I’m not going to sugar-coat it–I could not care less about local politics. I can name all of Maryland’s Congressmen and a good number of people in Obama’s cabinet, but ask me to name 3 delegates in the Maryland House of Delegates, and I would be completely stumped. I purposefully didn’t vote in the last election (I’m registered to vote in North Carolina) because I simply didn’t have the motivation to learn enough about the candidates for Mayor and city council to have an opinion on the matter.
Despite my complete lack of interest for local politics, I would consider myself very interested in politics, but that interest for me, and many people in my age group, is solely limited to politics on a national scale. I love reading about the latest vote in Congress, the newest scandal, or the most recent slip of the tongue on the campaign trail. National politics to me is always exciting–there’s always something going on that influences millions of people. The implications for what is being debated in Congress surpasses those of a local legislature.
And I don’t think I’m alone in my local-politics-is-boring sentiment. Millions of young adults like me are barely interested in local politics, let alone politics in general. Heck, it was a miracle that Obama and his campaign even got people in my age group to register to vote.
So what makes local politics so boring? There’s a number of reasons, but the most powerful one is that, to be completely redundant, local politics IS boring. Local politics lacks the controversy and scandals that, depending on your opinion, plague or enliven national politics. Looking back on years past in national politics, it wasn’t the close votes or vetoes that I remember, but rather the individual people–Mark Foley, Bill Clinton, Joe Wilson–that were involved in the scandals that dominated the 24-hour news networks.
Sensationalism and scandal aside, local politics lack the issues that people of my age group care about. The drinking age, health care, environment, and the legalization of marijuana–all issues that are most discussed in my friend circle–are all national issues that are debated on a national scale. I would be hard-pressed to find an instance when my friends and I discussed the increase in funding for water treatment or whether funds should be given to build a new playground at the local elementary school.
What’s most ironic is that though national issues are the ones I pay most attention to, it’s the local issues that affect me the most. Local politics determines funding for the public schools I attend, maintenance for the roads I drive on, and taxes that I have to pay. If we lived in a perfectly rational world, it would be local politics I would be more interested in, not national politics.
So what needs to be done to get people my age interested in local politics? What’s needed isn’t more scandals or controversy (though that would probably create more interest–just not the right kind of interest), but greater conversation about the issues that directly affect people of my age. I doubt that many of my peers know that the drinking age is not determined by Congress, but state legislatures–informing young adults on the logistics of issues such as this will not only make them better voters, but also more active and participatory in the local political arena.
State and local politicians need to have a greater presence in social media such as Facebook and Twitter to get their voices heard and get young people involved in the issues that directly affect them. I’m friends with my local Congressman, but none of my local representatives; however, of the three delegates in my district, only one of them has a Facebook page. Being friends with my Congressman on Facebook has been surprisingly beneficial to my evaluation of his work–I get to see pictures of him around Washington, meeting with important officials and other Congressman to enforce the idea that he’s working hard for the people in my district.
Local politicians need to do the same, but for different reasons. In today’s society, companies are busy trying to figure out how to create interest in something that deserves none. Local politicians are faced with a different task–figure out how to create interest in something that deserves more attention that its getting. Social media is a growing and advantageous resource to reach young people, and it should be interesting to see how local politicians use it for the upcoming 2010 elections.
