The great thing about being young is that there’s no punishment for idealism. You’re allowed to devote yourself wholeheartedly to goals an older person would only smile or scoff at. Somehow, though, we’ve reached a point where young people are known not for their wild idealism but for their apathy, and, for many teenagers, I think apathy and disenchantment really are the prevailing sentiments. The American Dream is slowly becoming just the American Sleepiness. Only 52% of voters age 18 to 29 voted in the 2004 presidential election, and there must be a reason. From my experience, I think the primary reasons young people choose not to vote are because they feel excluded from the political process and because the political process seems false and unimportant compared to other worries.

I think that a perception many college students have is that the government is a bunch of bickering old men who are so caught up in satisfying the majority that they’ve forgotten that part of their job is to help improve people’s lives. Certainly, this isn’t the perception everyone has, but I think that many people who don’t vote feel like there is no way they can ever effect change among these bickering old men. Even if improvement isn’t exactly part of a representative’s job description, leaders are elected by groups of individuals to help accomplish the things individuals alone couldn’t possibly accomplish. And young people, especially, feel like not enough is being accomplished, like the government doesn’t listen to them, like it’s something far beyond their control. They feel like the idealism of America, the promise of equality and opportunity, has been lost in the bureaucracy.

Certainly, there are many things that could be done to improve voter turn-out. Voting could be made mandatory, like in Australia, or voting stations could give voters incentives or the sheer number of voting stations could be increased to make voting more convenient. But, ultimately, these solutions don’t get to the root of the problem. This may just be my idealism talking, but I think the most effective way to increase voter turnout would be to bring idealism itself back into politics, to renew the American Dream.

I think the single most important step in bringing young people back into politics is to prove to them that the government is still capable of significant and positive reform, like the revolution that got the whole thing rolling. And although this seems impossible with the current partisanship, idealism is all about making the impossible possible. Idealism isn’t concerned with scandals or mud-slinging or sub-committees or corporate interest. It’s only concerned with making things better for everyone.

There’s a saying that says, “Anyone who isn’t a liberal at 20 has no heart; anyone who isn’t a conservative at 35 has no brain.” I guess that’s the catch: How do we listen to both our hearts and our brains? How can young people, with all their foolish enthusiasm, feel less apathetic towards a government run by older people with far too much cautious wisdom? Right now, I think it’s the government that has to adapt. Leaders and the government as a whole are going to have to show and act on their idealism; they’re going to have to stand up and convince the younger generation that, “Now is the time, and things are going to change.”