The Presidential Primary Election is coming to Sacramento on February 5th. In an effort to encourage folks to vote, Regional Transit has been running ads featuring McClatchy High School students…
By the way, are we ready to retire the use of pop culture phrases in advertising? (this post is sponsored by Buick – It’s All Good).
At any rate, visit the County Web site for more details on the election. Not sure if you are registered? Use this handy look up tool.
The Sac Rag 
Bahaha! “Vote”??? Uh- It’s a REPUBLIC, you dolts! This ain’t no democracy! Good luck with that “voting” thing…
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You take your share of lumps on this here web log, TS…but dammit if you’re not a loyal Sac Rag reader.
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Am I the only one a little confused why they would use high school students who, excepting for a very small percentage seniors who turn 18 before Feb. 5, in an ad to encourage voting? Wouldn’t college students have been more appropriate?
And hear hear, on retiring pop culture phrases from advertising! You hear it once, it’s interesting. Twice, it’s tedious. Anything more than that is annoying.
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You are not the only one, bhd.
However, the saccounty.net Home page mentions that “Regional Transit buses reach out to potential voters with ads…” so I figured I’d leave it out of the post as it can’t hurt to try and use potential voters to help deliver a message to current voters.
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Just checked back in to see if anyone had responded to my comment and I noticed how poorly I worded my question. I’d say that’ll teach me to post anything before the caffeine hits my brain, but I’ve said that in the past. Some lessons are never learned. :1
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Ignoring the effectiveness of voting issue, do we really want someone who dcecides to vote based on a bus ad making any decisions that might impact society? Oh how I pine for the old days of “property owners only”…
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Umm… given the state of the current public educational system, it might be likely that there are more 18 year olds enrolled by Feb. than expected (flunk-ees unite, and vote!) I myself didn’t turn 18 until April of my senior year, but then, I was one of those dorky Honor Roll kids…
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I didn’t turn 18 until April of my freshman year of college, so I was the last in my class to vote — but nobody teased me because I couldn’t vote, it was for the sheer dorkiness.
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I also turned 18 during my freshman year in college.
I think what the Army Corps of Engineers said about the Natomas flood plain would be an intersting topic.
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Since it can take at least four years to convince someone that it’s a good idea to “rock the vote“, using high school freshman in the ad makes sense.
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You make a good point, ruralmysteries. When I turned 18 I couldn’t wait to take part in my first eligible election, but then I’ve always been a political nerd. The numbers show that most younger voters don’t turn out. That may change with Obama fever, but it remains to be seen. I’m all for encouraging young people to become an active part of the electorate.
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The numbers only show that most younger voters are morons. Why would you encourage participation when these are the same people who can’t even make good decisions for THEMSELVES, much less have any interest (beyond the draft, which isn’t on the table this year) in the process? Participation for the sake of participation is why the USSR had a great 99.8% voting participation rate. And it was just as meaningless as the US’s current “voting” process. The US media just doesn’t tell anyone.
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So you seem to be suggesting we that we keep people you categorize as “morons” from voting. Are you then suggesting we have an IQ requirement to vote? Slippery slope indeed. And since you already seem to find the current US voting process meaningless, then where’s the harm in encouraging young people to vote? If you want people to be interested in the process then I think you need to get them actively engaged in it.
However, if you’re going to criticize US media coverage of elections you’ll get no argument from me. It’s extremely shallow and vacuous, with 99 percent of the focus on personalities and trying to play gotcha for any inadvertent slip of the tongue. Where’s the coverage of the candidates’ various platforms? Not in the MSM.
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Well- let’s catagorize (“discriminate”) by not letting people vote who have established that they can’t take care of themselves: Being on welfare and of working age with no disability would seem to be a good start. Being mentally ill (on mental disability). Convicted felon. All good indicators of an inability to make good decisions. Why should these yutzes be able to influence society’s directional policies at all? It was more of a slipperly slope to assume that EVERYONE could (or should) vote. Voting should be only for those who have an interest in the outcome (have property, pay taxes, etc.). Why do I care if Idaho raises its tax on beef? So I shouldn’t get a say!
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You don’t think college students or renters should vote?
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Depends on how much of a track record you want ’em to have/demonstarte before they get to have input into the direction of the city/state/country. I’m a pretty extreme kind of person (to balance out the other type of whacko), so I’m of the “let ’em estblish competance to vote before you let them” (why not? why assume everyone understands the concept). Owning a home (shows connection to the community- maybe only for city/state voting), having worked for 1 year after HS/college (shows understanding of the value of a dollar [snort]), no felonies (good judgment), not on govt. assistance programs (rational decision-making process and reasonable long term planing in place). Why not? Does the 18 year old renter from Idaho, just moved to Sac to go to Sac State, get to vote to increase my property taxes for “street light beautification”, when I’ve owned this home for 25+ years? Not the same interests in play at all…
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I’ve known very capable people who didn’t get any help while getting their degrees. I’ve know some people who owe so much money on college loans that they could be renters for years, or maybe never own a home.
I’ve also known other people who have parents who help them with everything. I’ve known people who chose their major because of the family business. I know one woman whose parents put her through a private professional school; and were going to “reward” her with a trip to Europe; then set her up in the family business. Her parents probably gave her a house, or at least likely gave her money for the down payment. Does that make the woman responsible, connected to the community… or is she just overprivileged? I’ve known a lot of people with stories similar to hers.
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I think people should only be allowed to vote if they have 40 acres and a mule!
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The year that I turned 18:
– the first Gulf War began, and ended
– Rajiv Gandhi, former PM of India, was assassinated on the campaign trail
– Southeast China was drowning in floods
– Jeffrey Dahmer was arrested
– KGB leads and fails in a coup attempt of the USSR, Boris Yeltsin takes power later that year as USSR dissolves.
– Magic Johnson announces he has HIV
– American hostage Terry Anderson is freed in Lebanon
– South Africa ends apartheid, Europeans end sanctions
– China accepts nuclear nonproliferation treaty
– Haitian troops seize power of Haiti
– Clarence Thomas gets playa-hated
And, oh yeah, I got old enough to vote well after I finished high school.
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I think, Turty Squip, that you are proving my point about it being a slippery slope. If we are going to say voting should be a right earned by demonstrating an ability to make good judgments, then what are the factors that go into determining that? You raise being a felon and mental incompetency. Those are both already factors that will proscribe you from voting. But welfare? That’s the beginning of the slippery slope. If we go for welfare, then why not teen mothers? Or what about people who get speeding tickets? Don’t they demonstrate a lack of good judgment? The problem is, once you start adding restrictions, where do you stop, and who decides what restrictions should be made?
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Teen mothers and those on welfare should only get 5/8ths of a vote!
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—Turdy Squip writes—
“I’m a pretty extreme kind of person”
NO SHIT?!?!??!?!??!?!
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To clarify for those that seem fixated on the ad and why HS students. At least two of the students in this ad will be voting in the primary. The rest will be eligible to vote in November and are already registered for the general. I teach at McClatchy, we register nearly every eligible senior before they graduate. We had a mock election last week, working in tandem with the County Registrar. Four hundred seniors voted after pouring over and debating candidate statements and propositions. To even suggest they don’t have much of a stake or a direct interest in the outcome of the upcoming elections is beyond silliness.
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Thanks for stopping by and providing the background information on the ad campaign, Lori. We always enjoy when our posts/snark find their way to real people and not just users of online pseudonyms.
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Hillary isn’t going to be any different than Bush. Hillary sold out to the health care industry and the pharmaceutical industry.
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To assume 18 year olds understand the long term impacts of tax assessments, social policy proposals, and term limit issues, let alone any understanding of the details of the process (can you define “electoral college”?), is a typical liberal BS response. Of COURSE 18 year olds will want maximum social programs (“Save the Homeless, Feed the whales”). They don’t pay for any of the cost. To think that an 18 year old has the same understanding of issues as a middle-age *worker* with a home and a family is not just silly, but a dangerous view of the world and human development. Or would you give an 18 year old a couple bottles of beer and talk about politics with them? Why/why not?
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add 18-year-olds to my list of people who only get 5/8ths of a vote.
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