How important is it that young people go to the polls and vote?\u00a0 If you\u2019re an Obama supporter as I am it\u2019s crucial.\u00a0 Look at the numbers. An estimated 23 million Americans under the age of thirty voted in the 2008 election.\u00a0 That was 3.4 million more than voted in the 2004 election.\u00a0 Of those youth voters in 2008, seventy percent had attended college.\u00a0 Fully two-thirds of those in the 18- to 29-year-old demographic cast ballots for Obama.<\/p>\n

Recently, I\u2019ve heard some pretty outrageous claims dropping out of the mouths of otherwise intelligent people. But one of the most shocking has been young people in their twenties telling me that they\u2019re planning to sit out this election because \u201cthere\u2019s no difference between these guys.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 Obama\/Biden and Romney\/Ryan?\u00a0 Are they kidding?<\/p>\n

Excuse the dismissive language.\u00a0 But is it actually possible that some people can\u2019t see the difference?\u00a0 Our political system is in total meltdown failure when many educated, young people such as those I\u2019ve spoken to can\u2019t tell the difference between the policy prescriptions of the two presidential candidates, their parties, and their parties\u2019 platforms.\u00a0 Is it laziness? Ignorance? Inattentiveness?\u00a0 Lack of critical-thinking skills? \u00a0Or is it the result of brains so clogged by gaming or weed that there\u2019s no corner in there for real-world concerns?<\/p>\n

In order to set the record straight, \u00a0here\u2019s a letter to those twenty-somethings who are strutting around with blinders on.<\/p>\n

Dear Confused,<\/p>\n

You may not have bothered to inform yourself about the issues that are dominating the upcoming elections.\u00a0 Perhaps you don\u2019t know what\u2019s going on out there because you\u2019ve turned down the volume on the TV.\u00a0 Did you lose your Internet connection or fail to pay the bill?\u00a0 Or is it that you pulled the covers up over your head and indulged in an extended nap for the four years since the last presidential election?<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re awake and aware now, pay attention.\u00a0 Here are some things that are really going to affect you.\u00a0 Believe me. It\u2019s really going to make a difference to you if we have a Democratic or Republican administration and a balanced Congress or one dominated by the Tea Party.<\/p>\n

Frankly, if you sit out this election and just won\u2019t bother to vote, do us all a favor and hold back on the bitching, because there will be no one to blame but yourself.<\/p>\n

Think about reproductive issues.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Nobody\u2019s monitoring you but, hey, we know a little bit about your sex life. So listen up, because Republican attitudes and policy commitments are really going to hit you where it hurts.\u00a0 Guys, your girlfriend\u2019s right to choose is no big deal, right?\u00a0 You thought she could get access to any sort of birth control you and she believe to be appropriate.<\/p>\n

Sorry, but Republicans don\u2019t agree.\u00a0 Paul Ryan and Mitt Romney are targeting you and your partners.\u00a0 They\u2019ve set their sights on overturning Roe <\/em>v. Wade<\/em> if they can just appoint one or two more right-leaning Supreme Court justices in the next four years. <\/em>And they\u2019ve got a pretty good chance because the actuarial tables are in their favor if they win.\u00a0 In fact, four out of the nine justices are in their mid to late seventies.<\/p>\n

Maybe you\u2019re lucky and you\u2019re not living in one of the states where the Republican-dominated legislature is pushing to defund and shut down access to Planned Parenthood, but in many states across the country, affordable gynecological care provided by Planned Parenthood might soon be history.<\/p>\n

Ladies, how about the cost of your birth control pills? Are you ready to have to make the decision about whether you can afford birth control at all? The Republicans are committed to repeal of the Affordable Care Act that requires new insurance plans to cover the entire cost of your birth control. Frankly, they\u2019re thinking that maybe if birth control is too expensive you\u2019ll think twice about that hooking-up thing. And in case you missed it, the Republicans are making it harder, if not impossible, in some states for any woman of any age, married or unmarried, to choose whether it\u2019s the right time in her life to have a child or to have more children.<\/p>\n

Now think about jobs. \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/strong>Maybe you decided after high school that college wasn\u2019t for you, or that it was too expensive, or that you didn\u2019t want to be working just to pay back student loans for the next few decades. Maybe you thought that working a secure, living-wage job with good benefits in American industry was the right move for you.<\/p>\n

Obama\/Biden and the Democrats think you should have a chance to do just that and that good government can help. Romney\/Ryan and the Republicans probably want you to have that chance as well but don\u2019t believe that government has any role in making that happen for you.\u00a0 They\u2019d rather let the market determine if you\u2019ll find and keep that job or not.\u00a0 If the market says it\u2019s cheaper and suits a corporation\u2019s bottom line to outsource what might have been your good job to China or India, well that\u2019s just the way the free market works.<\/p>\n

Did you hear, though, that Obama\/Biden took bold and politically unpopular steps to bail out the auto industry? Unlike Romney and Ryan, they believed that government had a role in saving one of America\u2019s most important industries. That commitment saved 1.414 million American jobs in the auto industry, in suppliers to the industry, in parts manufacturers, in mining, construction, and metal and metal-products industries not just in Michigan and Ohio but all across the country. In fact, you might be one of the lucky 1.414 million.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Finally, think about your health.<\/strong><\/p>\n

I know you\u2019re feeling pretty invulnerable to health concerns at your age.\u00a0 But maybe you\u2019re one of the 57.2 million Americans under the age of sixty-five with a pre-existing condition.\u00a0 Obama and the Democrats may have just saved your life when they passed the Affordable Care Act, which forbids insurance companies from denying you coverage because of your pre-existing condition.<\/p>\n

Maybe you\u2019ve recently developed a health problem so severe that you\u2019ll need multiple operations.\u00a0 You\u2019d be one of the 105 million Americans who will no longer face lifetime caps on health care benefits and who will now be able to have those operations. And Romney\/Ryan? They\u2019re committed to repealing the Affordable Care Act that will allow you to have those life-saving procedures and not be dropped from your insurance coverage.<\/p>\n

And there\u2019s even more you might want to consider.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Is there really no difference between the Republican and Democratic approaches to climate change?\u00a0 To who will be getting tax increases\u2014the wealthy or the middle class? To the wisdom of resuming nuclear-weapon production?\u00a0 To diplomacy or military intervention? To regulating a financial industry that almost collapsed the world\u2019s economy? To the safety of your food, air, and water?<\/p>\n

Think about it.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

How important is it that young people go to the polls and vote?\u00a0 If you\u2019re an Obama supporter as I am it\u2019s crucial.\u00a0 Look<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":18405,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1176,294,1575,6,45,128,113,10,16,1170,202,573,559],"tags":[2514,39,956],"yoast_head":"\n