Reasons to feel up

There's a lot being said right now about young people's failure to get out and vote in this election, and that this led to Bush's reelection. While I agree somewhat with the basic premise that it's our duty to clean up the mistakes of our elders and stay their hands from doing some stupid shit, the claim leveled lacks support.

First, the number bandied about to back up the charge: the proportion of this year's voters who were of the youngest age group (18-24) didn't change from 2000 (18 percent). But in the context of the highest turnout in history, this translates into a wild improvement. Please take some math classes, media.

And then there's the hard numbers, which are almost unbelievable: 20 million young people voted last tuesday, 4 million more than in 2000. And young people's voting rate in 10 battleground states was 64 percent. That's insane.

Sure, I know people my age who voted for third party wackjobs (no offense to legitimate third party enthusiasts out there, but you just don't figure into my definition of pragmatically working to produce change this year). But the majority of us voted, and voted for Kerry by ten points over Bush. Pretty good effort on our parts.

So where were you, Baby Boom? where were you, Greatest Generation? And Gen X, you just disappeared out there. We needed your help to set our future right again.

Thanks to MoveOn for the inspiring letter, to which I'll provide a crapy mirror.