUFF: To the extent this is a
turning point, a makeover moment, as
you call it, what should we expect
from this generation? What are they
going to do differently in the way
-- when they get control...
MICHAEL HAIS: Well, I would say at
least two things.
One
will be the style and tone of
politics. Instead of the
confrontation, instead of a
situation where, as we have seen,
again, for the last four decades,
where you have extreme liberals,
extreme conservatives banging at
each other, and very little is
accomplished, this generation will
lead a realignment in which people
will get together and they will try
to come up with common solutions,
win-win solutions that essentially
can be used to benefit all of
society. So, the style of politics
will be different.
But
also I think the kind of politics,
political public policy that we will
see will reflect this. We will see a
decrease in economic inequality, for
example, because this generation is
very concerned with the welfare of
the entire group. We will see less
emphasis on social issues that have
concerned the public, the things...
JUDY
WOODRUFF: By social issues, you mean
abortion and...
MICHAEL HAIS: Abortion, gay rights.
JUDY
WOODRUFF: Gay rights.
MICHAEL HAIS: It's a generation, for
example, that two-thirds of its
members have no problems with gay
marriage. It just is a nonissue with
them. And, so, they will move on to
other, more basic economic and
foreign policy concerns.
JUDY
WOODRUFF: But real policy changes...
MORLEY
WINOGRAD: Significant policy
changes. The American political
landscape will change completely
over the next decade.
This
election, only about 35 percent of
the millennials are eligible to
vote. They have already had a
tremendous impact no matter how the
Democratic primary contest ends.
Now, think about in 2020, when 100
percent of this generation and its
attitudes are in the electorate in
those kind of numbers. It will be a
completely different political
scene.
Tuned
in or dropped out?
JUDY
WOODRUFF: Will this generation stay
engaged if the candidate they like
is not the nominee or is not elected
in November?
MORLEY
WINOGRAD: I think that remains to be
seen. It depends upon whether the
process was done fairly.
Remember, this is a generation that
was also raised in young sports,
where nobody keeps score and
everybody gets a trophy for playing.
And they're looking for fair
dealings and due process. And the
Democratic Party has really got a
moment in front of us to decide
whether it can do that in a way that
satisfies this generation's need for
fairness.
MICHAEL HAIS: If the Democratic
Party can pass that test, then, yes,
I would expect this generation to be
engaged in very strong ways, because
they are optimistic, because they
are positive, because they do
believe that, by interacting with
their colleagues, with the other
members of their generation, the
other members of their group, that
they can make a difference.
And,
normally, what we have found in the
kind of civic political realignments
we are talking about is that voting
participation stays high for the
entire 40 years, four decades of the
realignment.
MICHAEL HAIS: So, this surge is just
the -- going to be the routine of
the future.
JUDY
WOODRUFF: Well, that's something to
look forward to. More participation
is a good thing for democracy.
MICHAEL HAIS: Absolutely.
JUDY
WOODRUFF: All right.
Morley
Winograd, Mike Hais, thank you very
much.
The
book is "Millennial Makeover."
MORLEY
WINOGRAD: Thank you very much, Judy.
