The failure of "Vote or Die"

There exists no doubt that this year’s election was by far one of the closest in history. As expected, the results came down to crucial swing voters, many of which were between the ages of 18 to 24. The expectations that our age group could possibly determine the presidency prompted numerous “get out the vote” type campaigns.

Of these, possibly the most visible was the “Vote or Die” campaign. Only a few weeks ago, Georgia State University was flooded with signs and slogans. “Vote or Die” was intended to encourage the younger voters to make their opinion count, no matter what the opinion.

But is it possible that this campaign was so “noble” in its intentions as to hold no political bias? Many would argue that this campaign had a definite underlying democratic bias.

For starters, look at the demographic “Vote or Die” was geared towards. Specifically, the young MTV crowd of voters was targeted. We are the students this campaign was targeting as “Vote or Die” invaded our school, we are the potential voters that watch MTV, we are the voters that Puff Daddy will affect, and we are the voters who generally tend to support democrats.

On that note, many pre-election statistics showed the 18 to 24 voter support to sway heavily towards Kerry. However, though the support existed, the urgency to go to the polls and vote was not nearly as prevalent as for Kerry’s opponent George W. Bush.

The solution? A campaign to make voting “cool.” With intentions to get the 18 to 24 voters registered and to the polls, campaign managers could harness a previously looked over spectrum of “lost voters.”

If we examine the meaning behind the phrase “Vote or Die” a democratic bias is very possible. P. Diddy tells us in his MTV spots that voting for someone is putting your life in their hands. There have been many arguments made that this feeds off our fear of war, and if you really want to analyze it the threat of a draft. This is a threat which has for a number of times been addressed by Bush as ridiculous but which continually seeps into our decision making criteria.

Sadly, however, for those behind “Vote or Die,” the campaign did not make the waves it was expected to. On Nov. 2, less than one in 10 voters were from the 18 to 24 age range, no different than the election four years ago. Though the bulk of these voters strongly supported Kerry and voted this way, there just were not enough. The crucial 18 to 24 vote that some people expected to pull the election did not exist as expected and hoped.

We had the opportunity to truly change something, to affect the election so greatly. We were being advertised to left and right, and we simply did not show up. This sort of indifferent, politically oblivious stigma of our generation was rationalized on Tuesday. And we must ask if a war, an exceptionally tight election and even P. Diddy can not bring us to action what can?